As with every participatory research project there needs to be a system that is followed. In this specific project the Magic 6 protocol by Larkins and Bison was used to create a 6-step protocol to carry out this research project on knife crime.

  • Learning participatory methods and identifying issues on things they want to make happen
  • Exploring methods to find out more on their issues and howto make things happen
  • Looking for and investigating other people’s perspectives i.e. in the community, schools and peer groups
  • Ideas are analysed, and a plan of action is put in place for making something happen
  • Use the plan to act for change
  • Share the understanding further once action has been done- does anything need revising, evaluating and should it continue?

Using the Magic 6 to learn participatory methods is beneficial to this project as it is straight forward and easy to understand. This method can be used to identify things young people want to make happen, in this case, what can we find out about knife crime from the young people’s involvement and what we hope to change.