Charlie Tak Hei Kwong

Tag: Special Educational Needs

Categories
Doctoral Research

Community Advisors Wanted: Supporting Identity & Transition in Higher Education

Join us as a Community Advisor [Remote/On-site] and help shape workshop design, delivery, safeguarding, and ethical practice to better support students in transition!

Building Identity Through Stories explores how transmedia storytelling can support students as they transition into higher education — especially those with lived experience of learning differences, non-linear educational journeys, or prior support needs.

Transitions are not just academic shifts. They are moments of identity change, vulnerability, growth, and possibility. To ensure this work remains ethical, grounded, and genuinely inclusive, Community Advisors are invited to join in a voluntary, light-touch advisory role.


Who we hope to connect with?

If you have experience and interest in:

  • Creative Arts and Inclusive Practice
  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
  • Mental Health and Wellbeing
  • Trauma-informed Practice
  • Inclusive Education

Roles in the Team:

You will join the project team as a Community Advisor, with a functional title that reflects your area of contribution:

Creative Facilitator (Remote/Hybrid)

Role title: Community Advisor

Functional title: Creative Facilitator

Role Purpose

Creative Facilitators help make the workshop feel relaxed, welcoming, and easy to join.

This role is for people who enjoy supporting group activities, helping people feel at ease, and noticing how a room or online space is working.

Area Details
What you may do
  • Welcome participants into the workshop space
  • Support the flow of creative activities
  • Explain simple workshop instructions
  • Help people feel comfortable joining in
  • Notice when the pace, wording, or activity feels unclear
  • Support selected in-person or remote workshops alongside the researcher
Good fit for people who
  • Enjoy working with people
  • Are calm, friendly, and organised
  • Like helping a space feel open and inclusive
  • Are interested in creative or community-based facilitation
You will not be expected to
  • Run workshops alone
  • Provide counselling
  • Handle safeguarding concerns by yourself
  • Collect research data independently
Creative Practice & Inclusion Advisor (Remote/Hybrid)

Role title: Community Advisor

Functional title: Creative Practice & Inclusion Advisor

Role Purpose

Creative Practice & Inclusion Advisors help connect creative practice with inclusive workshop design.

This role is for artists, designers, makers, storytellers, media practitioners, or creative students who are interested in bringing their practice into an educational or student-support setting.

Area Details
What you may do
  • Work with the researcher to turn creative practice into inclusive workshop activities
  • Test art-making, storytelling, design, or media-based prompts
  • Suggest ways to make activities more open, accessible, and student-friendly
  • Think about how creative practice can support identity, belonging, and transition
  • Help the workshop feel creative without becoming formal, clinical, or therapeutic
Good fit for people who
  • Have a creative practice or creative interest
  • Want to explore art, design, storytelling, or media in education
  • Care about inclusion and student experience
  • Are interested in creative intervention, participatory practice, or community-based work
You will not be expected to
  • Design the whole intervention alone
  • Produce artwork for the project unless agreed
  • Act as a therapist or counsellor
  • Have your creative input analysed as research data
Access & Inclusion Advisor (Remote)

Role title: Community Advisor

Functional title: Access & Inclusion Advisor

Role Purpose

Access & Inclusion Advisors help make the workshop experience clearer, safer, and easier to join.

This role is for people who care about accessibility, SEND, neurodivergence, wellbeing, safeguarding, inclusive communication, or student support.

Area Details
What you may do
  • Review workshop activities and prompts
  • Review promotional materials
  • Review access arrangements
  • Review support information
  • Review referral and signposting routes
  • Review wording, timing, sensory load, and workshop flow

You may also suggest ways to make the workshop feel more calm, inclusive, and supportive for different students.

Good fit for people who
  • Notice what helps people feel included
  • Care about access, safety, and wellbeing
  • Have experience or interest in SEND, neurodivergence, education, student support, safeguarding, or inclusive practice
  • Are good at spotting unclear wording, hidden barriers, or moments where people may need more support
You will not be expected to
  • Provide counselling
  • Make formal clinical or safeguarding decisions alone
  • Take responsibility for participant wellbeing by yourself
  • Disclose personal experience unless you choose to

What involvement looks like?

Nothing heavy!

Involvement could simply be a remote conversation, an email exchange, or a short message when insight is needed.

For those interested, there may also be opportunities to co-facilitate or support selected workshops!!

The role focuses on advise on intervention-based workshop design, delivery, safeguarding, and ethical practice to help our research reflects care, responsibility, and lived experience.

Why this matters?

By contributing, you will:

  • Contribute to a cross-cultural research project (UK / Canada / Hong Kong)
  • Help shape practical resources designed to support students with SEND
  • Build experience in arts-based educational research and inclusive practice
  • Connect with others working in inclusive and creative education
  • Be acknowledged in project outputs (if you’d like)
  • Receive recognition for your contribution through a certificate / a reference

Thanks for your time
and looking forward to connecting with you!

Submit Expression of Interest