CO-4KIDS
ArtLab + Colorado Department for Human Services
This spring we had the opportunity to team up with folks from all around the city and state to work on a project spreading awareness around the statewide hotline: 1-844-CO-4-KIDS. The aim of this project was to promote the hotline while spreading a positive message to communities around reporting child abuse and neglect. ArtLab started with a presentation from Heinrich Marketing and Heinrich Hispanidad staff giving them insight into the current campaign. After the brief they were connected with local creator, Brian Corrigan who lead them through a six week design process which resulted in their final piece, Hero Mirror.Each ArtLab intern started this process by coming up with 40 concepts, those 560 off the wall ideas were distilled down to the top 28 and from there the interns really started to focus in on the key components of the task at hand. The piece they came up with had to be mobile enough to transport to all 64 counties in Colorado and durable enough to sustain interaction. After a series of presentations to their clients at CDHS and Heinrich ArtLab settled on the Hero Mirror a concept from ArtLab intern Kyra who explained her vision this way,
"Being a survivor of child abuse myself, found it very important to send a positive message for prevention. Growing up, I thought the abuse was my fault and something I shouldn't talk about. As I got older, the struggle of trying to keep it hidden got harder and harder until almost ten years later when I told my parents. I believe as the reason for trying to hide it for so long is because the stigma around child abuse is negative. We as a community have to start talking about the positive aspects of reporting and prevention. I'm so happy that the "Hero Mirror" is a part of spreading that message."
The final piece is a free standing, double sided mirror hidden by curtains. When opened the mirrors reveal the message, "This is what a hero could look like" prompting people to be aware of child abuse and neglect and direct them to the hotline. The Hero Mirror was revealed on April 1st during a press conference at the State Capital where ArtLab intern Kyra introduced Governor, John Hickenlooper. This piece will travel around the state and continue to build awareness!
