CHIRN (Cambridge Homelessness Impact Research Network) is a network of researchers working to enable people experiencing homelessness and especially rough-sleeping to live a life which each person wants to live. Starting locally in Cambridge, we do this by collaborating with people experiencing homelessness, local service providers and policy makers to (co-)design and (co-)produce research which explicitly answers and assesses stakeholder demands, questions and experiments. We aim at driving direct evidence-based change and improvement in the local system of homeless and inclusion policy and service provision; however, we also have one eye on opportunities of generating more general learnings to be scaled to national and international levels enabling system-wide change for housing, healthcare and beyond. 

Our work is primarily based on long-term, qualitative engagements with all stakeholders through repeat ‘rapid ethnographic assessments’; producing in-depth, co-produced accounts allows us to focus on and listen to the people affected directly and reflect the complexity of their lives and those who support them. 

CHIRN grew out of an initial collaboration in 2020 between Jimmy’s Cambridge and CCHPR, assessing the impact of modular homes for people experiencing homelessness in Cambridge. With two initial small grants from UKRI in 2020 (rapid Covid response grant, impact grant) CHIRN was established as an informal group of researchers to provide assessments and evidence for local service providers, drawing on the researchers’ applied expertise. 

The first Covid research (findings of which were included in a widely distributed Covid and Care LSE policy report), was followed by two projects based on questions from and the initiative of two local service providers. We assessed telemedicine as a possible means of healthcare inclusion at the tail end of Covid lock-downs based on a pilot project in collaboration with the Cambridge Access Surgery (CAS). Our findings from this project have led to the (planned) rollout of telemedicine at Winter Comfort (Cambridge homeless day centre). The second project, in collaboration with and partly funded by Jimmy’s Cambridge was focused on assessing (and co-designing) adequate in-house mental health support; the report (about to be launched) has helped Jimmy’s to further calibrate its mental health support (and apply for additional funding) while making more general recommendations for system-wide mental health support improvements. 

Our new projects are based on initiatives from the local community. Please get in touch if you have ideas that you would like to work on.