In each of our newsletters throughout this year, we will highlight previous research or events that ARK has carried out since 2000, in order to mark our 20th anniversary.

In November 2012, the ARK Policy Unit held a round table event focusing on housing and welfare reform in Northern Ireland. The Policy Brief In all fairness...?. Housing Policy and Welfare Reform by Amanda Leighton, Michaela Keenan and Ursula McAnulty highlighted relevant issues and policy developments, including the proposed abolition of the Housing Executive.

These issues and debates are still ongoing. Eight years later, in November 2020, it was announced that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive is to undergo the biggest shake-up in its 50-year history.

ARK is holding a series of events to mark its 20th anniversary, and the next two events are outlined below.

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The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and ARK are collaborating on a webinar to mark the 25th Anniversary of the historic visit of President Clinton to Northern Ireland in 1995. A panel of expert speakers will use archival sources, including UTV archive footage, as well as first-hand accounts to explore and reflect on the visit.

This online event will run from 3-4pm on Monday 30 November, using Zoom. Please click here to register.

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Join us for this online event to hear from some of those involved in poverty activism from the grassroots to the international level. Northern Ireland has a long experience of poverty activism and community self help while maintaining a focus on the structural dimension of poverty. The event will focus in particular on experiences of poverty activism, at what was achieved and how that learning can inform the response to persistent and new challenges.

The event will be held on Friday 27 November 2020, from 11am-12.30 pm, via Zoom. To register, please click here.

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Evidence of the wide-ranging benefits of breastfeeding to children, mothers and society is extensive. However, Northern Ireland has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding worldwide. In this webinar, Professor Marlene Sinclair, Dr Julie McCullough, Rachel Black and Dr Paul Slater (Ulster University) will explore public attitudes to breastfeeding in Northern Ireland, using data from the 2019 Northern Ireland Life & Times and Young Life & Times surveys.

The seminar will run from 2-3pm on Wednesday 9 December 2020, via Zoom. Please register for this event here

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Author Jan Carson is leading the community outreach element of the Dementia in the minds of characters and readers project. She has a packed schedule of exciting events and publications over the next year.

Jan has started writing reviews of representations of dementia in literature and the arts. There are 5 reviews on the project website so far.

You can stay in touch with the project via the website or by following @DementiaFiction on Twitter.

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Our latest publication is Examining the 3 P's: Personal Safety, Paramilitaries and Policing. Written by Colm Walsh (Queen's University Belfast), this Research Update is based on data from the Northern Ireland Life & Times and Young Life & Times surveys.

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

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We are delighted to introduce Susan Hughes, the second PhD student associated with the ARK Ageing Programme. Susan is based in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at University Ulster.

Susan will explore the extent to which self-directed support offers choice and control to service users in Northern Ireland. Susan will be conducting interviews with participants to understand their lived experiences of the current adult social care system and find out how they feel service provision could be improved.

Susan's supervisors are Ann Marie Gray and Goretti Horgan and Jennifer Hamilton.

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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

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