Christie Garner

• Race and ethnicity
• Ethnic minority studies
• Childhood and youth studies
• Social Policy and practice
• Co-production and community research
• Qualitative Research

Thesis: Giving voice to children in family-centred work: co-producing an evaluation framework for the Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities parenting programme

My project is interdisciplinary, drawing on theory and methods from social policy, sociology, psychology and public health.

I have a collaborative partnership award with the Race Equality Foundation (REF), a third sector organisation promoting race equality in social support, policy and public services.

I will be using participatory action research approaches to explore experiences of Strengthening Families Strengthening Communities (SFSC) from the perspective of children and young people (CYP); and developing an evaluation framework to give voice to CYP in this field.

SFSC is an inclusive parenting programme developed and delivered by REF. However, it is increasingly recognised that professionals and parents have dominated the articulation of programme goals and outcomes.

If such programmes are to benefit whole families, there is a need for CYP to be meaningfully engaged in their design, delivery and evaluation. SFSC is an ideal programme to explore and develop the involvement of CYP in parenting and family support initiatives.

Unlike many interventions, SFSC is not therapeutic or deficit based, and successfully engages parents who feel marginalised or stigmatised by mainstream services, such as minority communities and those experiencing deprivation.