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Carlene Firmin

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Carlene Firmin MBE (born 1983 or 1984)[1] is a British social researcher and writer specialising in violence between and against young people, creator of the concept Contextual Safeguarding, and founder of the MsUnderstood Partnership. She is a professor of sociology at Durham University.[2]

Early life and education

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Firmin attended St Michael's Catholic Grammar School in Barnet, London. She has a B.A. in philosophy from Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, and an M.Sc. in social policy and planning from the London School of Economics.[3] She has a professional doctorate from the University of Bedfordshire for which her thesis was "Peer on peer abuse: safeguarding implications of contextualising abuse between young people within social fields" (2015).[4]

Career

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Firmin was senior policy officer at Race on the Agenda (ROTA), and founded the GAG project (Girls Against Gangs, or Girls Affected by Gangs, or Gendered Action on Gangs).[3] She has held positions of assistant director of policy and research at Barnardos, specialising in youth justice and sexual exploitation of children; principal policy adviser at the Office of the Children's Commissioner; and head of the secretariat for the Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Groups and Gangs.[1][5]

Between 2011 and 2014 she wrote a regular column "Girl in the Corner" in The Guardian.[6]

In 2013 she founded the MsUnderstood Partnership, a joint project between Girls in Gangs, Imkaan and the University of Bedfordshire.[7] The project "aims to improve local and national responses to young people’s experiences of inequality".[8]

Firmin is the founder of the concept Contextual Safeguarding,[9] which is concerned with safeguarding adolescents from risk outside their family homes. Firmin was until 2021 a senior research fellow in the Institute of Applied Research of the Department of Applied Social Studies at the University of Bedfordshire.[4] In September 2021 she became a professor of sociology at Durham University, one of only 40 female black professors in the UK and one of the youngest ever appointed.[10] She is head of the Contextual Safeguarding team there.

Awards

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Firmin was awarded an MBE in the 2011 New Year Honours for "services to girls' and women's issues",[11] and was the youngest black woman to have received this honour.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Power List 2013: Britain's most influential black people. 2013. p. 51. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Professor Carlene Firmin". Staff profile. Durham University. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Carlene Firmin - youngest black woman to be awarded MBE". ICN: Independent Catholic News. 3 January 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Carlene Firmin, MBE". Department of Applied Social Studies: Institute of Applied Social Research Staff. University of Bedfordshire. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  5. ^ ""If only someone had listened": Office of the Children's Commissioner's Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups: final report". British Library. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2016. Catalogue record and pdf download link
  6. ^ "Profile: Carlene Firmin". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  7. ^ "Who we are". MsUnderstood. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  8. ^ "Home page". MsUnderstood. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
  9. ^ University, Durham. "Professor Carlene Firmin - Durham University". www.durham.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Child protection pioneer appointed as professor". www.durham.ac.uk. Durham University. 14 July 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  11. ^ "New Year Honours List 2011 in full". Daily Telegraph. 31 December 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2016.
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