Senior Research Assistant in Community Wellbeing

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking a highly motivated, organised, and compassionate Research Assistant to join our team. You will support the delivery of a project aiming to develop the care system to include arts-based approaches in the support of people who experience homelessness (PEH). Specifically, you will focus on coordinating the delivery of five work packages, with two research fellows and a broader multidisciplinary team. You will organise workshops with many external organisations, regular team meetings, room bookings, catering and payments to individuals, as well as taking part in reporting and ensuring timely completion of tasks related to the five work packages. You will ensure that all ethical, risks and safeguarding procedures are rigorously followed. 

The role is part time (0.5FTE), fixed term until March 2027.  

Further information is available in the job description. 

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 therefore the successful candidate will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Funded by the UKRI, this project aims to grow the care system, so it includes creative health approaches and learns how to support people better. It will be led by people with experience of homelessness, and using participatory methods, will be organised in five work packages to:  

• Understand the impact of trauma on people’s experiences, their homelessness, and how they have been enabled to access support.
• Understand what creative approaches work, how and for whom.
• Develop a network of care services, to include creative health approaches, and encourage them and people who have been homeless, to learn from each other.
• Use creative approaches to challenge stigma around homelessness.
• Work with decision makers in the Northeast North Cumbria to ensure that services work together to prevent and tackle homelessness.  

ABOUT THE TEAM

Co-lead by Dr Christina Cooper and Professor Monique Lhussier, the research project will be delivered by a multidisciplinary team bringing together researchers from Northumbria University and Newcastle University, practitioners from statutory and voluntary services, decision makers, and Experts by Experience from across the Northeast and Cumbria area. The post will be working within the department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria University, and within the Centre for Health and Social Equity (CHASE). CHASE aims to enhance the role of Northumbria University as an anchor institution that has a purposeful and explicit impact on inequalities. It houses a flagship interdisciplinary centre which undertakes research, education, and knowledge exchange activities to promote health and social equity in the region and beyond. A core element of CHASE is the creation of a Community Engagement Hub. It cements already strong relationships with community partners and fosters an ethos of co-production to inform systematically our research questions and methods, dissemination, and impact. 

ABOUT YOU

Applicants should hold a PhD (or equivalent experience) in a relevant discipline. Knowledge of the contemporary debates and challenges relating to homelessness, creative health initiatives and multiple and complex needs is desirable. Evidence of project management experience is essential.  

Further information is available in the person specification.   

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, contact christina.a.cooper@northumbria.ac.uk. 

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