London-based charity StreetInvest recognised for longditudinal research project with African street children. 

The President's Medal is awarded annually to an organisation or individual that has made an extraordinary contribution to research. This year's winner, SteertInvest, was chosen by President of MRS Dame Dianne Thompson, Chair of MRS Richard Silman and CEO of MRS Jane Frost for their project Growing up on the Streets.

The project is run under the auspices of StreetInvest and is directly managed by the three Research Directors in collaboration with the University of Dundee:

  • F. Patrick Shanahan, Research Director of Growing Up On the Streets and co-Founder of StreetInvest
  • Dr Wayne Shand, Research Director of Growing Up On the Streets and Research Fellow at the University of Manchester’s Institute for Development Policy and Management
  • Dr Lorraine van Blerk, Research Director of Growing Up on the Streets and Reader in Human Geography, University of Dundee

The project has recruited street children in three African cities to use basic ethnographic methods to give commentary on their lives. The children meet weekly with project researchers to provide observations on their experiences and those of other young people within their network, and also attend quarterly focus groups for more in-depth discussions. 

In June 2014 StreetInvest led the meeting of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Street Children, which served as the first public discussion of the Growing up on the Streets project and was used to present the objectives and methodology used in the research.

The research project is on-going and, whilst run under the auspices of StreetInvest, is in collaboration with the University of Dundee. It is principally funded by the Backstage Trust (the foundation of Lady Susie Sainsbury) with support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Knowledge Exchange.

StreetInvest will receive the President's Medal at the MRS Awards on 7 December at Supernova London. Tickets can be purchased here.

More information about StreetInvest can be found here. More information about the Growing up on the Streets project can be found here

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