The City Turned Upside Down
Introduction
The City Turned Upside Down project explored how people in the homelessness sector, including those with lived experience of homelessness, experienced the initial phase of the Covid19 crisis, and how street-level action and understanding affected ongoing intervention and support.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and Cyrenians worked together with those with lived experience of these issues to discover:
- What does the experience of living through the initial Covid19 crisis mean for people working in the third sector frontline, for people with experience of homelessness and for managers?
- And how have they been impacted by new ways of working within homelessness services during Covid19?
Participants (people who had experienced homelessness and frontline workers) were encouraged to represent their experiences using arts-based methods and submit these as data.
Data was then collected through reflective journals, video interviews, stories, poems, songs and photographs, and collated for the ‘Living through Covid’ exhibition.
To view the online exhibition, visit our website.
Content
Project aims
- Explore the street-level experiences of, and responses to, the initial Covid19 response and ongoing intervention strategies during March – June 2020.
- Use a narrative approach to analyse the ‘Living through Covid’ project run by Cyrenians between March and June 2020
Outcomes & legacy
- Poems were developed to re/present the key themes developed from the analysis, to be exhibited alongside the arts-based materials contributed by participants in a public exhibition
- ‘Living Through Covid’ exhibited as a part of the 2022 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival
The people involved
Dr Fiona Cuthill is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing Studies in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh. She is the Academic Director for the Centre for Homelessness and Inclusion Health, which is a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and local partners in Scotland to improve the health and wellbeing of people who experience homelessness in Scotland.
Dr Rosie Stenhouse is a Senior Lecturer in Nursing Studies in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh. She is also Associate Director for the Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry, which focuses on the exploration and development of research methodologies with a relational focus.
Dr Shelly Coyne is a project manager and researcher who has worked for 20 years alongside people who have experienced homelessness. She currently works for the Cyrenians in Edinburgh as a Policy and Participation Manager, leading the All in for Change Programme. Shelly has worked for over 12 years leading choirs for singers with experience of homelessness and has conducted extensive research with these groups across the UK and in Brazil.
Mike Wright is the Senior Service Manager for Outreach Services at Cyrenians.
Partners Included:
- Cyrenians
- The University of Edinburgh (School of Health in Social Science and Edinburgh Futures Institute)
- Lankelly Chase
This project was funded from The Lankelly Chase Foundation.
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