Innovator : Dr Kelly Fagan Robinson, Social Anthropology & ABC
Website: Anthropology by Children (ABC)
Dr. Robinson is developing and trialling a methodological programme aimed at improving individual decision-making in a range of contexts including local government, families, medical care and education.
The goal of the “Anthropology by Communities” and “Anthropology by Children” approach is to train up young people and “less listened to” groups to better identify, communicate what they value and what they need to change.
Using learning from 3-years of pilots in London, Cambridgeshire, Italy and Nepal, ABC aims to deploy Dr Robinson’s novel youth-led, citizen social science research programme to generate significant shifts in understanding about the needs of the UK’s least-listened-to young people including those with disabliites, neurodiversities, in-Care, excluded from education or ‘recently-arrived’/refugee status.
Dr Robinson developed ABC in response to what educators and wellbeing officers in Islington identified as their key issue: children and young people’s declining mental health and wellbeing. ABC has been piloted in schools with children and young adults aged 9-22yrs in a variety of contexts including in-school health and relationships teaching; for young people with SENDs (special educational needs and disabilities) mapping ‘safe spaces’; and for people who have experienced street violence. Issues covered in the pilots ranged from healthcare to climate anxiety, from lack of safe spaces and decline in the built environment to issues that arise from lack of familial and/or social support.
The ultimate goal is to develop a whole systems approach to healthcare, helping the people affected to identify changes that would actually make a difference to their daily lives in an accessible and realistic way. ABC will first make changes micro-locally, but using spoke-and-wheel approaches that facilitate UK-wide implementation.
The approach recognises that it is not as simple as asking people what they want, because it is difficult to imagine a solution that you have never seen. Instead, a co-creation and age-appropriate approach is used to help children, young people and communities tell their stories and capture the richness and complexity of their lived experiences.
The question for the i-Team is to investigate where and who to work with in this way. to maximise the takeup of the approach as well as its long-term impact. Are there relevant charities or other organisations who would be interested in taking this work forward, and where are the communities of greatest need.