Causeway: Breaking Cycles, Building Lives

Project background

If you are a fan of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, Line of Duty, Murdered by my Boyfriend or Shadow and Bone, you might recognise some of the voices in this animation, as it featured none other than Zoë Wanamaker CBE and Royce Pierreson, as well as extensive input from Dwayne Jack, whose own incredible life story provided the basis for this film.

While working with celebrities is always a bonus, as a health and social care animation company that focuses on making work that helps people in the real world, we were most excited about working with the amazing Causeway.

Dwayne’s story

Causeway is an organisation that takes a truly enlightened view of crime prevention. In this film, they wanted to talk about how blurred the line can be between victim and perpetrator.

Dwayne was just six years old when he started getting involved with criminal gangs in and around the Birtwell Estate in Slough, Berkshire.

As you can see from the film, there wasn’t much support for him as he grew older, and it was only through tackling and processing his own trauma that he was able to turn his life around and begin to use what he went through in order to help others.

Working on the animation

Zoë Wanamaker:

‘The words you hear spoken in the animation are the real words of Dwayne, the man who bravely and generously shared his own story that is told in the film. I am extremely proud of this project, and it’s been a pleasure collaborating with Causeway and the wonderful Royce Pierreson, whose work I have long admired.’

Royce Pierreson:

‘Dwayne's story was hard to hear, but seeing him turn his life around and help others is a testament to him and the amazing work organisations such as Causeway continue to do.’

Amy Bond, Causeway’s COO:

‘We are extremely grateful that Dwayne decided to team up with Causeway to generously share his own story for this animation. Causeway’s crime reduction service supports and advises over 4,500 individuals each year, both in police custody and in the community. These are often individuals who are in similar situations to the ones Dwayne was in previously. We hope this animation helps show the complexities of the link between trauma and criminality, and also inspires others that there is a future away from crime.’

Post-launch stats:

21 pieces of media coverage across TV, radio, newspapers and magazines
39.5k reach across Causeway’s social media channels
2 universities are playing the animation as part of their criminology teaching
The animation led to countless enquiries, development and collaboration opportunities for Causeway