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You are warmly invited to join our joint Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth (CIRCY) and Centre for Social Work Innovation and Research (CSWIR) research seminar:

Learning from collaborative approaches to studying youth experiences of running away from residential care

Abstract: The seminar aims to engage scholars across disciplines in shared reflections on on-going research related to youth at risk. Topics could include youth living in residential care, experiencing homelessness, engaging in risk behaviour and safeguarding measures/vulnerabilities. The seminar can include a series of short inter-connected presentations with discussions related to collaborative methodologies, theoretical perspectives and transmission of knowledge into practice. A research team from University College Copenhagen and Vive (Denmark) will present findings from an ongoing study on youth running away from residential care and reflections on including researchers with past experiences of living in out of home care.

Speaker biographies: 

• Ann-Karina Henriksen, has a Ph.D. and Master in Social Anthropology. Her research is mainly qualitative focusing on secure institutions, crime prevention, mental health and welfare state encounters of youth in vulnerable positions. 
• Helle Schjellerup Nielsen has a Master in Social Anthropology and engages in social work research related to children’s participation and everyday lives in residential care. Anne-Kirstine Mølholt has a Ph.D. and a Master in Sociology. Her research centers on care leavers and their troubled transitions into adulthood and care leavers experiencing homelessness.
• Laura Helena Pimentel da Silva is an author, children’s activist and peer researcher, with past experiences of living in out of home care (and running away).
• Laura Kesting is a student of physiotherapy and a peer researcher with past experiences of living in out of home care (and running away).

Refreshments will be provided!

This seminar is designed to be an in-person event - if you would like to attend remotely, please email circyadmin@sussex.ac.uk 

By: Eve Wilcox
Last updated: Wednesday, 8 October 2025