Children's Lives in Changing Places (CHiLL)

Understanding the changing significance of local places in young people’s lives in the context of social change

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, CHiLL is a participatory research project with young people aged 10-15 that seeks to understand the lives of children and young people growing up in less advantaged contexts to inform positive social change. The project is being undertaken as part of the Global Growing up in Cities project involving projects worldwide engaging young people in researching and improving their neighbourhood

The Open University in Woughton, Milton Keynes

We have been conducting research in Woughton, Milton Keynes. Wendy Turner and Debbie Humphry from the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) at the Open University, have been working closely with young people, community members and Woughton Community Council to understand young people’s experiences of their local neighbourhood, where and how they spend their free time and factors influencing that, how they value and use local spaces, their sense of place belonging, and the significance of local places (families, communities, local environment) in affecting young people’s wellbeing, life chances and their developing sense of active citizenship.

Young people from Woughton have worked as co-researchers, running workshops and conducting interviews themselves. The outcome is that they have developed a Wellbeing and Safety Pack, based on the research with the aim of making positive change. They created all content and artwork and here is the zine they have produced plus a list of all the useful contacts they think will help young people.