CHARITY WORK
ART FOR RESEARCH READING, HUNTERCOMBE PRISON
Both charity projects I have done were part if the real jobs scheme at Reading university.
This was an opportunity for students to take part in jobs for real clients and learning how to communicate effectively and work with the clients needs at the forefront of the project.
ART FOR RESEARCH READING
For this project, the client was Art for Research Reading. An organisation that runs yearly to raise money for Cancer Research UK Children and Young People, by running an art competition for 4 to 14 year olds. My job was to create an identity and supporting material for their 2021 competition which had the theme of 'the environment'.
As part of this job I joined the committee for the charity. I found this to be very beneficial as I was able to connect with the client on a personal level as well as stay up to date and contribute my ideas about fundraising and the exhibition itself. I also helped by sharing my knowledge of social media and ideas to get the most contestants contributing, which was crucial for the client due to this year's exhibition being held virtually.
The 2021 competition poster which was sent to local schools to gain interest in the competition
The 2021 programme, this was initially supposed to be printed and given out to support the exhibition. But the decision changed to hold the competition online due to COVID-19, the client decided they still wanted a programme showing information about the charity, the competition and all the entries. So that children could see their hard work and awards presented formally and it gave them the opportunity to print it out themselves. Art for Research Reading also hoped that this will encourage interest from more people in the competition for following years.
HUNTERCOMBE PRISON
This project involved creating an A0 poster on the subject of violence reduction for the inmates at Huntercombe Prison. The poster educates prisoners on the importance of avoiding and resisting violence, explaining the consequences of committing such offences and providing information on who they can speak to in the prison for support or help. There is also space at the bottom for the staff to add A4 sheets of information which may update over the years that the poster is up.
However, these messages are written with the consideration of the fact that English is a second language for the majority of inmates and many struggle to understand. It is also important that information is presented clearly and understandably as inmates are not allowed to loiter in the corridors so cannot stand to read the poster for a long duration of time.
It was a good experience working with another student on this project and for an external client, I found it particularly interesting working for such a niche audience and looking into the lives of those at Huntercombe.