Institute for Social Justice
Previous projects
Previous projects funded by our community research grants are listed on this page.
In 2023-24 our projects were:
- Listening to community perspectives of forced migrants: Engaging refugees and asylum seekers in service design, with Give a Gift
- Community led tourism in York, with Good Organisation (Social Ventures) CIC
- Reimagining Door 84 through youth and community participatory research and co-creation, with Door 84 Youth and Community Centre
- Men's suicide prevention impact and evaluation project, with Menfulness
- Foregrounding the experiences of neurodivergent learners and educators, with Spectrum First Education Ltd
- Mapping Tadcaster's sustainable skills: Community generated knowledge and skills for a more sustainable future, with Tadcrafters CIC
- Using arts-based methods to build participant-led evaluation for Under the Stars, with Under the Stars
- Exploring music business, diversity and networks within East London's music ecology, with True Cadence
2022-2023 projects:
Listening to community perspectives of forced migrants: Engaging refugees and asylum seekers in service design
VCSE Partner: Give a Gift
York St John Researchers: Raphaela Berding-Barwick
Refugees and asylum seekers are often seen as objects, or passive recipients of support, rather than active and equal members in our communities.
This project explores how inequalities in health and wellbeing for refugees and asylum seekers can be addressed through involving them in service design and delivery. It will provide valuable insight into how culturally appropriate practices can be developed to address inequalities in health and wellbeing for refugees and asylum seekers, a group which experiences various forms of hostilities and is often silenced.
Download the report: Listening to community perspectives (PDF, 2 MB)
Community led tourism in York
VCSE Partner: Good Organisation (Social Ventures) CIC
York St John Researchers: Dr Brendan Paddison, Dr Jenny Hall and Dan Crawforth
The Good Organisation are seeking deeper insight into the disconnect between York city's most marginalised communities and the positive benefits of heritage-based tourism.
The project will map and analyse examples of community-led tourism initiatives, both in York and elsewhere, which could potentially be replicated locally or across similar destinations throughout the UK, and identify how community led solutions can act as catalysts for positive change in the context of sustainable tourism destination development.
Reimagining Door 84 through youth and community participatory research and co-creation
VCSE Partner: Door 84 Youth and Community Centre
York St John Researchers: Dr Amy Holmes, Professor Tom Dobson and Dr Charlotte Haines Lyon
Through participatory methods and co-creation, this research aims to empower Door 84 users and wider community members to redesign the physical spaces of Door 84. In doing so, the project also aims to contribute to the research literature on youth and community participatory research and co-creation to understand the benefits of using collaborative methods to work with these groups.
Men's suicide prevention impact and evaluation project
VCSE Partner: Menfulness
York St John Researchers: Dr Gary Shepherd
Menfulness offer online and offline support groups to men of a particular social group at greater risk of suicide.
The aim of this research is to provide Menfulness with information on the attitudes, opinions and insights of their service users, their volunteers and their funding partners. A service evaluation is important as the Menfulness service is growing rapidly and widening its provision.
To read our July 2024 Menfulness Evaluation of Service report, visit our Reports page.
Foregrounding the experiences of neurodivergent learners and educators, with Spectrum First Education Ltd
VCSE Partner: Spectrum First Education Ltd
York St John Researchers: Dr Lorna Hamilton and Dr Stephanie Petty
Spectrum First Education Ltd and researchers in Psychology at York St John University are working in partnership to understand and improve the experiences of neurodivergent students in higher education. Using a combination of on-campus installations and online forums, the project team aim to map zones of best practice across campus.
Findings from this project will be used to inform training for universities with the aim of promoting practical and implementable whole-systems approaches to supporting neurodivergent students to thrive at university.
Mapping Tadcaster's sustainable skills: Community generated knowledge and skills for a more sustainable future
VCSE Partner: Tadcrafters CIC
York St John Researchers: Dr Vicki Pugh and Dr Tom Ratcliffe
Sustainable Tadcaster is a newly formed coalition of residents, led by a steering group which includes members of 3 VCSE organisations: Tadcrafters CIC, Tadcaster and Rural CIC, and Zero Waste Leeds.
The focus of this research is to facilitate and investigate the Tadcaster community as equal partners in the co-production of sustainable initiatives. For Sustainable Tadcaster, tangible insight into the community's skills and actions in relation to practices that may be deemed 'sustainable' and how these are connected will be crucial to the group's next stages of engagement.
Using arts-based methods to build participant-led evaluation for Under the Stars
VCSE Partner: Under the Stars
York St John Researchers: Dr Kelsie Acton
Under the Stars (UtS) uses creativity and the performing arts to enhance the lives of people with learning disabilities and/or autism. This project aims to investigate the varied reasons that people attend sessions and the value they place on what they do at UtS.
The research will use this data to develop an evaluation framework that ensures UtS are monitoring the quality of their work from the viewpoint of their participants and artists, and using techniques that are accessible, creative and meaningful.
Exploring music business, diversity and networks within East London's music ecology
VCSE Partner: True Cadence
York St John Researchers: Dr Zheng Chai and Dr Jo Gibson
This project is focussed on growing music opportunities for young people in Barking and Dagenham, London.
It aims to better understand the borough’s position within East London’s music ecology by 1) mapping local music activity and networks, 2) asking young people what they think about music provisions in the borough and what, if anything is needed, and 3) considering the extent to which True Cadence’s organisational structure supports its aims.
2022 to 2023 projects
Health inequalities and rurality: an exploratory case study of North Yorkshire
VCSE Partner: Healthwatch North Yorkshire
York St John Researchers: Sarah Baker and Mark Mierzwinski
The purpose of this project was to examine the relationship between rurality and health and social care services. The aim of this project was to determine if it is necessary to categorise rurality as a geographical factor when addressing rising levels of health inequalities.
Benefits will be primarily driven through Healthwatch North Yorkshire's information sharing, championing and campaigning work.
Investigating the role of peer support in recovery from drug and alcohol misuse
VCSE Partner: York in Recovery
York St John Researchers: Nick Rowe and Converge Evaluation Research Team
Support from peers is a key element of recovery from drug and/or alcohol misuse. It features in the approaches of established organisations such as AA and Changing Lives. York in Recovery complements the work of these organisations offering a more informal peer support model.
The aim of this research was to understand the perceptions and experiences of those who attend meetings and to gain a clearer understanding of the role it plays in the wider recovery community.
To find out more read a blog post about this project: Researching peer support in recovery from drug and alcohol misuse.
Disability Access to Bluespaces
VCSE Partner: Open Country
York St John Researchers: Catherine Heinemeyer
The right to swim, or otherwise enjoy 'blue spaces' (lakes, seas, lidos reservoirs and rivers), is far less well established than the right to roam in the UK, because of pollution as well as land and watercourse ownership. These obstacles are multiplied in the case of disabled people, whose access to blue spaces for open water swimming, kayaking, sailing and other outdoor water-based activities is limited by numerous physical barriers.
The project worked with Open Country, a Yorkshire-based charity promoting and facilitating disabled people's access to the countryside, to investigate and address some of these barriers.
To find out more, read the 'Disability Access to Bluespaces' report on our Reports page.
Project video
This short film shares the learning from the research project. York St John researchers consulted both disabled people and accessible watersports charities about the value of, and barriers to, access to open water for swimming, boating, kayaking and more. Poet and wild swimmer Kate Fox shaped their contributions into an evocative poem.
York Archaeological Trust – Diversification of visitors and organisation
VCSE Partner: York Archaeological Trust
York St John Researchers: Brendan Paddison, Jenny Hall, Tom Ratcliffe, Rebecca Biggins, Artemis Alexiou
York Archaeological Trust (YAT) is seeking to develop a better understanding of the social and cultural diversity of its audience. YAT is particularly keen to enhance audience diversity in terms of ethnicity, disability, social mobility, age, gender, LGBTQ+ and faith.
This project explored how York Archaeological Trust can build diversity into its museum programming and community work.
Public sexual harm of women and girls: The dancefloor project
VCSE Partner: Bolshee CIC
YSJ Researchers: Anna Macklin, Jenn Cassarly, Melanie Douglass
This project focused on young women's lived experiences of sexual harm in public spaces and their perceptions of barriers to public safety. An art installation consisting of a dancefloor experience was produced, designed to elicit women's experiences of sexual harm, barriers to safety, and testimonials of how they want to be treated in public spaces.
Based on the data collected, a range of resources were produced to highlight experiences of sexual harm and how women want to be treated in public spaces.
To find out more read a blog post about this project: The Dancefloor Project: An art and psychology collaboration.
Download the report: Dancefloor report (PDF, 4.9 MB)
Researching anti-racism practices in York
VCSE Partner: Inclusive Equal Rights UK
York St John Researchers: Steven Hirschler, Anna Waistnage, Cintia Silva Huxter
The aim of this research was to support IERUK's development of an anti-racism and inclusion strategy and action due to be submitted to the City of York council in February 2023. This research illuminated the extent to which ethnic minority groups within York are exposed to racism and discrimination in the areas of education, healthcare and policing to facilitate the production of a comprehensive, evidence-based anti-racism and inclusion strategy.
The working relationship between IERUK and York St John University researchers covered a range of research activities (both qualitative and quantitative) in a collaborative fashion.