EMPOWER-Islington

This research project will co-create employment, education and psychological wellbeing workshops with youth of Islington.

This project is funded by UKRI Research England Higher Education Innovation Fund and will run from March 2023 to October 2023.

Background

Empower Islington is a UKRI Research England funded partnership project between UCL and Islington Council. This project is an extension of the UKRI CopeWell Study.

Islington is amongst the nation’s 20% most deprived neighbourhoods and top 10 most dangerous boroughs in London (15% more crime than other boroughs). The unemployment rate between 18–24-year-olds is high compared to the rest of Britain (57.3% v. 39.8%). With 52% of Islington residents identifying as from BAME groups, who have been found to be disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic in terms of poverty, health disparity, racism, and health access, Islington’s young people are in clear need of employment, education, and mental health support.

Methodology

Data Collection - 1-2-1 interviews or/and small focus groups with be conducted individually and with groups of 4-5 young people to understand the short- and long-term effects of Covid-19 on youth's education and employment needs, barriers to mental health access and the support they need now in order to thrive post-pandemic. Giving young people a voice is the key element for co-creation element of this project.

This project will assess young people's levels of anxiety, depression, self-perceived loneliness, social trust, and their strengths and difficulties.

Project outline

1. Informed by the interviews and small focus groups that are conducted with young people, five bespoke student or expert led life skills workshops will be co-created. Islington Council, UCL students and experts in every stage of the design, production and planning of the workshops will be consulted to ensure that these co-created workshops will address the needs of young people of Islington. Potential workshops include:

improving coping skills and mental health
self-esteem, emotional regulation, confidence
aspirations for university and employment
identity, social trust, attachment
arts and mental health.

2. Working with Islington youth, Islington council and student assistants, the short- and long-term effects of what have worked for young people, what could be improved and what can be sustained and integrated into existing Islington programs, policies, practice and research will be evaluated. Dissemination & Reporting Findings from the study will be summarised and presented in creative outputs that are accessible to the public. These include an end-of-project animation, summary infographics, sound scape and online webinars.

Team

Principal Investigator

Dr Keri Wong - Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology, IOE

Co - Investigator

Siobhan Scantlebury – Head of Youth Progression, LB Islington

Student research assistants

Jasmine Lee (MSc in Child Development)
Işıl Baştuğ (Year 2, BSc Psychology with Education)
Jaime Leung (Year 3, BSc Psychology with Education)
Eoin Mulholland (Year 3, BSc Psychology with Education)

Outputs

Progress reports

Independent Sage Interviews - 26 March 2023

Other outputs

Presentation: Given by Jasmine Lee (student research assistant) at the British Psychological Society – Psychology and Education Section in Liverpool 14 September 2023
Poster Presentation: Study workshop poster presented by Hui Hai (In2Research Summer Research Assistant) at In2Research Celebration Day at The Royal Institute on 8 September 2023
UCL Innovation & Enterprise Case Study Feature