Creativity, Community and Resilience

Creativity, Community & Resilience investigates how community belonging can improve liveability, build collective resilience, and support trans and gender diverse (TGD) young people’s wellbeing.

A collaborative project between the Universities of Southampton, Brighton, and Glasgow and community partners in the LGBTQ+ youth sector, it is the first UK research project to adopt a youth and community-led co-creative approach to better understand the issues around community belonging. It breaks new ground, methodologically and epistemologically, and foregrounds aspects of TGD young people’s lives that are drastically underrepresented in research.

Led from the University of Southampton by Professor Olu Jenzen (formerly of the University of Brighton), it proposes an ambitious programme to address the challenge presented by the 'spiral of exclusion and marginalisation' (United Nations, 2023) faced by TGD young people in the UK.

It will centre qualitative research methods via Participatory Action Research and creative methods and will co-produce knowledge on the community assets that sustain TGD wellbeing and efforts to secure human rights.

It resonates with the University of Brighton's core values, coproducing research with local LGBTQ+ youth groups, sharing interdisciplinary knowledge and aligning with both the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender, and the Understanding Childhood and Adolescence Research Excellence Group.