Could you be a Community Researcher?

A better, safer Holloway for everyone

Do you want a say in how your local community develops?

Does who you are impact how you experience the city?

Do you think it could be designed differently?

Would you like to be paid for being involved?

If so, you could be one of our Community Researchers. We’re looking for women, girls and nonbinary people (16+) to take part in a paid project as part of the wider Holloway Park development.

The work is focusing on gendered experiences of both housing and the wider community, in terms of safety in both daytime and after dark, access to public transport, green spaces and the design of communal areas.

The experience is both about working and learning and includes:

• A taught curriculum about design and gender (part online and flexible around your other commitments)
• Reflecting on both how you experience space and how this works in your community
• Putting together design proposals for the Holloway Park development (on the site of the women’s prison) that are intended to benefit residents and the local community.

We’re looking to recruit a broad group, representing the diversity of people who live here, in particular (but not exclusively) people living with disabilities, mothers of young children and cyclists.

The project is part time (6 hours a week) and flexible around your other commitments. It is a chance to investigate your local area and consider how it could be designed better for the people who live there. And also, it’s fun.

If this sounds interesting and you want to find out more, including how to apply and eligibility, please scan this QR code, click this link or contact Olivia: olivia@social-place.org ; and Julia: julia@social-place.org

The deadline for applications is the 24th of March 2025        

Gender Mainstreaming at Holloway Park

What is the project about?

As part of the wider improvements for Holloway Park, we are offering the opportunity for a group of local people (women, girls or non-binary) to be hired, trained, and paid as Community Researchers over six weeks in March/April 2025 to investigate what issues residents (particularly women and gender diverse people) face, and what design changes might make the new development work better for them and potentially also benefit the local community. The Community Researchers will research their own as well as others’ experiences of the local area around the estate, and feed into design development for the estate, particularly around public space design, safety and communal areas. This project is run by Social Place, In Her Place, London Communications Agency, Maccreanor Lavington and Peabody.

What will the Community Researchers do?

You will principally work with Social Place but also the wider team behind the development of Holloway Park. The aim is to give you a broad background knowledge of how sex and gender impact on the built environment and how places can be designed with this in mind – which planners and designers call gender mainstreaming. You will then use this knowledge to investigate the area and development through a gender mainstreaming lens to then make recommendations based on those findings. There is no need for prior knowledge or design skills as we will be relying on your own personal experiences as well as the knowledge you have and develop during our time together.

This is the first time that work like this has been done in England, so this is the chance to be involved in something new and exciting. And the project may well end up influencing other designs across the country as well as Holloway Park.

You will work alongside Social Place who are Julia King, who has trained as an architect, and Olivia Theocharides-Feldman, who has an anthropology and sociology background. You will also work with Susannah Walker from In Her Place.

What is Holloway Park?

Holloway Park is a new development set on the old site of the Holloway Prison. It is a development that will be spread over 10 acres, with a collection of high specification 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments, with 60% affordable housing, commercial space and a new 1.4 acre public park.

Requirements & Eligibility

The Community Research program will be structured over six weeks with breaks starting in March (flexible start date). You will commit to around 6 hours a week.

These hours will be split into:

• Work carried out independently and flexibly at a time which suits you including 1) a weekly activity which will require you to visit a public space local to you or engage with maps, photos, or videos of said area (approx. 2 hours); 2) to watch, listen and read assigned content as part of your learning (approx. 2-3 hours).
• Work which will require that you be available at a set time for either a weekly 1 hour online meeting (flexible timing); or an in-person 2 hour session (eg. workshops, site visits etc).
• You will also need to be available to attend up to 2 community events in 2025, outside of the six-week period.

You will be hired on a short-term contract at Social Place and paid an hourly rate of £14 / hr.

You must: be able to work in the UK; be aged 16+; identify as a woman, girl or gender diverse/ nonbinary; and live in postcode areas N7, N19, NW5 and N5. You do not need any prior knowledge or design experience.

How to apply

Send a paragraph of no more than 500 words to Julia (julia@social-place.org) and Olivia (olivia@social-place.org) explaining why you want to do this project. We particularly welcome applications from backgrounds under-represented in architecture, design and planning (eg. global majority backgrounds (BAME), LGBTQIA+, those living with disabilities) and women with lived experience of the criminal justice system; and we invite you, should you feel comfortable, to inform us of these and any other social and demographic markers that you feel play a role in your experiences as a resident in the local area, or your experience of housing design. We will ask shortlisted candidates to attend a short online interview.

Please include:

1. your age
2. your gender identity / preferred pronouns
3. your postcode (or down to the first 5 digits/ sub-area) (*we want to ensure we are recruiting across the local area)
4. your regular modes of transport (eg. walking, cycling, cycle hire, mobility scooter, car, public transport (bus, tube, rail) etc.).
5. your housing type (eg. a flat in a block of flats; a flat in a high rise building; a semi-detached house; a flat conversion; a detached house etc.)

The deadline for applications is the 24th of March 2025        

Who else is involved?

Social Place specialises in devising tools and processes that enable diverse voices to contribute to design and planning decision-making. For more information on us please refer to our website: social-place.org

In Her Place (Susannah Walker): is a gender focused consultancy focused on gender mainstreaming advocacy and campaigning for the public realm to be designed with women and particularly teenage girls in mind.

Peabody in partnership with London Square and the Mayor of London, will be delivering 985 new homes and 1.5 acres of new public park space at Holloway Park.

Maccreanor Lavington are part of the architectural team behind the development of Holloway Park.

London Communications Agency is the integrated communications agency for the site responsible for the wider community engagement and communication strategy.

Exterior Architecture is an award-winning team of creative and innovative Landscape Architects based in London and Manchester.