We do this by working closely with children and young people from across Scotland, including those we are working alongside to support them to recover from trauma.
We are also facilitating creative workshops across Scotland to listen to children, young people and their families’ ideas and views to help inform the design of the Bairns Hoose. This will mean that we create the best Bairns Hoose possible and ensures that children’s rights are central to the process (the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child – UNCRC).
In 2022 we brought together a group of young people between the ages of 13 and 19 to become the Children First ‘Changemakers’. These courageous and inspiring young people have experiences of the care, protection and justice system, meaning they have significant insights from their own journey and experiences. The Changemakers group gives young people a significant role in informing the design and development of the Bairns Hoose.
The Changemakers are central to the design and development of the Bairns Hoose. They have lots of passion and ambitions and are working alongside colleagues and partners to co-produce important aspects of the design and development. Participation requires meaningful and inclusive choices, so the group is supported to make choices, share ideas and feedback their views. So far, they have:
- Provided their ideas and views in response to the development of the national Scottish Bairns Hoose Standards.
- Worked alongside our graphic designer on the brand development for the Bairns Hoose.
- Provided feedback and initial ideas on the interior design of the house.
This is the Changemakers web page, where they will tell you who they are and what they have been doing, in their own words.
Who are we?
We are a group of young, inspired people, who are passionate about making change. We are all from different walks of life.
We have experienced different things in our lives that make us young experts.
We want to help children and young people, by helping make a difference in the justice system. We want to make it better, so it is less difficult, traumatic, and exhausting for other children and young people.
We are working alongside Children First's Bairns Hoose service, which is here to listen and hear children and young people’s stories and support them through the process.
What do we do?
We are working alongside Children First to help in the development of the first Bairns Hoose in Scotland. We are working in collaboration with staff that are developing and designing the house, where we share our ideas and views. We work together as a group, in partnership with Children First, where we are learning new skills like how to use a camera and microphone, learning about interior and graphic design and developing branding. We also advise and share our views with professionals and adults that make decisions in big work, like the Scottish Bairns Hoose Standards.
We are working to build consistency for children and young people, so they know what to expect and how they will be treated in the Bairns Hoose. We are sharing our experiences to help make positive changes that we wanted to be in place for us. We can be trusted because we have been through it, so we want to look out for other children and young people and advocate on their behalf to see big changes happen.
We feel impressed and proud of all the work we are doing so far, like making a video to share our ideas and views for the Scottish Bairns Hoose Standards. You can watch our video below.
Our hopes and dreams
We have big hopes and dreams for work that we’d like to be involved with. One of the things we hope to get involved with is speaking to people in power, like the Scottish Government, police, social workers, NHS staff and sheriffs. We want to work closely with Children First workers so they can learn from us and see things from our perspective. We want to raise awareness about the Bairns Hoose, by educating others about it. We want to learn from others too, so we hope we can learn from other Barnahus’ across Europe, as we want to help design and develop the best Bairns Hoose that we can.
We also want to help develop information which will help support children, young people and families when they come to the Bairns Hoose. We want to do this in creative ways.
We will continue to help with the design and development of the first Bairns Hoose by working with the design team and leadership team, where we will share our views and ideas.
Some of our pictures
