Welcome to Eli Davies (she/ her) who is joining TRPNI as LGBTQIA+ Engagement Officer for the next six months.
The Rainbow Project is beginning new research into the needs of LGBTQIA+ BAME people and Sex Workers, which will enable us to better support and advocate for these members of our community in the North.* For the next six months Eli will be working alongside BAME and Sex Worker members of the LGBTQIA+ community of all genders to discuss and research these experiences.
Eli will be building on the research that has already been done within the TRP by our State of the Community Research, Sex Worker Support Group, the Gay Ethnic Group and the BAME focus group, on the needs of Sex Workers and people from the BAME community, including people of colour, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, international students, Irish travellers, and other minoritized religious and national groups within the North of Ireland. The findings from these discussions will then be used by TRP to develop new services and projects with and for BAME and Sex Worker communities.
Eli has worked in community engagement for nearly twenty years in various settings and in the last ten years has been combining this with research and writing. She moved here 5 years ago for her PhD, which explored gendered experiences of the home in Northern Ireland. Before this, she worked in the community education sector in London for twelve years, and throughout her professional life has been an active ally in various campaigns, particularly involved in campaigning and advocating for the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants. She is interested in learning how different aspects of identity intersect to shape people’s everyday experiences and is looking forward to exploring and discussing these experiences through discussions, focus groups and interviews. She centres participatory and creative research methods and takes a queer, anti-racist, sex-positive and rights-based feminist approach to her work.
If you are interested in finding out more about this research or would like to get involved – please contact Eli by email: eli@rainbow-project.org
*TRPNI supports the full decriminalisation of sex work