Reflections from Research, Practice, and Teaching: Informing Community Change by Dr. Breda Friel

May 7th, 2026

Ulster University - Derry Londonderry Campus

In Summer 2026, Dr. Breda Friel begins her retirement from the Community Youth Work teaching team at Ulster University. To mark this moment, Breda delivered a special keynote from her reflections on a career that has spanned youth work practice, trauma-informed approaches and community development across Ireland and beyond. This was a thoughtful, grounded reflection on the challenges and possibilities of working with care, connection, and resilience and a celebration of Breda’s lasting impact on the field

This event brought together friends, colleagues, ex-students and community partners from across the Community Youth Sector and academia. Breda’s musings on teaching, research and practice were given voice at this event and a briefing paper will capture the ideas presented, alongside reflections and connections from those who attended.

This event was hosted by the Centre for Youth Research & Dialogue and Critical Voice NI

Youth Work and Respect

Critical Voice NI's seminar series continues by creating space for youth workers, activists and researchers to pause, reflect and think critically about youth work in a rapidly changing context.

The second session, facilitated by Dr Siobhán McAlister (QUB), Dr Gail Neill (Ulster University), and RADICAL youth co-researchers Rebecca Deane McCann and Cara Kerlin, explored how children and young people understand and experience respect, and why it matters. Drawing on the ESRC RADICAL research project, the seminar highlighted youth work as a key site of positive practice, inviting practitioners to reflect on the conditions that enable respectful relationships and the risks of undermining them through increasing pressure on outcomes and service delivery.

Alongside the seminar, participants were supported to capture their reflections in writing, helping extend the conversation beyond the room. This briefing brings together key ideas from the presentation and the insights of those who attended.

Read the full briefing here 

Where do I Stand?’ – Youth Work and Peacebuilding

Eliz McArdle and Dr. Andy Hamilton

Thurs, 27th Nov, 2025

While the nature of peace and peacebuilding has changed since the enactment of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, work to address engrained societal divisions is very much still needed. 

Through the worst of the troubles and across all stages of building peace, youth work has always played a significant role with young people navigating these issues.  This workshop, facilitated by Dr. Andy Hamilton and Eliz McArdle on 27th November, 2025, raises three pertinent questions for youth workers now – first, how does the youth worker understand their role and perspective on peacebuilding; then, how might their position and perspective impact on the directions of themes and approaches with young people and lastly, how might we better connect peacebuilding with the contemporary lives of young people. 

This workshop drew from concepts more fully explored in the book ‘A Critical Approach to Youth Sector Peacebuilding’, co-authored by Andy, Eliz and their colleague, Dr. Mark Hammond. A briefing paper was developed outlining the core themes for discussion and including comments and insights from the workshop participants.  This briefing paper is available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BuHuURWNJwTzvLYcSNGSG-CgxbCOXyFA/view