We are excited to share the news that members of the SPRINT Project research team (Prof. Jenn Cumming, Dr Mary Quinton, and Dr Grace Tidmarsh) have been successful in receiving funding of £6.5k from two funds at the University of Birmingham: The Public Engagement Fund and the Life and Environmental Sciences Impact Urgency Fund.
The funding enhances the team’s capacity for public engagement as well as novel research within youth homelessness alongside our community partners St Basils. Keep reading below to learn more about what the team will be getting up to and how you can get involved.
Public engagement at The Exchange
After a successful pilot phase of the ‘Making home a place to be’ exhibition in 2022, the main exhibition will open in February 2023. The funding will support the team’s involvement and delivery of various public engagement activities that will be taking place alongside the exhibition. If you’re interested in coming along you can see the dates and times of the activities with more details on how to sign up coming soon.
Public lecture.
When: Wednesday March 15th 6-7.15pm.
What: The lecture will be delivered by a member of the SPRINT project team with special guest, St Basils CEO Jean Templeton, and will contain some interactive elements. This public lecture will cover the work of St Basils across the West Midlands as well as how sport psychology supported the wellbeing and positive outcomes of young people experiencing homelessness through the My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) programme.
Family friendly activity.
When: Friday 2nd of June
What: This will be a fun and interactive activity inspired by the MST4Life™ programme and MST Toolkits. and is suitable for everyone including families. Work together as a team to overcome a challenge and learn about your strengths in the process.
Exploring home through poetry.
When: Wednesday 7th June 6-8pm
What: This unique workshop will be led by an experienced poet and help you to consider the different experiences of home whilst guiding you to create a poem about what home means to you. There will also be some guests from St Basils youth advisory group supporting with the workshop.
We hope to see you soon at one (or more!) of these events at The Exchange in Birmingham, UK, with more details on how to sign up coming soon.
Next steps for our research with St Basils
The funding success continues to support the important work we do with St Basils to continue improving outcomes for young people experiencing homelessness across the West Midlands. Current work involves the development of a bespoke tool that measures soft outcomes in young people accessing the new Transition Hub service at St Basils. This unique and collaborative research with young people and staff at St Basils will help to understand the development that takes place as young people progress towards independence.
Thank you to the funders for these new grant successes. We look forward to keeping you updated as these projects continue to progress. To keep up to date don't forget to sign up to our blog. If there are any activities you are looking forward to let us know below in the comments.
Written by Dr Grace Tidmarsh, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Teaching Fellow in sport psychology and mental health at The University of Birmingham. Grace has been leading the team’s involvement in The Exchange exhibition alongside her postdoctoral research working with St Basils.
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