‘Being Heard’ project - Call for evidence

The International Centre (IC): researching child sexual exploitation, violence and trafficking (University of Bedfordshire) in partnership with Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) are undertaking an international review of evidence relating to participatory methodologies used in research and consultation relating to sexual violence involving children and young people.

We are therefore seeking your assistance and would be grateful if you could forward us information about documents and/or related materials on participatory work with children and young people in research or consultation on sexual violence (or related subjects). This may include journal articles, conference papers or presentations, research reports, project reports, evaluations, websites and existing guides or toolkits - any resources providing examples of relevant methodologies and related insights. We are interested in English language material from low, middle and high income settings. All evidence included in the review will be fully cited.

Meanwhile, if you are aware of relevant work which has been undertaken (or is being undertaken) but is not yet published, the research team would also be pleased to hear from you.

In addition to the call for evidence, we will also undertake a number of key informant interviews and host a data gathering workshop at the SVRI Forum 2017, in Rio, 18th September 2017. Information on the workshop “Creating safe spaces to talk about unsafe relationships: “Developing guidance for children and young people’s participatory involvement in research about sexual violence” is available here. Further details on the interviews will be circulated later this year.

Key questions the review is seeking to address include:

•  How is participatory research with children and young people on sexual violence conceived and defined?
• What is/are the rationale(s) for children and young people’s participation in research addressing sexual violence?
• What strategies or approaches have been used to support children and young people’s participatory involvement in research addressing sexual violence?
• What challenges do researchers face when undertaking participatory research involving children and young people addressing sexual violence?
• What are the key ethical issues emerging from children and young people’s participatory involvement in research on sexual violence?
• What are the benefits of participatory research methods to developing knowledge and understanding for improved responses to and prevention of sexual violence globally?

Deadline: The deadline for the call for evidence is: 30th April 2017

Contact: To share examples of work or if you have any further questions about this work, please contact: Dr Silvie Bovarnick/ Silvie.bovarnick@beds.ac.uk 

Outputs: The research review aims to support the development of future guidance for researchers and a report on the findings from this review will be published in early 2018.