In memory of Kevin
Kevin first contacted West Sussex Mind in 2019. We soon started to have some great conversations about how we could harness all the skill and experience Kevin had to offer while creating something we both very much felt a passion for, mental health learning for children in junior school.
And this is how I see Kevin, a colleague, advocate and a touchstone driven to create a caring world where young children who are at the very beginning of their education could be helped to understand that they all had mental health and that there were ways to help each other. We knew that without harnessing the support and interest from both teacher and parent/ carers we could not have that triangle of knowledge and understanding we knew to be so important.
How could we describe a complex set of ideas to start to garner support? Kevin had the answer - a SOAP. Kevin’s considerable knowledge in industry and his willingness to share insight helped set out our path. We wrote a Summary On A Page (SOAP) for decision. We together constructed a team of volunteer designers and educators.
As we progressed through the year, we knew we had a special idea that eventually we would turn into a unique online game based on extracting children’s own SuperPowers to help them find the resilience and self-knowledge that could help them navigate life.
I personally gained so much from Kevin’s calm and clear approach and I will miss his solid presence. Our SuperPowers project will miss him too, but we will continue with our ambitions and make this project happen in memory of Kevin our kind and thoughtful colleague whose own SuperPowers will endure in the spirit of our work. Thank you, Kevin.