#WhatDoYouSee

Second year students from Northumbria University’s Graphic Design degree course have used the experiences of two people supported by Fulfilling Lives to produce five comic strips, with the aim of challenging the stigma that surrounds people accessing charity support.

The illustration students were provided with audio clips of interviews with two people with complex needs who talked about their journey through life and their hopes for the future. The students then interpreted their lived experiences into five short graphic novel stories.

View PDFs of the graphic novel:

• Flat Water High
• I’m Still Here
• Just Ham
• Lost in the Woods
• The Clean-Up

Watch the videos on our YouTube channel:

• Flat Water High
• I’m Still Here
• Just Ham
• Lost in the Woods
• The Clean-Up

The graphic novel anthology produced by the Northumbria University students is entitled ‘What Do You See?’, and encourages readers to see beyond the labels society puts on people, like ‘homeless’ or ‘ex-offender’.

These illustrated stories have since been published in a printed and ebook anthology, to be used in future Fulfilling Lives outreach work and training. The comic strips have also formed the content for a campaign to challenge stigma by provoking dialogue on social media, through the Twitter hashtag #WhatDoYouSee?

Fulfilling Lives encouraged people to view the graphic novel anthology and to share thoughts on the comic strips on social media using the hashtag #WhatDoYouSee.

The printed anthology and partnership between Fulfilling Lives and Northumbria University was made possible through a Creative Fuse Social Media grant from the European Regional Development Fund, and was supported by creative agency Roots and Wings.