The proposed User Fellowship, will entail a collaboration between Udi Butler and Marcelo Princeswal, a researcher working at CIESPI (International Centre for the Research on Childhood) an action research NGO affiliated to Rio de Janeiro's PUC University, which is part of Childwatch an international network of researchers concerned with childhood and youth rights and social justice. CIESPI has been working with the Parallel lives, different worlds project and the fellowship will cement this relationship ensuring that both parties have the resources to work together in the final phase of the project. This will involve creating user-group-relevant products based on the research including collaborating with a group of young people active in Rio de Janeiro's civil society. As such the fellowship allows for a dual collaboration - with CIESPI, a key action-research organization in the field of childhood and youth - and with a group of about 10 young people active in different organizations, groups and social movements in the city.
Associated NGPA research project
Butler, Parallel lives, different worlds: citizenship and public action in Rio de Janeiro|
Project dates
July 2006 to April 2007
Products
This collaboration envisages the creation of the following products:
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A summary report, in both English and Portuguese, for NGOs, social movements and government agencies working with young people, around issues of youth participation raised in the research.
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For local NGOs the collaboration will also create a toolkit dealing with issues of youth participation.
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Website section on youth participation for the CIESPI website.
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With the target group of young people themselves in mind, we will also create a product (such as a video or magazine, or radio programme) which will be decided by the group of young people themselves. As such, this will entail holding workshops with young people around the issues raised in the research as well as reflecting on their own trajectories of participation and how these may be useful to other young people.
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The above products will be launched in an event in Rio de Janeiro where young people, organizations who participated in the research, as well as others working with young people, community representatives and the media will be invited.
Added value
CIESPI is in a privileged position to be able to collaborate with this NGPA project and it also has much to gain from this partnership. Having over 20 years of experience of research in the area of childhood and youth and emphasizing how such research can be put into action both at a local community level as well as in influencing policy, CIESPI has much to contribute to the Parallel lives, different worlds research project which also holds these goals dear. CIESPI has recently been moving its focus towards the themes of youth and of participation, having just finished collaborating with a major international project on children's and young people's perceptions of citizenship as part of the Childwatch network and with other projects being created in this area. As such the present project will offer the organization many insights. The other benefit to CIESPI is the concern of the present project to find novel ways of engaging with user groups and disseminating research findings. Having worked with Udi Butler in the past on a research project on children living on the streets of Rio, where a publication aimed at young people themselves was produced (and a second edition of this book has just come out) we feel that such collaborations enrich the possibilities of reaching out to wider society and making research relevant, which is central to CIESPI.
Programme of work
The fellowship collaboration is to take place between the months of May and July 2006. Over these months Marcelo, and one other paid researcher, as well as others from CIESPI, will participate in the process of creating the above products as well as in the analysis of the data from the research. Discussions will be held regularly at CIESPI and an internal seminar with the whole CIESPI team as well as invited guests will take place as a forerun to writing a report of the research. Marcelo and other members of CIESPI will also be jointly designing with Udi a tool kit on participation for NGOs and organizations working with young people. The CIESPI team will also be crucial in organizing the event for the launch of these products, having much experience in this area as well as having very broad network of contacts in civil society and community organizations as well as the media and academia. Further, CIESPI has been re-creating its website and is focussing increasingly on the potential of disseminating action-research resources through the Internet. The current project will provide good material to be included here.