Summer 21 eyeYPAG meeting by Jasmine

By Vijay Tailor-Hamblin,

We started off with a drawing challenge: draw something that represents what you like about eyeYPAG or what eyeYPAG means to you ????. Here are a few of our drawings:

Some of us are working with Louca-Mai on an evaluation of our group. We’ve done surveys and focus groups to get the views of group members, their parents, researchers who’ve worked with us and our funders ????. We presented some of our early findings to the group ???? and talked about what we thought should happen next.

Watch this space for more information on the evaluation!

Then Jacq, who works with the group, talked to us about her Ci2i project. Ci2i is a co-production project hoping to co-design (or work together to design) interventions (or ideas), to improve children and young people’s experiences of taking part in eye and vision research. Children and young people who have taken part in eye or vision research, their parents and research staff will be invited to join the project. We looked at positive and negative words that might be used in interviews with children and young people, to find out how it feels to take part in eye research. We gave Jacq advice on which words children and young people of different ages might understand best, and had the idea of a ‘glossary’ to explain each emotion. Jacq also spoke to some of our parents in a breakout room to get their ideas.

Jacq said:

I am always so impressed with how EyeYPAG work together. They had a lively debate over which words children and young people would use and understand. Based on their thoughts I now have a tried and tested list of positive and negative emotion words I can use in my project interviews. This I’m sure will help children and young people who join the interviews, much more comfortable as we talk about how they feel. I love how the group are so practical too, they reminded me that if I want them to be creative in the interviews, tell them in advance that they will need art supplies! Great organisational tips thanks EyeYPAG!

It was also super to meet with the EyeYPAG parents again, we talked through the interview questions and they raised great points/questions I hadn’t considered.

Goodbye LM! ????Sadly, This was the last meeting for Louca-Mai, who has been supporting the eyeYPAG from the start – so we said goodbye to her . On a happier note we said hello to Jane, who will now be working with the group ????