Dr Gill Hughes
| Biography | Gill is a senior lecturer in Youth Work and Community Development and Education Studies. She is the convenor for the research theme Social Justice in the School of Education. Gill's focus is on needs-led participatory practices and community engagement, which shifts power to create trusting equitable relationships. Gill has always been committed to public engagement and values having a large partnership network in the city which is made up from community, voluntary and public sectors, Gill is a joint development co-ordinator in Hull for the Wellcome Trust funded, British Science Association initiative - 'Ideas Fund'. This is one of 4 inspiring and innovative pilot projects across the UK, which changes the relationship between communities and researchers, by flipping the power balance for communities to lead and invite researchers to join them to identify needs around mental wellbeing. The two partners work together for equitable knowledge exchange and have created some brilliant projects that make a huge difference to the groups involved, In addition, they have created collaborations within and across the programme and many ripples of added value including into policy influencing. This programme is now exploring how to create change in systems and cultures to enable more needs-led participatory practices to generate within the higher education sector. The programme is currently collating evidence from the community/researcher partnerships, which link into wider sector change, recognising knowledge exchange and public engagement as a crucial part of the civic role of higher education. Gill hosts #thehullwewant community partnership project, which was inspired and funded by Barry Knight [Webb Memorial Trust legacy via RethinkingPoverty.org]. #thww explored needs and dreams in the city of Hull using emancipatory participatory needs-led research, asset based and radical community development approaches and is part of the #ShiftThePower global movement. The '#we' approach has been developed to use in different themes, places and spaces such as: climate change [with the Energy and Environment Institute and #theculturewewant. #thww has inspired a young people's project at Micaia in Chimoio in Mozambique, to develop a similar project attracting Commonwealth funding to explore young people's needs and dreams. #thww's ethos and approach were drawn on by the Local Authority and Public Health inviting Gill to work other colleagues from the University as part of an advisory group, on the development of a Poverty Truth Commission for the city [part of the Poverty Truth Network - PTN]. The first Hull Poverty Truth Commission came to fruition in July 2024, demonstrating a huge cultural change through power shifting to create trusting relational engagement between people who have experienced poverty [community commissioners] and those who lead services, and who have power and influence to make changes [civic commissioners]. As part of the evaluation team Gill and Juan Pablo Sepulveda Winter, worked with My Pockets filmmakers together with both sets of commissioners, facilitators, advisory group members and the PTN to co-create a film, which demonstrates the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl-fmxZ_2Js https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me-RtHh-QWM Gill is a CI on the newly formed Coast-R team convening a national network, which engages with communities as part of a transdisciplinary team of academics, voluntary, arts-based, public and private sector partners to understand coastal change and to ensure that unheard voices are at the fore. This follows on from being a CI with Risky Cities - Living with Water in an Uncertain Future Climate, which used arts, culture, learning histories and heritage as hooks to engage with communities to understand our relationships with water past, present and future. This led to generating critical climate consciousness, enabling communities to become engaged in action to adapt and mitigate for flood risk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA-ktyT1gfg Gill was part of the University of Sheffield project: MAGIC: Mobilising Adaptation – Governance of Infrastructure through Co-production - working with communities in Hull to explore creative ideas to develop flood adaptations. MAGIC created five exemplar flood adaptations across the local area. https://www.communityactionforwater.org/projects/magic Gill previously worked in the Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL), University of Hull with experience of Trade Union Education and HEFCE funded; Towards a Learning City project; a partnership with the Warren young people’s resource centre. The project aimed to re-engage young people into education – to meet their needs. With partners she co-produced varied educational provision to meet community and VCSE, public sector needs including short courses, certificate, diploma and degree programmes. Gill also co-led a DFID project with colleagues from the University of Zimbabwe developing a certificate in community participation (2001-4) and contributed to a DFID project in Sierra Leone around education, citizenship and participatory engagement [2004]. Gill’s doctoral study related to young people and their disconnection from education in England - entitled - The Construct of Care and its Place in School Connectedness. It explores the role of care as a catalyst for connection to school [and wider services]. |
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| Research Interests | Gill’s research and practice interests vary, broadly focusing on: Rethinking poverty in 21st Century and re-imagining the society we want Social Justice/ shifting power /needs-led participatory practices/ systems and culture change Alternative ways of working with young people and communities including Utopia as a method Deconstructing – community, engagement, participation and coproduction Asset based and radical community development Young people’s experiences of dis/connectedness with education Alternative education, informal learning and critical pedagogy The construct of care and its erosion in education [and welfare services] Community engagement with flooding and coastal erosion |
| Teaching and Learning | BA Education Studies: Education, Power and Knowledge Social Justice and Social Change Youth and Community Pathway: Participation, Engagement and Applied Professional Ethics MA in Education: Social Justice and Community Engagement Pathway |
| Scopus Author ID | 57183607400 |