Youth Geographies of Inequality is a participatory research project with young people aged 16-25 that seeks to explore emotional resources, family and wider relationships, and how young people feel about the places in which they grow up. For over a year, we have been working closely with young people in Scarborough and York to better understand and document how place plays a major role in young people’s access to emotional support. Our project is also working in partnership with key professionals who support young people in their daily lives, so we can inform dialogues and change at local and national levels. Our project is interested in the context in which young people grow up (i.e., rural, urban, affluent, deprived), the importance of when key events happen in young people’s lives, and the role of support and resources as young people make key transitions to adulthood.
Today we launch our project website so we can start to share key findings and messages from the project. The last few weeks have involved working on the final stages of our participatory filmmaking workshops with young people in York and we are excited to share how this developed over time and what we learnt from embedding creative and artistic approaches within the study. Seeing some of the draft edits of these films has been a powerful reminder of what can happen when you engage young people as collaborators to not only help us better understand the issues that are important to them, but also how we can work together to influence change within and beyond the places in which young people grow up.
The project will share blogs and resources on a range of issues including (1) how we define and understand family resources and emotional support (2) creative and participatory research methods with young people (3) how young people perceive the places in which they live (4) how place influences young people’s outcomes and opportunities. Considering the breadth and scale of the research, we envisage the findings will be of interest to a broad range of people, including academics, local/national policy makers, practitioners supporting young people, and most importantly, families and young people themselves. We really hope you can join us on the journey as we share findings and outputs from the research that will help us better understand the issues facing young people today.
How to get Involved
As we move into our next phase of the research, we are looking to recruit young people aged between 16-25 in Scarborough as co-researchers. This will involve doing some training in research methods, helping to design research questions, and then conducting interviews with older generations within the community. Young people will be paid for their time. If this is something you might be interested in, please contact: youth-geographies-project@york.ac.uk.ac.uk
We are also looking to speak to adults in Scarborough (e.g. parents, carers, grandparents, aunts/uncles, close family friends) who have experience of supporting young people (up to age 25). If eligible, you will be interviewed by one of our young co-researchers, with the support of an experienced researcher, and will receive a £20 shopping voucher for taking part. Please get in touch: youth-geographies-project@york.ac.uk
If you are a local policy maker or practitioner in Scarborough or York and would be interested in being involved in one of our focus groups, then also please do get in touch: youth-geographies-project@york.ac.uk
