Strong collaboration between research and practice in new grants from VELUX FONDEN: From constructive climate journalism to homeless initiative

Depressing climate news fills the news: tennis ball-sized hail, cloudbursts and floods. As a reader, you feel paralysed, but can climate journalism be critical and constructive at the same time? One of five new research projects will investigate this.

Concrete solutions to current societal challenges. That is the aim for the research projects supported through the HUMpraxis programme at VELUX FONDEN. One of the five projects that has just received funding deals with climate journalism. Media on Funen will become a living laboratory that will test out whether more solution-oriented journalism motivates viewers and readers to do something for the climate.

The way things are now, the frequent bad news can cause listeners to lose any hope of being able to make a difference:  

About HUMpraxis

The HUMpraxis programme focuses on finding concrete solutions to current societal challenges through collaboration between researchers from the human and social sciences and practitioners from the environment and social fields, or transition to adulthood and changes. The HUMpraxis programme thereby draws VELUX FONDEN’s various grant areas together.

The goal is to create original research results and translate them into sustainable solutions that can promote a democratic and sustainable society built on an informed and inclusive foundation.

HUMpraxis 2023

VELUX FONDEN has received 92 expressions of interest for this year’s HUMpraxis field of applicants. The five projects awarded grants have been selected from the 14 projects that were invited to submit a full application based on their expressions of interest, for evaluation by external experts. The five projects will receive a total of DKK 28 million. 

“A one-sided focus on disasters and serious consequences in coverage of the climate crisis can be very discouraging for receivers, because fear of how things will end can leave people paralysed. They need to believe that they are capable of acting and that their actions will make a difference. We will therefore investigate how news coverage can highlight positive cases and possible solutions, and contribute to more climate-friendly behaviour among citizens,” explains Morten Skovsgaard, Professor with Special Responsibilities, from the Centre for Journalism at the University of Southern Denmark.

The idea is that a different and more constructive coverage of the climate crisis can bridge the gap between citizens' opinions and actions. Fyens Stiftstidende and TV2 Fyn, together with consulting firm Room of Solutions, will be responsible for the constructive angle on climate coverage in practice.

Strengthening the impact of research

The project on climate journalism is well aligned with VELUX FONDEN's vision of working to empower people in a democratic and sustainable society. As are the four other HUMpraxis projects in the social sphere. These are all about empowering people in various ways – whether working as a volunteer with homeless people, welcoming people with anxiety at a pharmacy, being part of an ethnic minority at an upper secondary school or working with social counselling services. The projects all focus on creating new knowledge and solutions to current challenges in society:

“The HUMpraxis programme is quite unique. The aim is to support long-term, mutually respectful and interactive collaboration between research and practice to address specific challenges. The two branches can thereby shape each other, so that the knowledge gained is translated into concrete changes and solutions in practice. This will allow the research to have a much more direct impact in society,” explains Henrik Tronier, Programme Manager for VELUX FONDEN's grant area within humanities and social sciences.

The five new projects will receive grants totalling DKK 28 million.

Volunteers' efforts in Housing First

One of the other projects for this year will work with volunteer network friends for the homeless. Homeless citizens are offered support from professional support workers in the transition to living in their own home, but this is not always enough. The volunteer network friends can complement the efforts of the support workers and help the homeless person establish a home, thrive in the local area and retain their new home.

“Homeless people often have complex social problems and experience loneliness and social isolation, which can make it difficult for them to enjoy a good life in their own home. But volunteer network friends can help,” says Associate Professor Catharina Juul Kristensen from the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University, who is the head of research on the project.

The volunteers and the homeless persons meet each other as equals who have chosen to build a friendship. This provides a unique basis for addressing loneliness and social isolation. But the Homeless Reform of 2023 places new demands on housing support work in shelters and in municipalities. The goal is for homeless citizens to only stay in a shelter for three months before being offered housing. This means less time than previously to support them and prepare them for life in their own homes. This is not without problems, because involving volunteers in the support work does not happen by itself, Catharina Juul Kristensen notes.

It is therefore both relevant and important to develop new methods for involving the volunteers in the work of building a meaningful life for the formerly homeless persons, and countering the loneliness that can arise when living alone.

Conversation in focus

The third of this year's projects under the HUMpraxis programme, RÅDVILD, focuses on the use of the more than 175 counselling services available to citizens in vulnerable life situations. The fourth project, ‘How to talk about medicine’, will focus on how pharmacies can become a comfortable place for citizens with anxiety and depression to visit. The last project, ‘Cross-cultural communities’, will explore opportunities for promoting community between young people with ethnic minority and majority backgrounds in upper secondary school. The five projects are further described below.  

Read more about the five new HUMpraxis projects:

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