‘Our Voices Matter’: the Impact of Covid-19 on Children and Young People’s Lives: Our first speaker is Alan Herron. Over the summer of 2020 PlayBoard NI undertook research focused on the impact of Covid-19 on the lives of children and young people. The research explored the effects of lockdown on play, social relations and education with an underpinning assessment of the impact on emotional wellbeing. Alan will present an overview of the key findings, provide an insight into other child-focused research on a broader UK basis and consider how best to support children as we emerge from Covid.

Museums as Spaces for Children and Young People’s Wellbeing: Our second speaker is Laura Bedford who will be talking about the work museums do in supporting children and young people’s wellbeing. Laura will be drawing from her knowledge of best practice in the museum sector across the UK, bringing insights from her many years’ experience of working in the sector and as a long-standing champion for the place of wellbeing in museums.

A Case Study from the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum: Reflecting on the Pandemic as a Unique Opportunity to Adapt and Evolve a Museum Education Service: Our third speaker is Gillian Lyttle who will be sharing her work at the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum. The ethos of learning at Lisburn Museum is participant based practice, working with real people, interacting with real objects in real heritage settings. Gillian will be reflecting on how the museum education services were adapted to cope with the pandemic, with a focus on addressing wellbeing issues highlighted by the pandemic for children and young people. She will examine the balancing of the virtual museum, developed as a means of engaging with existing and potential participants, with maintaining sight of encouraging physical visiting experiences.

This will be a panel event. Each speaker will deliver a presentation and there will be a facilitated Q+A at the end.

Book your space for this event here.