Each of these online lunchtime seminars, hosted by Peg Alexander, will address an area of inequality: Money; Food; Health & Wellbeing; Housing; Education, Skills & Employment; and Environment & Greenspace.

You’ll hear from two speakers, one providing input from an academic perspective and one providing a community perspective. After the speakers give a brief introduction to the topic, Peg will open up a Q&A session between attendees and the speakers, seeking to identify one or two key actions the city should undertake to reduce the causes of that inequality.

At the end of the series we’ll be sharing a report outlining the key outcomes of the seminars.

On 20 April we will be discussing inequalities around education, skills and employment.

Book you place for the last session HERE!

 

We will be joined on the day by:

Sharon Kumar, Employment Lead at Barca – Leeds currently overseeing Stronger Families, Work Well and Healthier Working Futures.

Sharon has worked for Barca-Leeds for over 6 years on various employability programmes and before that managing targeted services at Connexions in preventative services in schools to community-based projects across Leeds and North Yorkshire.

All the employability projects Sharon has led on have a common theme: considering the barriers that prevent people from starting and sustaining education, employment, or training. These barriers range from financial exclusion to emotional wellbeing, mental health, and domestic violence. Using a Think Family Work Family approach, it is pertinent to look at the impact of others in the same household on the person who is unemployed. This could be a child’s special education needs, school provision and low school attendance or a partner’s substance misuse or gambling addiction.

All the projects Sharon leads on aim to minimise these barriers by putting support in place with a co-ordinated approach of internal and external specialist support services to enable the participants to make small steps to progress towards work, education, or training, and providing them the tools to seek support and feel more confident in managing day to day life so they can sustain their outcome.

In the employability sector, Sharon is seeing a greater basic skills gaps and lack of employability skills preventing access to higher quality roles, gaps in quick and easy access to mental health support and increasing poverty across the city having a detrimental impact not only on household income but also within family relationships and the impact of this on children’s welfare.

Sharon aims to continue to raise awareness of the impact of unemployment on whole families with multiple barriers, especially in areas of deprivation to improve their own and their children’s life chances and aspirations.

 

Carmen Lau Clayton – Professor of Family and Cultural Dynamics, Leeds Trinity University

Carmen joined Leeds Trinity University in 2010 and is Professor of Family and Cultural Dynamics.

Carmen’s research interests revolve around young people, families and childhood with specific expertise concerning young fatherhood, migration, ethnicity and culture.

Carmen’s recent research has investigated the impact of lockdown for a diverse set of parents and young people. The ‘British Families in Lockdown’ study/BFiL has had several evidence papers accepted by UK Parliament and national media interest (e.g. The Guardian and BBC). BFiL has collaborated with national and international partners as part of this research.

Carmen’s young fatherhood research includes several studies and this has spanned over twelve years. She is currently leading on a new study titled ‘Connected Young Fatherhood: Rural and Urban Experiences’ in collaboration with Daddilife, Leeds City Council and the County Councils Network. This study focuses on young fathers’ employment and professional support experiences during the pandemic.

‘Connected Young Fatherhood’ builds on Carmen’s former study- ‘New Pathways for Young Fathers’- which investigated young fathers’ EET (employment, education, and training) and NEET (not in employment, education, and training) trajectories, formal support provision available and wider policy implications. Prior to this, she undertook research which explored young fathers’ higher education interests and she was a recipient of ESRC (Economic Social Research Council) funding to conduct a qualitative longitudinal study on young fatherhood and service support needs at the University of Leeds between 2012-15.

Carmen is also involved in several external committees, is a peer reviewer for a range of academic journals and publishers and funders.

 

We hope you will join us over the lunch hour as we come together as a city to discuss the challenge of rising inequalities and how we can work towards a more equitable city.

 

Spaces are also still available for the penultimate session on 6 Apr where we will discuss rising inequalities around food. For more details and to book you place click HERE.