Self-documentation of youth research project                                

Youth Homelessness Research Initiative

(Manchester Young Researchers)

We are a group of young researchers, most of us members of Manchester                                        Youth Council. Nigel and Barry from the EU PARTISPACE project asked us if we wanted to do a project with them and we chose to do a project on the topic of youth homelessness because it is a priority that was democratically decided on in the youth council.

We were quite keen to do something as we wanted to have an impact on the community and this opportunity with the PARTISPACE project gave us the space to do that. Normally we work with the youth council so this was a new challenge.  

We came together and met to discuss what we could do about the issue of youth homelessness. We started by outlining key issues around youth homelessness and we found there was a lack of awareness about the issue and a lack of resources. We proposed different ways of doing the project and came to a consensus to create a documentary video and a pamphlet as educational resources to raise awareness as a way of tackling the issue. The idea of the pamphlet was because we felt the most important thing is to help young people take the first step and get off the street, so we put the pamphlet together to provide some information for where young people can go for support if they are homeless.

We filmed our meetings as we feel it is important to show the process we went through and what we learned and what we’ve experienced in doing the project. It provides a record of what we have done and how we reached decisions, but we also wanted the film to show about homelessness as a social issue.

We originally wanted to interview some more homeless young people, but we didn’t manage it, because we are all busy with other things like exams. If you are not doing this all the time 9 to 5, then life gets in the way.

We had some difficulties during the project where we froze for a bit. This was mainly down to not communicating very well. We had set up a facebook group chat for the project, but it didn’t really work very well; we didn’t keep communicating so consistency in commitment and motivation drifted. We have other things going on in our life and as we are not doing this 24/7 we lose focus due to other things going on. Then we come back together and realise what we have done wrong. But then the dynamic changed and more people got involved.

We edited the video ourselves and produced the pamphlets and were pleased with what we have done. But, we also learnt that youth homelessness is not something you can solve overnight. But we have found that you can do small things to make a big impact on people’s lives.

Some of the organisations we have talked to say they want some pamphlets to give out so young homeless people can take the first step and get off the street ..and it’s not just homelessness, it’s also anyone at risk of homelessness ..it’s invisible …

We plan to give the information pamphlets out to young people who are homeless as well as to organisations that work with the homeless. We can also give these to pastoral teams to give to young people showing signs of being at risk from becoming homeless. Often young people will go to people for help when they become homeless who don’t have the experience and perhaps don’t know what to do so we think these pamphlets will be useful. We will give them out then go back and see whether they found them useful.

We also want to talk to the Mayor Andy Burnham and other key city officials so we are going to set that up to tell them about what we have done and talk to them about what can be done to respond to youth homelessness.

The video we have done is the story of our journey of researching and learning and taking action in response to youth homelessness. But is also a resource that can be used for example in schools, youth clubs or colleges in workshops to discuss homelessness.

We have learned a lot from doing this project. First, that participation is a process and is about learning, a learning experience, finding out the best thing to do as we do it,  about the challenges and not meeting deadlines and how that affects things, keep on learning (ever learning) and solving problems as they come up

But the most important thing is how vital it is to have the space to do this .... interesting word ‘PARTISPACE’ – how important space is – having a regular place to meet … what would happen if we didn’t meet? It would work for a couple of minutes, then it would stop. Having objectives to achieve is good – if not, it takes the participation aspect away. Having a consistent venue is important – ensuring people are there and know what they are doing. One session we didn’t secure a venue ..and it messed up the rest of the work ..it affects consistency. In the youth council we meet every Monday and it maintains consistency, is something dependable. With the project there is money to  pay for a room, if we did it on our own it would be difficult to just get a place to meet which makes it difficult, to organise ourselves… If the room is paid for there is an obligation to come.

It has been good to have the space and the freedom to do our own project. We are passionate empowered young people trying to change the world ..self-belief and motivation is key .. and a shared vision and commitment, but having milestones and achievements – having a solid target as a group is important.

It has been slightly disjointed – we could have all helped more and played to our strengths more, but the communication did fall through which affected organising ourselves, we have the group chat but it is much better to communicate face to face rather than on social media.

We also learnt we don’t have to experience homelessness to solve it. There are different ways we can impact - e.g. as a pressure group .. there may be other groups that are more powerful because they have more resources and are connected –like insider and outsider groups – and we are an outsider group so we have to do what we can. But it is about recognising your strengths - we can become insiders in the council although we don’t want to play the game, we want to make a change.

One of the differences between what we have done here and what we do with the youth council is like we have the freedom … schools are about control, someone controlling all the time – here we are all friends so we can’t get mad with each other. But we got stuck … we had the freedom and then didn’t do it.

The youth council can sometimes be tokenistic – someone comes and puts an agenda up e.g. on climate change. We don’t have to think about funding, we take it for granted

Is important to have independence – is a learning curve.

There is like two extremes, some adults manipulate. But on the other extreme there is independence, but there is a difference between Independence in details and in wider issues, is different, independence has to be earned – have to develop the ability to use it … prove you can do it.

We have also learned more about participation. It is more complex and involved than what we thought at the start. We all reflected on what we had learnt about participation by each sharing 5 words about what we have learned about participation:

• Awareness, respect, communication, validity, youth
• Unity, objective, resources, vision, communication
• Engagement, learning, experience, motivation, cooperation, sense of purpose
• Active involvement in local community
• Making change, teamwork, making connections, networking, learning never ends
• Enlightening, cyclical, validity, faith (in humanity), commitment
• Time

These choices reflect the importance of learning and process, focusing on a quality of relationships and interactions as central to participatory practice for young people as active citizens.

We will continue work on youth homelessness and have come up with the following plan to take forward the work we have done.

1. Initiating a policy dialogue with the Mayor and key local officials, using the video to highlight the issue of youth homelessness and focus discussion

2. Circulating the pamphlets to organisations, schools and colleges that work with homeless young people or where young people may be at risk of becoming homeless to use as an educational resource and to try and reduce the likelihood of young people ending up on the streets.

3. Feeding back to youth workers in a regional meeting about the experiences of doing a youth-led project and how young people can be supported more through having more freedom to undertake projects.

4. Pursue possibilities for further developing work in response to youth homelessness in conjunction with the youth council

We have enjoyed a long and testing and enduring journey but we got there in the end!

Manchester Young Researchers, November 2017