Children, Flood and Urban Resilience (Hull Children's Flood Project)

This is a qualitative data collection. The aim of the project was to
undertake a participatory research programme to identify key issues in
children and young people’s experiences and agency in relation to flooding
and the flood recovery process, and to assess the lessons for policy
worlds. One of the objectives of the study was to contribute to the
archive generated by the adult Hull Floods Project to enable future
research. The project design used participatory techniques to ensure the
research was carried out ‘with’, rather than ‘on’, the children taking
part. The methodology built on the growing body of work that uses
interactive mixed-method research to generate rich data about issues in
children’s own lives. The intention was not only to develop greater
understanding of children’s perspectives on floods and flood recovery but
in the process, to explore with flood-affected children the best ways (for
them) of recording and reflecting upon their experiences. In total 46
flood-affected children took part in the project; some of the children
were flooded at school but not at home and others were flooded both at
school and at home. We worked in two schools that were badly affected by
the floods; both schools were evacuated on the day and then closed for
strip-out and refurbishment. The school children totalled 42, comprising
25 pupils from the primary school and 17 pupils from the secondary school.
The research project used storyboards (where participants drew pictures or
used creative writing to tell their stories), followed by short one-to-one
interviews and group discussions with the school children. The project
also conducted telephone interviews with four flood-affected young people,
accessed through the youth team in Hull. In addition, the project worked
with 18 adults, involving interviews with key service providers and front
line workers, together with stakeholder engagement through a project
steering group.