The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) is excited to announce the addition of three exceptional individuals to our Associates Scheme. These passionate advocates for child justice will enrich our work and expand our impact through their unique experiences and expertise.
About the Associates Scheme
The CYCJ Associates Scheme enables us to make a greater impact by widening our expertise, developing strong partnerships, and recognising talent in youth and criminal justice. Associates act as champions for CYCJ, contributing to our practice, research, and knowledge exchange activities according to their skill sets and areas of expertise. We welcome applications from anyone working or teaching in the youth justice field, regardless of their level of seniority, including those who use their own experiences to effect change.
Meet Our New Associates
Graeme Armstrong
Graeme Armstrong is a Times bestselling, multi-award-winning author from Airdrie. His teenage years were spent within Scotland’s ‘young team’ gang culture. After studying English as an undergraduate at the University of Stirling, he completed a Master’s in Creative Writing and is currently a PhD doctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde.
His debut novel, ‘The Young Team’, was published by Picador in 2020. He wrote and presented factual documentaries on Scottish rave culture, BAFTA and RTS Scotland nominated ‘Scotland The Rave’ (BBC, 2022), and a series on the evolution of Scottish gang culture, ‘Street Gangs’ (BBC, 2023) available now on iPlayer. He is an ambassador for The Hope Collective, Damilola Taylor’s legacy charity and an honorary lecturer at New College Lanarkshire. In 2023, he was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, a once-in-a-decade literary honour.
Across Scotland and beyond, Graeme runs anti-violence outreach events in the community with young people and in the prison estate, using his past to fight for positive change.
Cédric Foussard
Cédric Foussard is an international expert in the field of justice for children, renowned for his expertise on a global scale. Currently serving as the coordinator of the Global Initiative on Justice With Children, Foussard also holds the position of Advocacy and Global Learning Senior Advisor at the Access to Justice for Children Programme within the Terre des Hommes Foundation. With nearly two decades of leadership at an international foundation dedicated to child justice, headquartered in Brussels, Foussard has been instrumental in shaping the discourse and policies surrounding child rights globally, particularly for children in contact with the justice system. Cédric’s work encompasses investigation and advocacy efforts, with a focus on fostering a holistic approach to child rights. Through various literary contributions, including articles and books addressing prevalent trends and challenges in child justice, he endeavours to amplify the voices of vulnerable children worldwide. He is the coordinator of the World Congress on Justice With Children.
Dr Carlene Firmin
Dr Carlene Firmin is Professor of Social Work at Durham University and professorial convener of their Sociology Department’s research group on Communities and Social Justice. Carlene has researched young people’s experiences of community and group-based violence since 2008 and has advocated for comprehensive approaches that keep them safe in public places, schools, and peer groups. Carlene coined the term Contextual Safeguarding in 2014 to describe a vision for improving safeguarding responses to young people at risk of harm beyond their family homes. She has overseen a research programme to convert this vision into a conceptual and practice framework, in order to reform safeguarding responses and policy frameworks concerned with extra-familial harm in the UK and internationally.
Carlene is co-convener of a special interest group on Social Work and Adolescents for the European Social Work Research Association; she is a Global Ashoka Fellow, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Associate Editor of Child Abuse Review, a member of the Ofsted Insights and Evidence (Social Care) External Reference Group, and also a member of the Churchill Fellowship Advisory Council. She has written for the Guardian, since 2010, and is widely published in the area of child welfare including through four books and over 50 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and reports. In 2011, Carlene became the youngest black woman to receive an MBE for her seminal work on gang-affected young women in the UK.
Join Us in Welcoming Our New Associates!
We are thrilled to have Graeme, Cédric, and Carlene join CYCJ’s Associates Scheme. Their diverse backgrounds and expertise will contribute significantly to our mission of advancing youth justice in Scotland and beyond.