Euston Young Voices: Citizen-led research shaping regeneration

In the summer of 2020, eleven young people from Somers Town and Regent’s Park Estate in Camden joined IGP to launch Euston Young Voices (EYV), a new ‘citizen social science’ (CSS) project researching what prosperity and inclusive regeneration mean to local people living in neighbourhoods in Euston. Over the half-term break, the graduates of the CSS Summer School reconvened to analyse the research and identify what prosperity means and how opportunities and aspirations are shaped by urban regeneration. 

Through innovative online workshops, designed to cope with COVID-19 limitations, the young citizen scientists identified an interim set of themes, priorities and issues that hinder or enhance their prosperity. The group identified that for young people in the Euston area, opportunities to live well are linked to the accessibility of community spaces, developmental and mentorship programs, education, cohesive community, and freedom of expression, among other issues.

In the coming weeks, research findings will be finalised and shared more widely with youth groups and community organisations in Euston.  The aim is to bring local voices and priorities to regeneration planning, ensure that young people have a strong voice, and promote faster policy impact with strategies for youth engagement.

In November, a research programme for adult citizen social scientists will explore the same questions from the perspective of people aged 20 upwards.  Findings from both programmes will help to build a citizen-led Euston Prosperity and Wellbeing Index, to reflect the priorities and experiences of local people and to monitor the social and economic changes linked to regeneration at Euston. 

EYV it is also part of Good Life Euston, an 18-month collaboration between the IGP, Lendlease, Camden Council and Camden Giving, that will explore what supports prosperity for local communities and amplify resident’s voices in regeneration planning. GLE is one part of IGP’s collaboration with Camden Council, which also includes testing new forms of Universal Basic Services.

“The area, this area has the potential to be like a butterfly, better than it is. I’d say it’s in a chrysalis stage. It could be – that’s really why I took that photo to be honest because I thought it kind of represents the area because if, it’s not hard to fix, I don’t think – a lot of the problems here can be fixed with a lot more talking. A lot of people just talking to each other more so people could get their point across. That’s all it needs really to make the area flourish and prosper some might say.

A young citizen social scientist (YCSS) from the Euston Young Voices (EYC) project.