There are countless people that contribute to SEND in a more subtle manner than our core team, and their influence and effort is often instrumental to the success of our projects. A prime example of this is Jean Case, lead youth worker at the Oliver Hind Centre in Sneinton, and a well known and respected member within the local community.
Jean and many other local youth workers and young people have recently had their hands full with the organisation of a multitude of activities and events run in relation to condom fashion week; an annual advocacy campaign the promotes contraception and sexual health services.
One such event was the condom fashion show held at Nottingham City Council town hall on the evening of the 17th May, where a group of talented young people strutted down the catwalk show casing the garments they had been working on tirelessly in an effort to explore the theme of the 7 deadly sins. Each and every item had been embellished or altered using 100′s and in some cases 1000′s of condoms that had been kindly donated by Durex in support of the event. The end result was the creation of a very unique and impressive brand of condom couture. The girls worked exceptionally hard for several weeks to make their outfits and this was clear to see in both the run up to the event and their performance. As well as the fashion show, their was a wide range of contraceptive themed games, including guess how many condoms in the jar, run by other local young people who wanted to pitch in.
Two of the SEND artists, Alex Rainsford and Beth Hemus, contributed by voluntarily painting a trio of canvasses that acted as the back drop for the fashion show (see photo above). The paintings also explored the 7 deadly sins and were created using a combination of graffiti and mixed media techniques. Both Alex and Beth found it a pleasure to contribute to such a cracking event and it was pleasing to see the piece in situ when they both went to watch the fashion show with company director Lea Sutton.
The event had an excellent turn out and was a huge success, with all proceeds going towards funding the summer projects at the Oliver Hind Center. We hope that the girls enjoyed it as much as everyone else did and that the Oliver Hind Center raised enough money to continue to make the fantastic work that they do sustainable.
