Anarchist Bookfair Kids' Space:

Police and Prison Abolition for Kids

Based on ‘In Our Own Hands’, a police and prison abolition and transformative justice toolkit for kids by Rania el Mugammar

10:30	Welcome We’ll be welcoming everyone to the kids space, introducing ourselves and making name tags
11:30	MAPS AND HELPERS Together, we’ll draw maps of our communities and talk about where we find people who can help us. We’ll write stories about when we needed help and who gave us help.
12:00	WALK AROUND WHITECHAPEL (dependent on safe adult:child ratios) We’ll walk around Whitechapel looking for places where people help each other so that we can put them on our map.
12:30	Lunch
13:00	PICTURES OF BAD AND GOOD Using collage and drawing, we’ll explore the ideas we have about bad and good people - what do bad people look like and do? what do good people look like and do? Do bad and good people even exist? How else might we describe people?
13:30	RUN AROUND IN ALTAB ALI PARK (dependent on safe adult:child ratios) We’ll go to a nearby park and let off some steam, play tag and have fun
14:00	ZINES ABOUT RULES Helpful or a problem? Fair or unfair? We’ll talk about rules and how they might help or hurt people, then we’ll make zines or mini-books about rules and how we feel about them.
14:30	ARTS AND CRAFTS beading and scented playdough Older kids can make a beaded necklace or bracelet; little kids can make scented playdough
15:00	BREAK, SNACK, TIDY UP
15:30	STORIES ABOUT POLICE We’ll talk about police in stories and ways in which they might be different to police in real life and draw pictures to illustrate this.
16:00	PLAYS ABOUT ASKING FOR HELP We’ll think up small plays about who we might call instead of police, and act them out for each other
16:30	PUNISHMENT AND TRANSFORMATION Together, we’ll talk about punishment and whether it’s the best way to get people to change their behaviour. What other ideas do we have for how to change?
17:00	PRINT AND POSTER MAKING We’ll each decide on a message we would like to make into a print or poster and then will be helped to make one.
17:30	COMMUNITY, SAFETY AND IMAGINING THE FUTURE We will talk about what community and safety mean to us, and write poems about how we imagine the future could be. We’ll illustrate these and collect all of the things we made to take home with us.
18:30	END OF PROGRAMME

Suitable for kids of all ages, although activities may be modified based on ages present. All timings may change depending on practicalities. Programme is coordinated by a DBS checked* volunteer with first aid and safeguarding training.

*although, of course, we can’t and shouldn’t rely on police documentation to keep our kids safe