The Deeper Discovery Phase
- Published
- 11.10.2023
- Author
- Ediane de Lima
In the Deeper Discovery phase of Kailo we have been engaging in co-design activities with young people, community professionals and systems leaders in Newham and Northern Devon to develop strategies to support young people’s mental health based on priorities established in the Early Discovery phase of the programme. This blog provides an overview of how we are approaching this in Kailo.
What is co-design?
Co-design is at the heart of Kailo, and is one of the main methods we are using when working with local communities to bring about positive change for young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
This quote helps to articulate one way of describing co-design:
“[Co-design] an approach to designing with, not for, people. While co-design is helpful in many areas, it typically works best where people with lived experience, communities and professionals work together to improve something that they all care about. Overall, the primary role of co-design is elevating the voices and contributions of people with lived experience.”
Kelly-Ann McKercher | Beyond Sticky Notes
How are we doing this in Kailo?
We have invited young people and community members to contribute to Deeper Discovery phase in 2 key ways.
Small circles: The power of young people’s lived and learned experiences
Young people, community workers and our Kailo community partners (local organisations working to support young people) are driving this work in the small-circles of co-design. Each site (Newham and Northern Devon) has two small circles of co-design, each with 7-12 young people and 2-4 community members. The aim of these small circles is to:
- Explore the Opportunity Areas prioritised in the Early Discovery phase in greater depth – for Northern Devon’s Opportunity Areas, read here; for Newham’s Opportunity Areas read here.
- Collectively work to define and refine the challenge we are addressing
- Develop strategies to address these challenges
- Prototype these strategies
Big Circles: Mobilising local lived, learned and professional experience and leadership
Small circles are supported by a wider group of community workers, professionals, leaders and influencers who are part of the Big circle of community professionals and system leaders. Some of the aims of this circle include:
- Offering advice, suggestions and feedback on Small Circle developments at different points of the design process, including supporting the Small Circle to contextualise their work within the wider system.
- Give young people a platform (audience and influence) for their views, voices and perspectives to be heard.
- Supports the testing, prototyping and funding of ideas developed in the small circles of co-design.
These circles happen every couple of months. More than 40 stakeholders working and living in Northern Devon attended our last Big Circle session. The individuals in this Big circle also influence and support the Deeper Discovery work in less structured ways, through regular conversations with Kailo team members.
These two circles are also supported by (a) wider knowledge from research we have done in Early Discovery and continue to do within the community, by participating in local events and considering young people’s voices outside of the small circle (circle of research), and (b) the knowledge and expertise of those who might not be able to engage in the project in more regular and structured spaces, but still want to support the work, ideas and strategies that get developed (Wider circle of influencers).
What happens next?
By the end of this co-design process we hope to develop local strategies that:
- Have a youth and community voice-centred approach
- Address contextually relevant social determinants
- Are based on young people and community members’ views and key needs
- Are focused on prevention rather than service interventions
- Challenge local inequalities related to the prioritised opportunity areas
- Are feasible and sustainable within the constraints of local assets and resources