Blog: Investigating youth violence in the Solent region as a Peer Researcher

The Peer Action Collective is a national programme of research into the causes of youth violence, led by young people themselves.

In the South East, 13 Peer Researchers have been interviewing other young people to discover their experiences of youth violence in the Solent region, guided by a consortium of three regional youth organisations – Artswork, Unloc, and Youth Options

Here Sarah Slough, one of our Peer Researchers, talks about her experience so far:

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started as a Peer Researcher in the spring of 2022 – I had just finished a different role with Artswork and, eager for some sense of direction, I jumped on this chance rather quickly. Once I got started, though, it became clear that this was going to be a valuable piece of research on a topic that deserves much more attention: youth violence.

One of the first things we needed to do was figure out what questions we wanted to ask. We would be interviewing a range of young people in the Hampshire area – what did we want to know? What questions would give us the best insight into their thoughts and potentially their experiences with youth violence? We split into three work groups, one for each specific topic: policing and causes of youth violence, the effect of youth violence on local communities, and the impact of social media. With the topics decided, we came up with and refined the questions we intended to ask in the interviews.

Our interviewees were aged 10 to 20, which allowed us to hear a variety of perspectives from young people. We found participants from a range of places too, such as schools and youth clubs. Some interviewed friends and family members as well. Examples of some of our group’s questions included asking about their understanding of youth violence, whether they had seen violence in their area, and whether or not they felt they had a good support network. Some respondents were unsure of what exactly the phrase ‘youth violence’ meant. Others understood it as violence between or against young people. Several had unfortunately witnessed violence in their local areas and in their schools. Quite a few indicated that they did not think the police have enough awareness of mental health issues; one respondent even stated that they believe the police “prey on the mentally ill.” Another troubling finding was that in general, the participants’ schools were not doing enough to combat bullying:

“I think with bullying, schools try to deal with it and they say “oh, just say sorry” but the problem is still there. They’re not actually stopping anything.”

Another example is the response to being asked if respondents to our surveys thought there was enough safeguarding to protect young people online.

Responses to ‘Do you think there is enough safeguarding to protect young people online?’

Once we had analysed our data and discussed our findings, we were able to write a report detailing our methods and what we had found. Then we were ready to present our findings. This was done at a conference at the Portsmouth Guildhall, where several members of the team spoke about the results of the research and how young people need to be better supported, including in schools and on social media. This presentation was well received, and afterwards we had the opportunity to chat with members of the local community about our research. Find out more about the research presented at Portsmouth Guildhall here

Our next chance to present our findings will be at a conference in Liverpool, where we will be talking with other research groups and policy makers, hopefully helping them to gain insight into what needs to be done to prevent youth violence in the future. There is plenty of work to be done going forward in order to support young people, but this feels like a step in the right direction. If we keep listening to young people about what they need, we can make communities safer for them.

The Peer Action Collective (PAC) is a national network of young people, funded by the #iwill Fund, Youth Endowment Fund, and the Co-op, and from this we have partnered with Unloc and Youth Options. There are more than 120 peer researchers across England and Wales, and a total of 10 regional Peer Action Collectives. In the South East, Artswork have brought together young people from Portsmouth, Southampton and Eastleigh areas as part of consortium with Unloc and Youth Options. 

Tags:

Blog Hampshire Peer Action Collective Solent Young people's blogs Youth Blog youth violence