This 3-hour workshop will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the most recent developments in neuroscience related to the developing adolescent brain and how this knowledge can equip professionals to work more effectively with young people facing a range of risks and harm.

DATE: Tuesday 20 April 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Social Workers and helping professionals working with young people

Speaker: Dr Liat Levita, Reader in Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience, and Prof Kristine Langhoff, Professor of Social Work

This 3-hour workshop will offer participants the opportunity to learn about the most recent developments in neuroscience related to the developing adolescent brain and how this knowledge can equip professionals to work more effectively with young people facing a range of risks and harm.The session will be structured as a question and answer forum, where Kristine and Liat will bring together key contemporary issues in adolescent safeguarding, trauma-informed practice, and neuroscience. Professionals will have the opportunity to interact, ask questions, and apply learning whilst reflecting on their own practice throughout the session.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

This sequence of three x 1.5 hour online workshops are designed to help leaders in social work, social care and related third sector organisations start to plan the design and delivery of innovative new interventions or system features.

DATES: Tuesday 19 January2027, Tuesday 2^nd February 2027 and Tuesday 23^rd February 2027

TIME: 9:30am-11am

PRICE: £90 per ticket, or Buy 5 get one free £450 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Leaders, managers and supervisors working in social care, social work and other helping professions

Speaker: Prof Michelle Lefevre, Professor of Social Work

Are you a social care leader who is keen to introduce more beneficial and effective practice approaches for your setting? Do you need some help in translating social innovation theory into practice realities?

This sequence of three x 1.5 hour online workshops are designed to help leaders in social work, social care and related third sector organisations start to plan the design and delivery of innovative new interventions or system features. Drawing on key findings and practice tools from a four-year study of innovation the workshops will cover the following issues:

·         Clarifying your service gap or inefficiency and why innovation might address it

·         Selecting the change process most suitable for your aims and resources

·         Ethical and practical principles to guide each stage of the innovation process

·         Building a data-informed case for change and getting buy-in

·         Determining your service’s local conditions and capacity for innovation

·         Uncovering wider system influences on innovation

·         Culture, leadership, trust and collaboration

·         Design, implementation and testing

·         Planning priority areas of action

Attendees would be expected to attend all three workshops as the learning builds from one session to the next. Attendees will be provided with preparatory and follow-up reading for each session. This would be beneficial should they wish to progress their innovation ideas, but not mandatory. Attendees will be offered planning tasks to complete in relation to their innovation ideas, should they wish to do so.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

In this workshop, we will explore where our societal ideas about mental health have come from and examine contemporary cultural influences shaping children and teenagers’ experiences. 

DATE: Tuesday 6 April 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Professionals working with children and young people

Speaker: Dr Rachel Burr, Associate Professor in Education

Children and teenagers do not need to be experiencing a mental health crisis. In this workshop we will explore where our societal ideas about mental health have come from and examine contemporary cultural influences shaping children and teenagers’ experiences. Informed by Rachel Burr’s extensive study, this workshop presents a case for practitioners to work in group settings, both to support those already presenting with mental health issues and to offer preventative care to those who might otherwise do so. By the end of the session, it will be possible for members of the workshop to independently replicate and apply the approaches to their practice. The workshop will draw upon case examples from the study to illuminate the transformative nature of the group work process.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

Led by a researcher in applied mental health, the workshop will explore the theoretical foundations of positive psychology and how key techniques can be packaged in engaging formats for use with vulnerable young people.

DATE : Tuesday 15 December 2026

TIME: 2pm-5pm

PRICE: £60 per person (single ticket), Buy 5 Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Practitioners and those in helping professions working with young people or children

Speaker: Dr Clio Berry, Reader in Applied Mental Health Science

Led by a researcher in applied mental health, the workshop will explore the theoretical foundations of positive psychology and how key techniques can be packaged in engaging formats for use with vulnerable young people. The workshop will be grounded in insights gained from innovative trials and participatory research studies involving vulnerable young people and children conducted in clinical and community settings. Participants will be presented with key positive psychology techniques that can be integrated into everyday practice, helping practitioners to support young people to identify and build strengths, foster positive relationships, and develop a more hopeful and meaningful vision for their future.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

What if young people’s resistance was seen as a source of strength rather than something to be challenged? This workshop shares insights from a five-year research project and explores how re-imagining resistance can open new possibilities for supporting young people experiencing harm.

DATE: Tuesday 23 March 2027

TIME: 10am-1pm

PRICE: £60 per person, or Buy Five Get One Free £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: People working with young people across all sectors

Speaker: Prof Kristine Langhoff, Professor of Social Work

Resistance is a powerful and loaded word, open to interpretation and re-invention across time. It can be liberatory or destructive- sometimes both. However, when the term is used to describe young people (particularly outside of the context of political upheaval or a fight against injustice), it is often signals frustration- by adults who do not want young people to resist the things they’ve told young people to say, be, or do.  Here, resistance is a problem to be overcome and in the face of significant or serious harm, the pressure to convince young people to stop resisting builds.

What if young people’s resistance could be re-imagined entirely, as a force of vitality, health, and hope? For the last five years, a multi-disciplinary research team used a used a range of arts-based methods (photography, film, movement, poetry, and textiles) to study resistance, as both a theoretical concept and a meaningful, tangible lived and felt experience among young people affected by sexual and interpersonal violence. Led by Prof. Kristi Langhoff, they engaged an initial cohort of 20 young people and then worked with an additional 18 young people and 50 youth work and creative arts practitioners to turn their collective project into a practical resource, for use with young people experiencing multiple forms of harm.

This workshop will share what the team has learned and provide space to consider how re-imagining resistance can help bring new language, avenues for participation, and collective advocacy to work with young people experiencing (or at risk of) harm.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing. Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

DATE: Wednesday 16 December 2026

TIME: 11am-2pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free for £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Change-makers working in public services, charity and social enterprises with a vision to improve the quality of life for everyone who are interested in new thinking about leadership

Speaker: Dr Gaurish Chawla, Associate Professor (Healthcare Leadership and Commissioning) at Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Metaphors shape how we understand organisations and leadership. As Gareth Morgan famously argued, organisations have been viewed as machines, organisms, cultures, and political systems, each revealing some possibilities while concealing others. This workshop introduces a fresh metaphor: rewilding.

As the world grapples with climate breakdown, burnout, and growing social alienation, rewilding has emerged as a powerful approach to restoring ecological balance. Yet its relevance extends far beyond environmental practice. Drawing on Félix Guattari's concept of The Three Ecologies, this session explores how ecological degradation, psychological distress, and social fragmentation are deeply interconnected challenges.

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing.

Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

Drawing on Dr Gaurish Chawla's work on rewilding education, recently presented as a special event at the British Sociological Association[1] and previously at the British Psychological Society[2], this interactive workshop invites leaders to imagine more human, ecological, and sustainable ways of organising and leading.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing. Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

DATE: Wednesday 16 December 2026

TIME: 11am-2pm

PRICE: £60 per person or Buy 5 Get 1 Free for £300 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Change-makers working in public services, charity and social enterprises with a vision to improve the quality of life for everyone who are interested in new thinking about leadership

Speaker: Dr Gaurish Chawla, Associate Professor (Healthcare Leadership and Commissioning) at Brighton and Sussex Medical School

Metaphors shape how we understand organisations and leadership. As Gareth Morgan famously argued, organisations have been viewed as machines, organisms, cultures, and political systems, each revealing some possibilities while concealing others. This workshop introduces a fresh metaphor: rewilding.

As the world grapples with climate breakdown, burnout, and growing social alienation, rewilding has emerged as a powerful approach to restoring ecological balance. Yet its relevance extends far beyond environmental practice. Drawing on Félix Guattari's concept of The Three Ecologies, this session explores how ecological degradation, psychological distress, and social fragmentation are deeply interconnected challenges.

Just as we are beginning to recognise that perfectly manicured lawns can function as ecologically impoverished "green deserts", we might ask whether our organisations have become similarly over-managed, standardised, and disconnected from the diversity needed for genuine flourishing.

Through discussion, reflection, and collaborative group activities, participants will explore what it might mean to rewild leadership itself: moving beyond control, optimisation, and homogeneity towards diversity, emergence, resilience, and regeneration.

Drawing on Dr Gaurish Chawla's work on rewilding education, recently presented as a special event at the British Sociological Association[1] and previously at the British Psychological Society[2], this interactive workshop invites leaders to imagine more human, ecological, and sustainable ways of organising and leading.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.

The webinar will draw on emerging findings from ‘Flourish: Family Help in the Early Years’, a programme of research and practice development. Moving beyond a focus on individual programmes, the team will explore the common elements of effective, inclusive and accessible support for families with diverse needs.

DATE: Tuesday 9 March 2027

TIME: 10am-11:30am

PRICE: £30 per ticket, or Buy 5 get one free for £150 (6 tickets)

Online via MS Teams

TARGETED AT: Practitioners, managers, commissioners, policymakers, researchers, and others with an interest in improving outcomes for young children and their families.

Speakers: Prof Michelle Lefevre, Professor of Social Work, Dr Jeri L. Damman, Associate Professor ofSocial Work and Social Care and Dr Ali Lacey, Research Fellow in Education

The first five years of a child's life are critical for development, wellbeing and long-term outcomes. Yet families' experiences of parenting support and early years services vary considerably, particularly where parents are facing multiple and interacting challenges such as poverty, poor mental health, domestic abuse, social isolation, or the effects of trauma.

The webinar will draw on emerging findings from ‘Flourish: Family Help in the Early Years’, a programme of research and practice development, funded by the NIHR through the ARC Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Moving beyond a focus on individual programmes, the team will explore the common elements of effective, inclusive and accessible support for families with diverse needs. The webinar will consider the underlying features of support and intervention that help parents engage with services, sustain participation, and achieve positive outcomes for themselves and their young children.

The webinar will consider how different approaches to family support are intended to work, including parenting programmes, relationship-based practice, trauma-informed approaches, strengths-based support, and community-based provision. The team will discuss the importance of context, relationships, trust, and responsiveness to family circumstances, and explore what parents themselves identify as helpful when seeking support.

Participants will gain insights into current evidence on supporting families during the early years, alongside practical considerations for service design, commissioning and delivery. The session will highlight opportunities to create more inclusive systems of support that recognise the complexity of family lives and promote equitable access to help during a child's crucial first five years.

We will email you the access link to this workshop, and instructions on how to join, few days before the workshop scheduled date. All attendees will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the workshop.

If you are booking for multiple attendees, or on behalf of someone else, please email us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk to let us know the names of the attendees.

For enquiries, please contact us at socialchangehub@sussex.ac.uk.

By purchasing the ticket, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions and cancellation policy. Please read out terms and conditions and cancellation policy on Sussex Social Change Hub website.