A five-part blog series will be published in YouthLink Scotland’s fortnightly Youth Work Briefing, giving youth workers insight into the process of putting young people at the heart of a research project.
Over the last two years, YouthLink Scotland’s Senior Policy and Research Officer Amy Calder has been supporting young people from OPEN Project in Shetland to conduct research on issues that affect young people in their community.
With funding from the Ideas Fund, Amy worked alongside another professional researcher Jennifer Russell to help the young researchers develop research skills and confidence. The first year focused on exploring a youth space for young people, while the second year focused on the impact of alcohol and other drugs.
Reflecting on her research journey, one of the peer researchers, Shannon Boston, will be sharing her experience in a series of blogs over the coming weeks, offering a valuable insight into the process of getting a youth-led research project off the ground and the challenges along the way.
You’ll hear about the challenges of gathering data, how the team ensured young people’s voices were at the heart of the projects, the methods used for analysis and evaluation – and all the valuable support they received using a youth work approach!
In Shannon’s first blog – OPEN Project’s Youth-led Research Diary Part One: Finding a Place and Space – we get an up-close look at some digital tools you can use for gathering data, and how to ‘code’ responses as part of your analysis.
The five-part blog series will be published in YouthLink Scotland’s fortnightly Youth Work Briefing, starting on 19 September 2023. Sign up to the Youth Work Briefing.
If you want to know more about the OPEN Project's youth-led research, or have any other queries, please contact our Senior Policy and Research Officer Amy Calder.