This is a series of illustrations made for members of the Young Carers Alliance showcasing the daily tasks young carers do.
These illustrations will also be used to support the research being conducted by Carly Ellicott at the University of Plymouth about young carers in early-childhood.
The idea behind them was to showcase the daily tasks young carers might do while speaking their own language: illustrations in a picture book style. Through these illustrations, we follow different bunny rabbit families and their young carers performing daily caring tasks.
The Young Carers Alliance is a growing network of over 200 organisations and 500 individuals committed to improving the lives of young carers, young adult carers and their families. They bring together representatives from research, policy and practice, all of whom are committed to bringing about improved outcomes for all young carers.
The final output of these illustrations are a series of informational and research/data-gathering materials to help better understand young carers in very early childhood.
You can sign up to be part of the Young Carers Alliance as an individual or as an organisation, and you can subscribe to the regular e-bulletins through this link.
Above are the first 5 illustrations. The response from organisations within the Young Carers Alliance was very positive so, we decided to produce another 5 illustrations.
For this, a workshop session with Kingston Carers was organised in which we coloured the current illustrations with young carers, ranging from 5 to 10 years old, and asked their input on what the new illustrations could be based on some of their caring tasks.
Bellow, are the second set of illustrations, based on the conversations and workshop with children from Kingston Carers.
They depict young carers in a range of situations that are examples of some of their daily caring routine: helping and supporting parents, grandparents, or older/younger siblings with their daily tasks.
We had the idea of using bunnies to have a picture book style and to better connect with children, through these illustrations.
Bellow, are all the illustrations side-by-side with their sketches.
While creating these illustrations, I was able to drawn from the skills I had on my previous published picture books to portray these scenes in a colourful, playful, childlike, and picturesque way, so that they can be relatable and attractive for the early-childhood young carers who will come across them.
Here are some of the making-of of these illustrations and a mockup of how they will be used in the future informational and research material, that is still currently being developed.
As the idea of these illustrations is to help the YCA with their mission, you can request permission to use the images for non-profitable reasons like research, advocacy and communication with some of the youngest young carers by emailing jbangsuk@icloud.com or anaclaugraca@gmail.com
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And here are some of the content produced by organizations globally with these illustrations (examples of the Kingstonians FC and Nagosib websites).
And some snapshots from the workshop hosted with young carers from Kingston Carers.
