"We feel it is important to listen to us as this makes us feel valued and part of the community. Disabled children and young people just want to be treated the same as everyone else but lots of people do not know how to talk to us, they seem embarrassed when they talk to us directly in case we do not understand. We understand a lot more than they think and have questions we would like to ask ourselves".

The Children's Participation Worker works with Merton children in small groups who are on the edge of society, at risk of exclusion or who struggle fitting in at school. I try through creative projects to give them a voice, roles and responsibilities and in this way to raise their self esteem and enhance their life skills- getting on with others, working together and learning organisational skills. They also have the chance to produce something that gets positive feedback. The process is as important as the product, but that to have a creative and real focus is essential - it takes flexibility, listening skills and a sense of humour.

Developing a Merton Children's Web site (mertoncv.org). Funded by the Children's Fund, Jigsaw4u worked with children from 2 primary and a special needs school to develop an interactive web site for children, by children.

Groundwork Video. Jigsaw4u worked with Groundwork and children from a special needs school to explore the future of the Wandle Valley. They consulted with interested children and went out to Mitcham Common to make the video with a camera crew. Copies of the finished product are available.

Play and Leisure Project. Together with an art teacher, we went out and about and filled in questionnaires on targeted local open spaces. The children all designed their ideal open space and this was made into a huge 3D jigsaw, exhibited at the Civic Centre. The Mayor presented the children with certificates and their views were fed back to the council.

Safe with Sport Mural Project. Following feedback from children, it became clear that many felt unsafe outdoors and some were getting into trouble because they felt there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. We decided to celebrate the idea of keeping safe by doing sports and playing games and creating a wall mural using graffiti style techniques. We got funding from the Prisoners Property Fund to kick-start this project. 36 children from three schools participated. Funding from Safer Merton enabled us to hold a competition for the best mural design with over 100 entries and then work with the artist, Jamie Lawrence resulting in the mural being painted at the Hub in Mitcham and Tooting FC.

Food for Thought. One of my new targets is to help the other projects to make participation an integral part of their work. I will be working on the food project with the Turnaround and Young Carers Projects. We are all really looking forward to this new partnership. We are also going to work on developing a meaningful way of peer evaluation of services, over a meal and we hope to produce a Merton Children's Cookery Book.

Room 13. This is a totally new concept of a child led and run Art space. Room 13's started in Scotland and are now spreading across the world - look at the Room 13 web site for more information.

The Post Adoption Service was expanded this year to include support groups for children who have been adopted in the Richmond, Sutton, Merton and Kingston. This was started as a pilot project and because of its success has now been extended for a further year. We have also continued to provide a post adoption counselling service for birth parents, siblings or grandparents of children placed for adoption. This gives an opportunity for them talk confidentially about their birth children, and about their own feelings and worries. Issues include whether the birth relatives will ever see the child again, whether they can meet and help to choose the adopters, what information the child will be told about them, and whether they can receive and send photos. We hope to extend this service to other boroughs in the future.

Parents and Heads, the Hub and the children have been extremely positive about the projects, especially the mural that has reached out into the community. Several schools involved have said that they have seen an improvement in attendance and overall behaviour of those involved. One boy at a local school has started going to school as a result of the project after a 2 year absence.