Losing and Finding a Home

Who we are

A huge number of people contribute to the research, either directly or indirectly. While the research team has overall responsibility for the direction of the project there are many more that make equally vital contributions.  

The Research Team

The research team is headed by Phil Brown who is a Research Fellow at the University of Salford based at the Salford Housing and Urban Studies Unit (SHUSU). He is the Principal Investigator and has overall responsibility for management and delivery of the project and is involved in every stage of the work programme, including the life story/biographical interviews. In addition, Phil is responsible for producing the final report and findings. His academic background is in psychology.

Lisa Scullion is also a Research Fellow based at SHUSU at the University of Salford. She assists in the overall management of the project and is involved in every stage of the work programme, in particular the stakeholder consultation and life story/biographical interviews. Lisa has a background in social policy.      

Peter Somerville is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Lincoln. He provides expert advice on the policy and practice relevance of the research, as well as methodology and analysis and will assist the production of the final report. Peter’s background is in housing and social policy.

Gareth Morris is a Research Associate, also at SHUSU at the University of Salford. He is responsible for undertaking the life story interviews with the homeless participants, as well as the analysis and dissemination of the research including maintenance of the blog. Gareth’s academic background is in psychology and social work.

The Project Advisory Group

The Project Advisory Group (PAG) is a group of individuals from a range of homelessness service providers in Stoke. The research team meet periodically with the PAG to discuss matters arising from the research. The PAG play an integral role by informing the research team of the local contexts of which the research is taking place, for example, on matters of local economy, history and governance, as well as the social profile of the city and the wider structural framework in which they operate.

The PAG also provide insight into the factors affecting the homelessness sector and enable and advise on access to homeless individuals and families in Stoke. As ‘research users’ it is anticipated that the PAG will play a role in shaping the dissemination of the research so that it can be best utilised by services such as their own.

Homeless Individuals and Service Providers

The homeless individuals who participate in the research play a vital role in the project, not just for agreeing to be interviewed, but also for promoting the project among their friends and acquaintances, and providing introductions for the researchers. Similarly, the project relies on the good will and professionalism of a wide variety of service providers and their staff. They too play a vital role in sharing their knowledge and experiences, both as stakeholder interviewees and through discussions with the research team as they navigate their way through the field work elements of the project.  

Bloggers and Blog Contributors

Blogging and associated social media tools are being utilised by this research team for the first time and provide exciting opportunities to engage with the wider world and share developments from the research. While blogs have been in general use for several years they are still arguably relatively underused among the academic community and it is envisaged that one outcome of this research blog is to share lessons learned so that academics may consider adopting them in future to benefit their research users and the public.   

All comments and feedback are encouraged and welcomed to the blog. The individuals who take the time to post comments to the blog play an important part in helping the research team to share their reflections from the interviews and refine their ideas.

Finally, it must be noted that the sharing and discussing of information of this research is not necessarily limited to this blog. In the spirit of reciprocity which is a cornerstone of good practice for social media utility, the research team are also able to contribute to other individuals who are blogging about homelessness and related issues as well as accessing them for further information and education and learning about the issues that matter to them.