Beyond4Walls: Participatory Youth Research Project

The award-winning Beyond4Walls project was commissioned by the Wheatley Group in 2014 and delivered by Children in Scotland and The Poverty Alliance. The project took a participatory approach to understanding the needs of young people living in social housing in Glasgow and West Central Scotland.

One of the practical applications of Beyond4Walls was to develop Wheatley’s strategy. It also, however, highlighted the benefit of engaging with young people more widely.

The project worked with 12 young people aged 14-21 who had experience of social housing to conduct peer research. The research projects were to consider two key themes:

• Access to housing
• Tenancy sustainment

The project was split into two groups to conduct research. The older cluster carried out ethnographic research of a Wheatley tenancy. The approach recored the sights, sounds, feeling and emotions of the group through social media.

The younger cluster used a mixed method approach. They designed two surveys; one for young people and another for front line housing staff. They also used semi structured interviews, carried out focus groups with young people and recorded personal reflections of a community walkabout.

The report presents the findings of the peer research and makes a series recommendations to support young people transition into independent tenancies. In 2016 the project won a Housing Excellence Award for Youth Engagement.