Stop Loan Sharks – Raising Awareness For Schools in Halton
Project Overview
Digital Arts Box is working in partnership with England Illegal Money Lending Team and Cheshire Constabulary on a project focused on informing Halton residents about the dangers of Loan Sharks.
Through the medium of digital arts the ‘Stop Loan Sharks Video Awareness Project’ foregrounds the subject of illegal money lending for young people in five Halton schools. Digital Arts Box will work with groups of Year 6 students to explore loan sharks; who they are, how they go about exploiting vulnerable people and what young people should do if they believe a family member is involved with a loan shark. We will then work to create shareable social media videos that promote awareness of illegal money lending and design themed keyrings for the young people to keep.
Following the success of our Pixel Art Project, which involved working with local schools and community groups to create a public pixel art exhibition, we believe our focus on an artform and a medium that are increasingly familiar to young people will give our message an increased resonance among our chosen cohort.
During each school visit we will discuss the issue of illegal money lenders in communities such as ours in Halton, the prevalence of which has increased in the current economic climate. Students will be given a clear idea of how loan sharks operate and what young people can do if they suspect a family member is involved with an illegal money lender. We will then begin production of our social media content through the use of greenscreen videography, taking care to create short vignettes that are both fun and informative for use as part of a wider campaign on Digital Arts Box’s social media channels. Each pupil will also create their own keyring to take away at the end of the session, which will include their own design on one face and contact information for the Illegal Money Lending Team on the reverse.
The content created with the five classes can be freely shared by the schools as part of a learning experience for those school communities and the wider Halton public, and a selection will be shared on Digital Arts Box’s Tik Tok channel with the aim of promoting awareness of illegal money lending through an engaging and current medium.