London Young Researchers

London Young Researchers A three-year project, funded by Trust for London, looking to build the skills and capacity in organisations for young people to conduct peer-led research. Create an evidence base for peer research - A base of evidence on peer research is needed, drawing from domestic and international examples, to make the case to the sector on the value of adopting peer led research. Support youth sector organisations to conduct peer research – This work seeks to build the skills and capacity of groups to develop peer-led research within their organisations. Explore issues of inequality - Income inequality is significantly greater in London than elsewhere in England. We believe that peer research is vital in identifying the true impact being felt by young people. Support young people to campaign - We believe that only through campaigning with young people, from the grassroots and their lived experience, can we ensure that growth is truly inclusive.

Part 1: What is peer research? How can it be used? Create an evidence base for peer research - A base of evidence on peer research is needed, drawing from domestic and international examples, to make the case to the sector on the value of adopting peer led research as part of their youth voice. This guide will be used to facilitate a series of roundtables looking on how peer led research can be implemented for local authorities, and the youth sector The first roundtable will be held on Tuesday 28th of May, 4pm – 6pm, in this room. We will be releasing a set of resources, and inviting speakers who have already conducted peer research projects to share their learning.

Part 2: Economic inequality, peer research, and lived experience We’re producing a short review of existing research on the attitudes of young Londoners towards economic inequality, and the current challenges for London. We want to collate all resources and research on economic inequality into one place. We will train a group of 10 young people from a diverse range of backgrounds to conduct peer research into the attitudes and lived experiences of young Londoners on economic inequality. We want young researchers to be active in formulating the research aims, deciding on the methodology, and conducting placed based research. This will be done by conducting research in partnership with a small group of youth organisations across London. The findings from the peer researchers will then be used to coordinate a campaign going in to the Mayoral election in 2020. We hope to widen participation for campaigning, retaining our 10 peer researchers, and recruiting an additional 20 young people to campaign.

Part 3: Supporting the youth sector to conduct peer research We are offering up to 10 organisations a programme of support and training to conduct peer research with the young people they work with. Providing training, expertise, and coordination, we will work with them to produce a piece of peer led research that helps identify how economic inequality is impacting on their users, and what changes they can be implementing to mitigate these. Organisations will then be supported to build grassroots campaigns with the peer researchers, with campaigning training for young people, using Sheila McKechnie’s Social Power report as a basis. We will hold roundtables in the years two and three for smaller organisations interested in how they can conduct peer research for the first time with the young people they work with and will look to identify potential research partnerships.

Timeline of support for organisations Set up meeting (1 week) We will visit and sit down with your organisation, and learn what you want to research, what skills you want to learn and set out the objectives of the work, and the skills that need developing.. Programme design (1 week) We will produce a detailed plan of what we’re aiming to achieve, with the number and type of training sessions that staff and young people require, the timescales in which we want to deliver it. Delivering training programmes (2 weeks) We will then deliver a series of training sessions with the young people and staff, introducing them to peer research, how it can be used, the types of methods they might want to use. Peer-led research design (2 weeks) Once trained, a team of young people that you work with will be identified and will be supported through a series of workshops to design the research questions, and methods.

Timeline of support for organisations Conducting fieldwork (4 weeks) Young people will be supported to do fieldwork, to run focus groups, conduct in-depth interviews, or collect surveys. We will work with you to try and ensure the young researchers get as many opportunities to speak to others as possible. Collate feedback and data analysis (1 week) We will take all the evidence and data collected by the young people and work with them to look at the data, the main themes, and what we should be saying. Final report Working with your organisation, and the young people, we will help with the write up of the final report, providing design support if needed and liaising with individual young people to provide case studies or to author sections. Designing campaign materials Once the report has been completed, we will provide support to young people who wish to design communication and campaign materials based on the findings.

Contact For more information please contact Matthew.Walsham@cityoflondon.gov.uk Or sign up to our mailing list on the form at the front