Kind-hearted young people create mosaic sensory sign for charity
Forth Valley Sensory Centre logo.
A group of young people have created a new mosaic sign for a sensory charity which is designed to be interactive for those with sight loss.
Amna Anwar, Eva Robertson, Sophie Wood, Heather Fleming, Georga Beattie, Lucy Ismail and Megan Donaldson, who are all 16, completed the artwork at Forth Valley Sensory Centre (FVSC) as part of the Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award. The teenagers, who were joined by Emily Purcell, 21, a Stirling University psychology student on placement with FVSC, spent three days working on the sensory sign last month.
They fundraised for the project, and sourced all the necessary materials including timber, tiles, grout, glue and jewels from local companies. Using different colours and textures in a specific design, the group ensured it is interactive and accessible for those with reduced sight or profound sight loss by contrasting the tiles between the background and foreground. It spells out ‘Welcome FVSC’ and replaces a tired tile art close to the centre’s Sensory Garden.
Welcome FVSC mosaic with students who designed and created it.
The Mark Scott Award was set up by the educational charity Outward Bound and is inspired by the life of Mark Scott, a 16-year-old schoolboy who was murdered in 1995 in an unprovoked sectarian attack. It aims to equip school leavers to face the challenges the lie ahead and helps them gain confidence and resilience, improve their communication and organisational skills and maintain their mental wellbeing.
All of the girls who took part in the FVSC project as part of the award are pupils at Braes, Falkirk and St Mungo’s high schools.
FVSC offers services to thousands of blind, partially sighted, deaf, and hard of hearing people across Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire.
Hannah Wilson, volunteer coordinator at FVSC“We were delighted to welcome the group of young people, as well as our student placement Emily, to the centre to complete this project. It was great that the girls were so interested in the centre despite having no prior connection to the work we do. The enthusiasm and energy they brought was fantastic – they were so upbeat and eager to make our new sign as high quality and accessible as possible. They sourced all the materials and did all the work unassisted, and we are so happy with the result and grateful to the group who look part. The new mosaic sign has renovated what was a very tired looking piece of artwork and has brightened up our outside area, while also using colour contrasts that can be read by those with reduced sight, and textures that can be felt by those who are blind.”
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