We are aiming to build a digital educational portal where an animated ITSY, the friendly neighbourhood spider, guides, reassures, provides tips and resources to children on a variety of issues such as body image, racism, anxiety, social pressures and more.

The educational resource is aimed at children: 

• who’ve previously participated in our workshops where we've screened and discussed ITSY the short film. Now we'd be introducing them to an animated ITSY and expand the kindness values beyond classroom;

• who’ve not participated previously in our workshops and for whom this would be a novel fun interactive introduction to an animated ITSY;

• who've been home learning (pre-Covid), a market that has virtually doubled since Covid,

The goal is to build mental resilience and emotional well being, underpinned by the 10 values of kindness, in a safe and creative space.

If this project sounds exciting and meaningful to you, please watch our video of the first draft of the animations above which deals with bullying. From the grant funds we have raised to date, VFX & AR company Bamsound Creative will animate these episodes to an augmented reality (AR) setting and Head 2 Heart Books will be tweaking the dialogues to make these child friendly. We will then be piloting the scheme with children and their feedback will refine the animations further.

Watch our ITSY Animation Trailer below!

Your contribution will help to finance the development and build of new characters, themes and storylines, working with children's publisher, Head 2 Heart Books, that focus on our 10 values of kindness (empathy, courage, integrity, respect, gratitude, mindfulness, resilience, responsible, care, and compassion).

If you feel as passionately about this project as we do, please also share this page with your friends and family so that more people can understand and support the mental health needs of our children especially during a tough and challenging year.