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Peer Action Collective Programme
Pure Insight are excited to be working with the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), and the Young Foundation on their innovative Peer Action Collective (PAC) research and social action programme.
Young people will co-lead and co-produce every stage of the project including research design, analysis and delivery. We will also be creating and delivering social action to promote system change based on real experience and lived expertise.
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This project has two key parts:
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Research
We aim to gain in-depth insights into the lives of care-experienced young people aged 16-25 to understand how they are impacted by youth violence, as victims, perpetrators, or both.
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​Our research projects are:
​Project 1: 75 interviews / focus group sessions with care experienced young people aged 16-25
Our focus on this project, as decided by our 10 PAC leads, is understanding how familial, peer and professional relationships with adults and services can affect experiences of violence as young people leave the care system by researching real opinions and experience of care experienced young people.
Project 2: 350 focussed surveys with young care experienced people aged 16-25, in Autumn 2026. The focus of this is to be decided by our PAC leads.
Project 3: 75 follow-on interviews / focus group sessions with young care experienced people aged 16-25, over March and April 2027. Focus still to be decided by our PAC leads.
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Social action
Our PAC leads are passionate about taking the research and turning it into real and lasting action to support young people away from violence and crime. We will target work at a community, regional and national level with youth-led projects and resources, raising awareness of their research findings with the wider community and decision makers to create local change and inform recommendations on a national platform
The Youth Endowment Fund are particularly interested in the voices of young people who are often underrepresented and unheard. Pure Insight has strong links with care experienced people, expertise and understanding to work with them and improve real outcomes using real voices.
This provides a great opportunity for Pure Insight to be involved in a significant piece of research into youth violence, with tangible social action outcomes, and is a great way to further our work with Young People. We hope to offer meaningful and interesting roles with plenty of personal development, and the opportunity to take them to their next stage in life.
Pure Insight’s work is shaped and delivered by 10 Young People as PAC leads, with three core PAC leads working regular hours and 7 contributing significant work on an ad-hoc basis according to their skills and interests. They co-lead and work collaboratively with other Pure Insight staff.
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How can you help?
We need to recruit 50 Changemakers (YP aged 10-25) to help design and deliver social action) and 100 Social action participants (YP aged 10-25) to take place in social action). It’s going to be a busy two years, and we need your help! ​
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Phase 1 - Spring 2026
Research Project #1 – 75 participants interviewed - research designed, completed, and analysed.
Phase 2 - Late Spring / Summer 2026
Social Action Project #1 designed and delivered; celebration and interim forum.
Phase 3 - Late Autumn 2026 to early spring 2026
Research project #2 - 350 surveys launched, completed, analysed.
Phase 4 - Early to mid-2027
Social Action project #2 designed and delivered, celebration and conference
Phase 5 - Spring 2027
Research project #3 – 75 participants interviewed - research designed, completed and analysed.
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Phase 4 - Mid 2027
Social Action project #3 designed and delivered, celebration and conference
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For more information email PAC@pure-insight.org.uk, or complete our expression of interest form
Introducing our PAC project leads
Harriet, Research Lead
Harriet spent five years researching food insecurity, with her recent PhD researching young peoples’ access to food and their participation in food circuits of care. Her research focuses on amplifying under-represented voices through creative, participatory methods. Her additional work with Lancaster District Food Justice Partnership in front line community work, funding and partnership development, means she’s ideally placed to work with our PAC leads to ensure the highest levels of creativity in research, combined with rigour in process, and a satisfying first step into the world of sociological research and impact for our PAC leads and our participants. Harriet’s a trustee of Stanleys Community centre in Morecambe, a volunteer dog walker, and she enjoys baking in her spare time.
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Hal, Participation and Social Action Lead
Hal, Participation and Social Action Lead
Hal has a strong background in working with care leavers, having previously worked for Barnardo’s in Northern Ireland. His work has included leading the co-production of the Northern Ireland Care Leavers’ Manifesto alongside a team of care experienced young people. He also worked in projects with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people from a range of different backgrounds. With a masters in Developmental Psychology and strong professional experience Hal brings a truly collaborative approach to working. As a keen climber in his spare time, he is the perfect person to help our team to reach new heights!
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Helena, Community Development Manager
This project is overseen by Helena, Pure Insight’s Community development manager whose background in volunteering, community development and project work, combined with five years as a Pure Insight volunteer mentor (which she does in her spare time), completes the team.
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Helena, Hal and Harriet are joined by 10 PAC leads - people aged 18-25, who are care experienced and have experience of peer violence, either as perpetrators, victims or significant risk. The leads shape the whole project – deciding what questions to ask, how to ask them, and helping to recruit to the interviews as well as conducting them. They’ll also shape the Social Action part of our work – using the research to deliver projects and campaigns in our communities – we’ll recruit Changemakers to help and advise with this. In short, we’re amplifying the voices of our PAC leads by putting them in the driving seat to amplify the voices of another 500 other young people, and reach even more via social action!