Fitmums & Friends Together in Grief – The Forest Project: design an animation to support bereaved children

In the UK, it is estimated that every 20 minutes a parent dies leaving dependent-age children. (In addition, more children experience the bereavement of someone close to them, but data is not collated to measure that.) We know children struggle to talk about their grief, they often feel they have to mask their grief, they worry about being a burden, they want to protect the people around them, they do not want to make people feel uncomfortable or upset them because of their grief.

Together in Grief – The Forest Project by Fitmums & Friends is an innovative programme of support for children and young people who are experiencing bereavement. It offers them the opportunity to participate in forest activities such as den building, camp fire cooking, tool making, tree climbing, forest games and rope work with other children in similar situations. Grief discussions and support are carefully interwoven into the programme to help them explore, understand and express their grief. More information about the project can be found here.

As part of Together in Grief – The Forest Project, we have held creative workshops with children who have previously attended one of our Forest Projects. They used art and creative methods to explore their grief, to understand some of their challenges, and to try and explore how those around them can best support them after a bereavement. We would like to use the information and artwork given by the children to produce an animation.

The animation will be shown to children and teachers in schools, to services offering support to bereaved children and it will be available to the general public.

The animation will aim to reduce the taboo around death and dying, helping those who watch it to understand how grief affects children and young people (in their own words) and to learn how the people around them can help (including their friends, teachers, neighbours and families).

The animation must show the voice and experience of these children.

The budget for the creation of this animation is £2,500.

Expressions of interest, including an outline of your design and cost, should be received by 08:00 on Monday 14 October. Short-listing and follow-up meetings will take place during w/c 14 and 21 October, and artists will be notified of the outcome by Friday 25 October. Ideally, the animation will then be ready to be showcased during Children’s Grief Awareness Week, 18-24 November 2024, however, we would be willing to delay this for the right artist.

Please submit any queries and your application to heather@fitmums.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!