Summer Participation Involvement Event

• Give young people and parents an opportunity to take part in a variety of workshops – providing opportunities for upskilling, self-care, hearing from other young people, parent/carers and professionals within participation

• Acknowledge, recognise and celebrate the participation work being done across the country and those involved

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the Participation team Participation@annafreud.org

09:30 – 10:00    

Welcome, introduction and icebreaker!

We encourage all attendees of the Summer PIE to join us for this short introduction session where you'll have the opportunity to network and meet others, engage in a fun icebreaker, meet your hosts for the 2 days and the team behind the event! We hope it will be a great way to kick-start the Summer PIE this year!

10:00 – 10:45    

Mindful Meditation

Divergent thinking will deliver a workshop providing an introduction to meditation and its benefits. You will explore different methods of meditation and practical ways to integrate mindful meditation into your daily lives. By the end of session, you will understand how to manage stress, improve productivity, and re-connect with yourself.

11:30 – 12:45    

Life after lockdown - Panel-style discussion    

Join our young and parent champions as they explore the topic of life after lockdown with a professional. This discussion will explore feelings around the easing of lockdown, reflections on the lockdown, fears and hopes for the future along with a Q&A for you to share your thoughts and ask questions regarding 'the new normal'.

13:30 – 14:15    

Look at where you live: an artistic workshop in finding beauty in your surroundings. 

Join artist Marc for a practical workshop exploring a painting from the National Gallery’s collection. You don’t need any fancy material! A pencil and some paper will do. If you, however, want to get creative, we’ll give you prompts and ideas to keep developing your artwork with simple materials you have at home, such as coffee grounds, old tea bags, or spices. You’ll see how artists have found beauty in their immediate surroundings, by staging their interior or by capturing the light through their window.

15:00 – 15:45    

Mentalizing – Making Sense of Minds     

What on earth is ‘Mentalizing’?! It is what we are doing when we are trying to understand behaviour – either our own or another person’s – by paying attention to what is going on in the mind of that person. Mentalizing is a skill, and we can all do it, but there are some things that get in the way – especially our emotions! In this workshop you will:

-        Find out what mentalizing is

-        Understand what makes it hard to do

-        Get some tips and tricks to develop your mentalizing skills

16:30 – 17:15    

Exploring your supportive network - Panel Style Discussion

Join our Young and Parent Champions as they explore social circles/networks. In this discussion we will be talking about how and why we utilise our social networks, who is included in our social networks, the importance of them and reflecting on how they may have changed over the years.

10:00 – 10:45    

Tweet people the way you want to be tweeted' - Panel-style discussion 

Join our young and parent champions as they explore the topic of social media with a professional. The discussion will explore the positives and negatives of social media, how to navigate safely in cyber-space, difficulties that may arise on social media and how to tackle them, as well as ways to use social media for positive change! There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions and share your thoughts in the Q&A session at the latter end of the session.

11:30 – 12:45    

Here, Queer & Mentally Unclear - The Workshop

The Workshop follows two characters as they navigate their gender identity and sexual orientation. The characters’ dialogue is composed of verbatim interviews of real LGBTQIA+ people and their experiences. Through dialogue, music and interactive segments, we educate on queer identity and mental health while engaging and captivating audiences. The Workshop explores the full LGBTQIA+ acronym, gender identity and sexual orientation, mental well-being, depression, anxiety, and active allyship - sharing necessary information that will lead to a better overall understanding of LGBTQIA+ people’s needs and experiences.  

13:30 – 14:15    

MeFirst: Transitioning to Adult Services

In this session we want young people to get involved in changing how professionals talk about transition, to shape and improve the experiences of young people. We want young people to participate in forming a communication model for conversations about transition that will outline to professionals what young people find helpful to talk about during this part of their healthcare journey. This session will be a fun and interactive focus group where we want to take on board the opinions of young people, professionals and parents about our communication model. 

15:00 – 15:45    

Creativity Conversations: Chatting about creativity and how it impacts on our wellbeing.

Have you ever noticed that being creative can make a difference to how you’re feeling? We want to hear from you about the impact of creative activities on your wellbeing.

The workshop will be interactive, involving discussing the creative activities you like – and thinking about how they support your wellbeing – for example: do they support your confidence, self-expression or help you learn new things? 

You’ll be contributing to conversations about how we go about measuring the impact of creativity on wellbeing. You’ll be contributing to CORC’s [https://www.corc.uk.net/about-corc/] understanding on the effect creativity – be that performance, crafts, writing, coding and many more – has on young people’s wellbeing. 

16:30 – 17:15    

Spotlight session!

We invite you to join us for our Spotlight Session to close the Summer PIE this year! Come along and hear young people and parent/carers deliver short presentations about participation work or projects they have completed, either independently or within their service! Join us to hear and learn all about the amazing participation work going on across the country!