Education as therapy (Change Makers)

A collaboration between University of Bristol and young people’s mental health charity, Off The Record (OTR), this project will actively engage young people in the re-thinking of dominant approaches to mental health treatment and social change practice.

Offering participatory education as ‘therapy’, the researchers will co-design and deliver an intensive course in Summer 2018 on why and how to cultivate social and ecological justice as a mode of radical self-care.

Centering on social movement history, theory, and current practice, the summer school will encourage participants to reflect on the ways in which collective social actions and practicescan nourish those that enact them.

Drawing on Participatory Action Research methods, young people will collaborate on the design and evaluation of the project, co-producing a replicable toolkit that will offer a ‘new’ intervention delivering sustainable personal outcomes for young people as well as impacting on the wider social determinants of mental health.

Funded by ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.