The Young Life and Times survey is a research project that aims to document the opinions and attitudes of 16-year-olds residing in Northern Ireland about important issues that impact their lives. The survey is a vital tool for gaining insights into the thoughts and behaviors of this demographic group, and it has been conducted annually for several years now. The 2023 Young Life and Times survey is set to commence at the end of March, and approximately 5,700 sixteen-year-olds have been selected to participate. Topics covered include:

• Good relations
• Community safety
• Mental health
• Sport and Physical activity
• Attitudes towards gender-based violence

Find out more

The upcoming event titled Poverty in Northern Ireland: Where are we now? will provide an opportunity to honour Professor Eileen Evason's work while assessing progress made to reduce poverty rates 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. Despite the introduction of the Welfare Reform Mitigation package in 2016, the cost-of-living crisis continues to affect low-income households. The event will focus on social and economic inequalities, exploring potential solutions with a panel of policy and research experts. It will be held on April 26th from 2:30 pm to 4 pm at Ulster University's Belfast Campus Room BD-03-002.

Find out more

Gemma Carney is academic lead of a new strategic partnership between Queen's University Belfast and University of Southern California. Gemma will be visiting the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in April, and presenting a paper on the Dementia Fiction project. Sian Barber (School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen's) will also take part in this visit, and will give a lecture on ageing in film.

On 10th March ARK facilitated a seminar on the topic of 'Gender Budgeting in a Culture of Gender Neutral Policy Making'. The focus of the seminar was the launch of the third in a series of working papers on gender budgeting, produced by researchers at Ulster University led by Professors Joan Ballantine and Ann-Marie Gray and Dr Michelle Rouse. This latest piece of research analyses the Northern Ireland draft Programme for Government as an example of high level policy, in order to explore how gender equality is positioned, understood and addressed.

Find out more

• Work, stress and COVID-1 in Northern Ireland (Research Update 149), by Rosellen Roche, Erin Early, Joel Manzi and Paula Devine, is based on data from the 2021 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey
• Gender Audit of the Northern Ireland Programme for Government 2016-21 by Joan Ballantine, Michelle Rouse, Ann Marie Gray and Kellie Turtle, is the third working paper from a project exploring the potential of gender budgeting for Northern Ireland.
• The Value of Youth Work: supporting young people with their journey into employment, by Lorraine Thompson summarises the findings and key recommendations of a policy roundtable facilitated by ARK. This explored research and practice evidencing the value of youth work in supporting young people in their journey to work. Importantly, the event ensured that the voices of young people, practitioners and other key stakeholders (government officials, public sector, business and community/voluntary sector representatives) were heard.

ARK produces a range of publications, including Research Updates and Policy Briefs. Most of these are available online. For a full list of publications, as well as links, visit our Publications page.

Find out more

Alexandra Chapman has been appointed to the UK Health and Social Care Research Ethics Committee, an independent committee that evaluates applications for health and social care research involving human participants. The committee's primary responsibility is to safeguard the welfare of research participants and facilitate ethical research. It is part of the Health Research Authority's national network of ethics committees, which reviews and approves research applications across the UK's health and social services, including the NHS and HSC (Health and Social Care).

ARK is Northern Ireland's social policy hub. Established in 2000 by researchers at Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, its primary goal is to increase the accessibility and use of academic data and research. Most of our dissemination is via our website at www.ark.ac.uk, which is divided into five main areas:

• Surveys
• Projects
• Resources
• Publications
• Events

Find out more