Mapping the Margins

Mapping the Margins: What Art Has Revealed About Young People’s Wellbeing and Experiences of Racism and Discrimination

Good health and wellbeing are key to living a happy and successful life, however, there are signs that young people’s health and wellbeing is getting worse. For Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic young people, racism and discrimination is also worsening the issues they face as they approach adulthood. .

To tackle the issues faced by racialised young people, we need to better understand how racism and discrimination affects young people’s lives.

About the Research Project

Mapping the Margins has explored how racism impacts the health and wellbeing of young ethnically minoritised people, and in particular young Black men with care experience and South Asian Disabled women. There is a lack of research about the impact of racism and discrimination on the health and wellbeing of young ethnic minoritised people, and in particular, for these two groups.

While we specifically consulted young Black men with care experience and South Asian Disabled women, their insights and experiences have helped us understand broader issues for many racially minoritised young people.

Using Creativity to Explore Shared Experience

From October 2025 to December 2025, peer researchers and creative agency Resolve conducted a series of workshops with young people to explore themes central to their health and wellbeing. Using a participatory, art-based research method, workshops facilitated the exploration of themes important to young people such as safe spaces, relationships, enablers and barriers to healthcare, mental health and more.

Young people created different mediums of art based on their lived experiences which will be available to view at our upcoming exhibition in March 2026.

Outputs: Exhibition and Zine

The creative outputs of workshops will be shared with the public at our upcoming launch event and exhibition.

Launch event

Date: Thursday 12th March 2026

Time: 4:30pm – 7:00pm

Location: 37 Greenwood Place, London NW5 1LB

What to expect:

A presentation of the research findings
An exhibition of the young people’s creative work, including maps and models
A panel discussion around the key themes of the project
Refreshments (including vegetarian options)

Register for your free ticket (limited spaces, first come first served)

The exhibition will be available to view from Thursday 12th March until 17th March 2026.

Accessibility: The venue at 37 Greenwood Place is fully accessible with:

Step-free access
Accessible toilets

If you have specific access needs, please contact us when registering or email Jonathan or Srishti and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

Meet the Research Team

Mapping the Margins is co-led by Jabeer Butt, CEO of the Race Equality Foundation, and Dr Anita Mehay, Senior Research Fellow, at City St George’s, University of London. Integral to its delivery were peer researchers based at the Foundation, Srishti Pandey and Jonathan Bekantoy, and creative agency Resolve, and the young participants without whom the projects insights and outputs would not have materialised. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us and co-producing this project.

A group of co-investigators also helped guide the project. This includes Dr Sabrina Germain (City St George’s, University London), Leandra Box (Race Equality Foundation) and two young co-investigators, Kaynath Rahman, Deshawn Sterling, representatives from two community organisations, the Asian People’s Disability Alliance (Zeenat Jawa) and Prospex (Fabrice Yala).

Preview

For a preview of some of the project insights, please read Jonathan Bekantoy’s blog, Black Care Leavers on Support, Care Services and Racial Identity.

Contact information

For more information about the launch event or the Mapping the Margins project:

Srishti Pandey: srishti@racefound.org.uk

Jonathan Bekantoy: jonathan@racefound.org.uk