Hull Children’s Flood Project

Will Medd, Marion Walker, Rebecca Whittle (Lancaster); Sue Tapsell (Middlesex University); Jo

Moran-Ellis and Kate Burningham (University of Surrey)

Children's Voice and Building Resilience

• Few accounts of the social impacts of flooding consider children and young people’s perspectives.

• This project worked with children and young people in Hull

to explore their experiences of flood, flood recovery and their ideas about the future.

• We are interested in how they coped and the role they can play in building future resilience.

Methodology

• Primary school, secondary school, youth group • Storyboards (45)• Interviews with children and young people (46)• Group discussion (in small groups)• Interviews with teachers/service providers (18)

Your flood journeyWhat happened to you?

?

• Where did you live?

•Where did you go to school?

•What did it feel like?

• What happened to your friends?

Your flood journey What happened to you?

...when me and my little sister came back we had to live in the tiny caravan because my littlest sister had just turned 2, all she would do is cry. So none of us would sleep. My little sister was

still crying every night so we took her to the doctors. My little sister had pneumonia so the

builders had to work really fast so my little sister could move out of the caravan. When Christmas

came we had to spend it at my grandma’s so there was 7 of us in a one bedroomed flat!

(Megan, Yr 9/13)

...when me and my little sister came back we had to live in the tiny caravan because my

littlest sister had just turned 2, all she would do is cry. So none of us would sleep. My little

sister was still crying every night so we took her to the doctors. My little sister had pneumonia

so the builders had to work really fast so my little sister could move out of the caravan.

When Christmas came we had to spend it at my grandma’s so there was 7 of us in a one

bedroomed flat! (Megan, Yr 9/13)

Why should we care?

• What sort of disruption is revealed? Children’s accounts suggest their lives were disrupted in a number of ways (e.g. family, friends, school).

• What is lost in flood? Obviously possessions, pets, friends, but also children say lack of space, privacy, family time, special events, playing with friends.

• Who was forgotten?

Methodology

• Primary school, secondary school, youth group • Storyboards (45)• Interviews with children and young people (46)• Group discussion (in small groups)• Interviews with teachers/service providers (18)

After the rain has gone: learning from young people about flooding and recovery

Dr. Marion Walker and Dr. Beccy Whittle

www.lec.lancs.ac.uk/cswm/hcfp