Showcase Event Recap!
Stories from Strathclyde: Celebrating our Work with Children and Young People

💫 Making a real difference for children and young people at Strathclyde.

Thursday 15th May saw a special showcase event at the University of Strathclyde - ‘Stories from Strathclyde: Celebrating our work with children and young people’ - hosted by Professor Jennifer Davidson, Exec. Director of the Institute for Inspiring Children’s Futures, and Professor Carol Robinson, Professor of Children’s Rights, Strathclyde Institute of Education.

Opening remarks from Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, established the unique expertise within the Strathclyde community working with, and on behalf of, children and young people.

Professor Ann Skelton, outgoing Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, provided a keynote address reflecting on both progress and challenges to upholding children’s rights, and highlighted the potential of Strathclyde, and its partners, to continue to grow stronger in realising this.

A panel discussion of cross-faculty representatives then discussed examples of research in action, demonstrating the University’s impact on the lives of children and young people. Dr Tara Beattie (Faculty of Engineering), provided insights from the Malawi Adolescent Health and Well-being NIHR Project; Ms Claire Burns, Director, Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS) shared how CELCIS’ work is securing improvements in the lives and wellbeing of children in need of care and protection; and Dr Lisa McCann (Faculty of Computer and Information Sciences), showcased multidisciplinary examples from the Person-Centred Digital Health and Care Interventions project.

This discussion was followed by a Spotlight Panel from the Men Minds project, Chaired by Dr Nina Vaswani, Research Lead, Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ). This session featured the premiere of a short film created with young people involved in the project, which aims to increase understanding of young men’s mental health and improve access to mental health research. This was followed by a panel of the Men Minds young people’s forum, facilitated by Ms. Leyla Kerlaff, who reflected on their involvement in the project.

A final panel discussion focussed on the future of this work and the role of universities in advancing social justice for children through interdisciplinary partnerships with the public, private and third sectors, with insights from Ms Susanne Millar, Chief Executive, Glasgow City Council; Dr Jim McCormick, Chief Executive Officer, Robertson Trust; and Professor Alexis Jay CBE, Past Chair, Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse; Visiting Professor, University of Strathclyde.

Professor Ian Rivers, Associate Principal and Executive Dean, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, provided closing reflections, highlighting Strathclyde’s strong platform and partnerships which we will continue to build to ensure we make a real difference for children and young people.

Stay tuned on our landing site for upcoming news and events!