Research Intern (Find A Solution 2025)

This internship is part of the Find a Solution programme which brings together current students and local Third Sector organisations to tackle issues of strategic importance through projects that will have a lasting impact. The role will be for a total of 160 hours, to be worked flexibly between June and September (to be discussed with successful candidate). This role is being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA), and therefore is only open to PGT and PGR students in the College of Social Sciences. The charity is celebrating its 30-year anniversary and its founder, and some of the staff and Board of that time are still present in the charity or amongst its members, however we are concerned that we might lose the institutional memory of the origins of the independent living movement and our organisation in that. We would like to develop a publication that tells the history of the independent movement in Scotland, all that it has achieved, and the role of our charity in it to coincide with our anniversary. The document when produced will be published and publicised at an event being held in the Scottish Parliament on 17 September 2025 and this will be attended by MSP's, Scottish Government Ministers, and we expect there to be an MSP sponsored debate to acknowledge our 30-year anniversary and our achievements. We are working with an external public affairs agency to support this, and a strong political and media profile is expected. The publication will be a lasting legacy of our achievements and will be an authoritative publication of the history of not just us, but the wider movement to which we belong. We expect this to be of interest to future generations of social historians and policy makers as well as disabled people themselves. With the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary elections, we hope the document would remind Scottish politicians across all parties of the need to preserve and build on the legacy that has been achieved but also remind them that the work to challenge the barriers that disabled people face is not finished. Main duties & responsibilities - Undertaking desk-based research on the independent living movement and how it developed in Scotland, accessing archive documents, previous research, media and policy documents, reviewing archive of the charity itself - Planning, undertaking and keeping records of structured interviews with key people in the organisation's history, and other colleagues in the wider independent living movement and people whom we have supported in the present and past. - Working with the senior staff team to plan a document that will be impactful, accessible and a lasting legacy of our work - Draft, consult and finalise for publication a document that can be published to celebrate our achievements, and reflect its impact. This will include presenting plans and drafts to our Board of Directors - Work with our public affairs agency to understand how the publication will be used to further the cause of disabled people, including influencing plans for a Parliamentary reception and associated political and media activity. - Support plans for wide dissemination in a range of formats to ensure that it can be accessed by a wide range of people, producing summaries, and content for social media activity.

GCIL is a disabled people-led organisation. We believe in the social model of disability; that barriers disable people, not impairments. This belief is central to everything that we do. GCIL works to the principles of inclusive living; freedom of choice and control over one's life and life supports. We are a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee, set up in 1995.