Research Assistant, Year 3 UCL BSc Psychology with Education Empower Islington Project
Eoin Mulholland
The EMPOWER team has been hard at work since our last blog post – there is so much exciting news to share!
For the past few months, we have continued to interview many young people aged 14 to 25 years from across the borough of Islington. One of the stops was Mary’s Community Centre. It served as a very welcoming and relaxed environment – perfect for getting to hear about the needs of young people and how we can EMPOWER them. We conducted interviews and focus groups in-person and online, working flexibly around participant’s schedules. Over these weeks, we had so many fruitful discussions with the young people. We were impressed by the sincerity of their interviews and the collaboration they demonstrated during the focus groups.
The next stage in the study was analysing all the information we had gathered from our participants with the aim of bringing it to life in the form of workshops. All of our interviews and focus groups were transcribed. Jasmine undertook the all-important task of identifying themes that were prevalent throughout these transcriptions, turning them into codes, and training other coders to analyse the transcripts. In total, there were over 50 codes – highlighting the incredibly detailed responses of our young, yet mature participants. We came together to calculate our inter-rater reliability, a measurement used to check for consistency and agreement in how responses were coded. On our first try, we managed to demonstrate a good inter-rater reliability score – a testament to the harmony within the team! This was an important step in ensuring that everyone in the team would code consistently in the same way. Finally, we were able to settle on the themes for our five workshops – the areas that young people have said they would more like support in These are:
Discover the power of storytelling through our special guest speakers. You’ll hear about poetry, podcasts and improvisation can help you channel your feelings and experiences!
A workshop focused on increasing physical health, self-confidence and body positivity. Learn healthy ways of coping with your emotions and develop confidence in yourself!
Explore how music and the arts can improve both your mental health and wellbeing! Meet successful musicians and artists to learn how you can pursue similar careers!
Understand how you can forge a career path by acquiring the necessary skills. You will also learn about other opportunities, including the UCL Summer Schools!
Join us as we examine the importance of sleep and how you can maximise your mental capacity by improving sleep habits.
These different workshops encapsulate the support needs our participants spoke of. Coming out of the pandemic, our young people faced numerous challenges – academically, physically and mentally. Common themes that emerged from our work included isolation, falling behind on school work and having a lack of direction. These five workshops have been tailored to cater for young people’s specific needs, with a variety of engaging activities planned to appeal to our diverse group of young people. Stay tuned for more updates on our workshops by following our social media:
*We were LIVE* We also had an amazing opportunity to appear on Independent SAGE’s Friday briefing livestream to share our own lived experiences as young people going through the Covid-19 pandemic. The team spoke passionately of their own experiences during COVID, while also exploring the effects the pandemic had on young people, linking in existing findings from the Empower-Islington and on the CopeWell Study. This session gave an important platform to voices that have gone largely unheard in the aftermath of the pandemic. The team hopes to continue sharing our findings, while also empowering others to share their stories from COVID. A massive thank you to Independent SAGE for the opportunity! You can check out the livestream recording by clicking here.
“Being able to speak on Indie_SAGE was such a wonderful experience. While it was quite daunting, the team did a fantastic job in sharing our findings from our research and spoke passionately of their own experiences during COVID. We are proud to be at the forefront of sharing young people’s experiences of COVID and look forward to continuing our commitment to young people in the future!” Eoin
Eoin, Research Assistant on Empower Islington Project, Year 3 UCL BSc Psychology with Education
Finally, Jasmine and our Keri (PI) have been working diligently on writing a paper entitled: “The mental health inequalities, challenges, and support needs during Covid-19: a qualitative study of 14-25-year-olds in London”. Following on from our data collection, the interviews and focus groups were thematically analysed to understand the lived experiences and support needs of young people during Covid-19. The paper highlights the sustained inequalities and deprivation young people face 4 years on that are largely not discussed. It argues for the introduction of co-produced support to best address the needs of young people as they continue to navigate tough challenges each day.
‘A rather unexpected finding was the experience of study participation. Participants expressed appreciation in just ‘talking about their Covid-19 experiences’ – many for the first time – and to brainstorm ways in which support needs could be met – as they felt heard and understood. This highlights the importance of co-produced research on Covid-19 but also of involving adolescents in the centre of future pandemic prevention planning (OECD, 2022) and rebuilding of communities, particularly those living with inequalities and disabilities (Baird et al., 2023).’
EMPOWER-Islington 
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