Walking tour: What do we mean by ‘belonging’?

What’s on offer?

The UK Government 5-year suicide prevention strategy for England highlights autistic people as a priority for suicide prevention and recommends tackling feelings of not belonging as an important intervention. 

This walking tour with informal discussion will provide the opportunity to discuss the themes of the exhibition ‘What do we mean by belonging?’ with the researcher, Mirabel, and to share your ideas and views about future research in an informal, face-to-face session. 

The exhibition showcases artwork from the belonging project, funded by Coventry City of Culture.  The exhibition images represent different meanings of belonging and connectedness expressed through creative media.  We asked this because we wanted to develop research to better understand belonging to help people have better mental health and wellbeing.  The exhibition is available at Coventry Central Library from 13th-20th November 2023. 

What’s it about?

Our research suggests that promoting belonging is important for suicide prevention for autistic and non-autistic people but may be experienced and expressed differently by autistic people. 

Who’s leading the event?

This event is led by Mirabel Pelton is a PhD researcher at Coventry University exploring suicide theory with autistic people and Research Assistant at Newcastle University on the Autism Adapted Safety Plan feasibility trial.  Mirabel’s research is focussed on understanding and preventing suicide amongst autistic adults and her expertise has been called upon by international, national and local policy makers. 

Mirabel is committed to productive partnership between autistic people and researchers to better understand and reduce suicide rates.

Open to

Everyone. All young people (under 18s) must be accompanied by an adult.

Of particular interest to

This walking tour with informal discussion is intended for anyone interested in hearing about this topic, including autistic and non-autistic people, those working or living with autistic people, and researchers.

This walking tour with informal discussion follows a webinar describing our research underpinning UK suicide prevention strategy, outlining novel research to further our understanding of belonging and practical, creative initiatives to promote belonging.  The webinar is free to attend and can be booked here.

Event booking deadline