Stable Lives Safer Streets Hub to Host Spring Biannual Whole Team Meeting

This virtual gathering will bring together all members of the Hub from its three partner organisations: the University of Limerick (UL), Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), and the Centre for Effective Services (CES).

Since its inception in September 2022, the SLSS Hub, funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), has been dedicated to advancing research that supports young people within the justice system, their families, and the groups and organisations who work with these individuals. This meeting will serve as a key milestone to reflect on the Hub’s achievements to date and to foster collaboration across its interdisciplinary team.

The event will feature two Research Spotlight Sessions:

Obstacles in Research

This session will explore the challenges and barriers encountered by researchers and the solutions they have employed to overcome these challenges.

Presenters include:

• Dr. Antoinette Keaney Bell (Queen’s University Belfast)
• Helen Fitzgerald (REPPP, University of Limerick)
• Melanie Stone (Centre for Effective Services)
• Dr. Catherine Naughton (UL)

Innovative Research Methodologies

Highlighting creative and effective approaches to research within the Hub, this session will include the following Speakers:

Dr. Antoinette Keaney Bell:

Safe Spaces: Exploring Geographical Information System (GIS) geostatistical spatiotemporal analysis – the potential buffering effects of youth work provision in areas of elevated violent crime. ArcGIS provides several sophisticated tools for processing and analysing geographic data. There are several ways in which these tools can be utilised. This presentation details spatial statistical analysis of multiple datasets including violent crime data, youth service provision locations and prosocial sports activity data to explore the following research question: Does the presence of universal, youth work provision have a buffering effect in areas likely to experience elevated violent crime across Northern Ireland?

Adeola Babatunde:

Building on the affordances of Virtual Reality, this study proposes the use of an immersive VR game to measure self-control as a behavioural risk factor of youth offending behaviour. To develop this immersive VR game, the study adopts a qualitative research method focused on getting a robust understanding of self-control as it relates to youth offending among young people and youth justice workers in the Republic of Ireland through a series of semi-structured Focus Group Discussions (FDG). This presentation focuses on the data synthesis methods adopted to create the VR game script.

The Whole Team Meeting is a vital opportunity for knowledge exchange, reflection, and strategic planning as the Hub continues its mission to generate impactful research that informs policy and practice.

For more information about the Stable Lives Safer Streets Hub, please contact the Project Coordinator @ info@slsshub.com