Mapping the Margins

Mapping the Margins: Exploring young people’s wellbeing and experiences of racism and discrimination

Good health and wellbeing are key to living a happy and successful life. For young people this is particularly important as they grow into adulthood. However, there are signs that young people’s health and wellbeing is getting worse. In 2022, around 1 in 4 young adults had a mental health issue – which was previously 1 in 6 the year before. Where we are born, grow up, live, work, and age all affect our health. We know that racism and discrimination also impacts young people’s health. To tackle these problems, we need to better understand how racism and discrimination affects young people’s lives.

About the Research Project

The Race Equality Foundation and City, St George’s University of London are looking to better understand the experiences of racism and discrimination among young people from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic backgrounds (aged 16-25). We’re focusing on two specific groups: young Black men with experience in the care system, and young South Asian women with physical disabilities. These groups are often overlooked, but their insights can help us understand how they interact with different services and systems. While we’re focusing on these groups, we expect their experiences to reflect broader issues for many racially minoritised young people.

We want to work collaboratively with young people themselves by supporting them to be researchers and using photography and running workshops to explore important issues. At the end of the project, we’ll share our findings and explore the next steps for further research to put ideas into action.

This project will run from November 2024 to January 2026.

Meet the Research Team

The project 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.

We also have a group of co-investigators who will help 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), as well two peer researchers Srishti Pandey and Jonathan Bekantoy.

Get Involved!

Participants will engage in six workshops that will use creative methods such as photography to capture their lived experiences. The workshops will be facilitated by a small and warm team of young people themselves!

Participants will receive gift cards and reasonable travel allowance for each session.

If you are a young person interested in taking part in our Photovoice workshops this summer, please sign up here.

View the call for participants poster here.