The project applied ideas from social geography to explore understandings of belonging and connection with young people with cognitive disability. Using these methods meant recognising the places, people and spaces which jointly influenced young people's understanding of themselves and their feelings about belonging and connection.
Thirty young people with cognitive disability took part in participatory research in three regional towns in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. They researched belonging and connection using a range of accessible research methods including photographic data, pictorial mapping and interviews.
All thirty co-researchers contributed substantially to the project, through interviews, workshops, analysing their photographic data, and in public exhibitions of their work.
An easy English online survey was also completed by twenty-six young people with cognitive disability in additional regional communities.
The ethics of the research needed careful consideration and planning, including building in staged consent at multiple points and strategies for maintaining confidentiality in small communities.