Centre for Social Action

Associate Research Assistants

The ARA have worked with us for some months now and for us at the Centre for Social Action the employment of young people as ARA’s is a real development - having young people involved in the work the centre does is extremely important; it is integral to everything that we do.

Young people have the right to be involved in issues facing them and have the right to take action on their own behalf and the centre helps facilitate this. We have worked with young people on research projects before but this will be the first time any have been employed directly by DMU.

We hope that by having young people employed at the university it will improve the quality of research and build on 30 years of participative work. Here is a short video of Harrison talking about the experience of being an ARA with the Centre

Harrison Carter, Associate Research Assistant – video

After the success s of working with 5 young people as Associate research Assistants last year (2009/10) we had a second round of recruitment in July 2010. for the coming year we have 6 young people in post - Harrison Carter, Iman Dalenius, Mayuri Chudasama, Pritesh Nathubhai, Ruth Taylor and Susie Dobson to work as research staff on a number of projects and training contracts.

Currently we have the opportunity to include ARA in our team of evaluators or the Howard league’s U R Boss project and the evaluation of the People and Places programme (British Museum Strategic Commissioning Programme funded by the DCMS and the DCSF). It is also anticipated that further similar opportunities will arise in the course of the next 12 months.

What the Associate research Assistants say about their work with Centre for Social Action

“Being an Associate Research Assistant is a fun, challenging and extremely rewarding job unlike anything I've done before. When I first started working with Centre for Social Action at De Montfort University I was unsure what to expect and felt extremely unequipped to do my job.

However, everyone you work with is really friendly and willing to help out in just about any way. The training weekend lets you know more about what you can expect to be doing, who you will be working with and what is expected from you as an ARA. Working alongside people of different ages who had much more experience than me was at first daunting, but I soon came to realise that I have just as much to offer and learn as everyone else and that if we all help each other along we can make a great team.

It is a very challenging job, putting you in situations that may normally be out of your comfort zone, but doing it with all the support you could expect and need. I've learnt more on this job than I ever would have imagined and have gained knowledge and experience that will last me my life. It's been especially interesting to see how research takes place from start to finish and how many different ideas and important points people can come up with when you throw young people into the mix.

No one is ever made to feel stupid for not knowing something and whatever background you're from, or whatever previous experience you have in research, you can always offer something more to the table. It's been a great experience and one I would definitely recommend.” Susie Dobson

“One of the rights of children is to be fairly represented and going to the organisations that work with young people, it was important that there were young people on the research team. There needs to be a researcher there who is a young person. Young people bring a different light to research. There is a certain stigma of what a researcher looks like and for us to go to the organisations not looking like that stereotypical researcher for young people is important. It is positive and uplifting for them”. Harrison Carter