Online Workshop Safety
Helium Arts has comprehensive safety procedures in place for children and young participants in our inclusive online workshops.
Our artists are trained to run inclusive online programmes and can offer flexibility as to how and when one participates.
Optional online meetings and artwork sharing occur on Zoom, a secure platform. All online workshops include supervision, involving at least two adults, including the artist, co-facilitator, and/or moderator.
Photographs capturing only artwork and the creative process, such as hands drawing, will be taken. No photographs of children’s faces will be captured without obtaining further written consent.
We never ask for a young person’s email address. The only email address used is the one provided during the registration process – we use this email to streamline the communication process between the artist and co-facilitator for the online programme activities.
Family sharing sessions are organised for children aged 6-12. The Online Family Sharings are a chance to meet the artist and the other participants and they generally take place twice over a 6 week workshop via Zoom.
Online virtual group engagements are for young people aged 13-16. These can include a mix of full group (30 participants), small group (10 participants) and drop-in sessions with the artists.
Virtual sharing of creative work takes place using Padlet for young people aged 6-16. Padlet is a secure cloud-based hosting service that provides a real-time collaborative online platform in which users can upload, organise, and share content to virtual bulletin boards called ‘padlets’. It is now widely used in educational settings. The content uploaded by participants to the Helium Arts’ Padlet will be moderated by Helium Arts.
It is important that parents/guardians remain in close proximity to their child when their child is online during the programme.
You can read more about what Helium Arts’ is doing to safeguard children in the online space here.