Centre for the Study of Safety and Well-Being (SWELL)

The University of Warwick

Minutes of the Advisory Group Meeting held on Monday 27 April 2015

from 11.00 to 13.30 in the Wolfson Research Exchange,

University of Warwick Library

Present:

Shaheen Ali (SA) School of Law, Warwick Uni.; Nickie Charles (NC) Dept of Sociology, Warwick Uni.; Alan Dolan (AD) Social Work, CLL, Warwick Uni.; Lizzie Magnusson (LM) Women’s Aid; Audrey Mullender (AM)Emeritus Professor, SWELL; Sumanta Roy (SR) IMKAAN; Hannana Siddiqui (HS) Freelance / Southall Black Sisters; Hansa Surti (Minutes) (HSu) CLL, Warwick Uni.; Ravi Thiara (RT) SWELL/CLL, Warwick Uni.; Marianna Tortell (MT) Rape Crisis England & Wales; Khursheed Wadia (KW) SWELL/CLL, Warwick Uni. and Dianne Whitfield (DW) Coventry Rape & Sexual Abuse Centre.

Apologies:

Christine Harrison (CH), , CLL, Warwick Uni.; Fergus McKay, Director, CLL, Warwick Uni. (FMcK); Lorraine Radford (LR) Connect Centre, Univ. of Central Lancaster; Josie Throup (JT) Students’ Union, Warwick Uni.; Atuki Turner (AT) MIFUM UK & Uganda and Jeannie Wright (JW) Counselling & Psychotherapy, CLL, Warwick Uni.

1.Welcome and introductions
NC welcomed all members. This was followed by introductions.
2.Apologies
Apologies were received and recorded as noted above.
3.Minutes of informal Annual Meeting on 9 April 2014
It was recorded that the last meeting held on 9 April 2014 was not a formal meeting. Members were asked to check the minutes of the meeting. KW reported (in relation to item 3) that the SWELL Review had taken place. AM congratulated the Centre for the work it had undertaken during a difficult period. The minutes were considered as a true and correct record of the proceedings.
4.SWELL in CLL – Director of CLL
RT reported that due to prior commitments, FMcK could not attend the meeting and that she would provide a report under item 5 ‘SWELL Report and Update’.
5.SWELL Report and Update
RT addressed the SWELL Annual Report 2015, highlighting the following: from 2009 to March 2013, the Centre had been located in the School of Health and Social Studies (SHSS) and had been part of the consultation about the future of SHSS. After March 2013 the Centre was moved to Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL). SWELL’s location in CLL makes sense due to the latter’s widening participation mission and other activities in collaboration with local statutory and community agencies. The work being undertaken by AD and JW was now also part of SWELL RT reported that she had become the Director of SWELL from September 2014 and that SWELL had undergone a university review, as part of the university’s review of all research centres. Although a formal response had not yet been received from the review, a positive outcome had been indicated informally.
KW reported on her research on political participation and civic engagement (as outlined on p. 7 of the report). She highlighted some of the recent projects she had undertaken which had focused on women and young people; for example, the ESRC project on women from Muslim communities and politics in Britain and France; the FP7 project (‘Memory, youth, political legacy and civic engagement’) which looked at how political legacies and memories of the past shaped young people’s political and civic attitudes and behaviours today. Part of this project included ethnographic studies of particular cases of youth involvement in politics and civic life and, together with NC, she had worked on a case of study of young women’s feminist activism in Britain which would form part of a co-authored book (with Nickie Charles, Alina Allaste and Mariona Ferrer) on feminist activism and sexual politics in Europe, to be published by Routledge. KW reported that her research also addressed issues of migration and migrant communities in Britain and France.
AD (Director of Social Work, CLL) reported on his research on men, masculinity and infertility. This ESRC project examined men’s experiences of infertility and its treatment. It was reported that AD was part of an NSPCC project on gender violence but as yet, nothing had been confirmed.
As part of taking the meeting through the SWELL annual report, RT drew attention to the aims of SWELL as outlined in a separate document included with the annual report. She stated that the report included current and recent research to give an idea of work being done by SWELL and the PhD students associated with the Centre in the past and presently.A discussion then took place between those present about the work being undertaken by SWELL and whether the work could expand and involve other members of the Advisory Board i.e. Sumanta Roy’s work on sexual violence; Hannana Siddiqui’s research on Black and Ethnic Minority communities and so on.
RT reported that research seminars were organised regularly and that another half-day event would be planned in the future. A seminar onPrevention Work with Children and Young People on Violence Against Women and Girls was taking place later that afternoon (27 April 2015) after the AGM meeting. It was noted that due to cuts in the training budgets of local statutory and third sector organisations, people welcomed the free events at the university as they could not always pay for training.
RT reported that the SWELL website had been redone in recent months and reflected the expanded research focus of the Centre.
6.Election of Chair
It was reported that Nickie Charles was currently the acting Chair. Whoever was elected to take over from NC would need to attend and chair the annual general meetings. The Chair would also be required to write a report in support of the Centre, for the next review to be conducted by the University. It was reported that it was important for the work of the Centre to continue as the issues being addressed by the Centre were as critically important today as they were in the past. A discussion then took place about potential conflicts of interest in the case of eligible members. Sumanta Roy was nominated and confirmed as the next Chair of the SWELL Advisory Board.
7.Open Forum
In the spirit of having a dialogue between research, policy and practice, RT reported that this meeting was a good forum for members to share theissues they were dealing with in their work contexts which could benefit from further research. A lengthy discussion took place about some of the issues that members considered to be important and it was agreed that SWELL members would follow this up with each person to explore the possibility of generating research proposals.
8.Future Plans
RT reported that next year SWELL would need to develop funding bids to aid the re-invigoration of SWELL and that support from the Advisory Board would be most welcome, in terms of ideas etc. Plans were underway to develop a 10-week module on gender violence. KW reported there were plans to develop collaborative PhD funding bids with local migrant and BME support organisations. The research seminars will continue as will efforts to increase the numbers of PhD students.
9.Any Other Business
HS reported that she was now freelance but was still affiliated with Southall Black Sisters.
10.Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place in April 2016. RT to circulate some dates to all members.

1