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This thesis explores community based research and evaluation within the social regeneration context of Objective 1, South Yorkshire. This project explores the potential contribution of community based research and evaluation to social regeneration programmes. Community based approaches are assessed in terms of how they provide feedback and their role in capacity building within the Objective 1 Programme. This thesis argues that community based research can contribute to regeneration programmes and is therefore a suitable vehide for use within such contexts. Addressing the experiences and perceptions of participants and stakeholders involved in community based research, this thesis adopted a qualitative approach to explore how such approaches are used and the types of approaches that exist in practice. The study highlights several types of community based research and the dynamics operating to influence such approaches. The barriers that exist within regeneration contexts are examined, alongside the benefits of using such approaches at both the level of the individual and the level of the community. Finally, the linkages between community based research and social capital are explored with particular attention paid to networking. Despite the lack of literature discussing community based research approaches within regeneration contexts, literature from the health, social welfare and evaluation fields is drawn upon to highlight areas for empirical exploration. Key themes derived from the literature are empirically and analyticlly examined within the thesis to answer the five research questions underpinning the study. Community based research is argued to achieve development work goals as well as creating visible local impacts resulting from the interaction of the research and development work. However, there are caveats to the range of benefits described. Therefore, the thesis makes clear policy recommendations in relation to applying community based research within regeneration.

Focus: This thesis gathers data from street sex workers who work in the Managed Approach (MA) in Leeds. Current literature fails to focus on physical or mental health measures, or long-term conditions. Rather, there is a tendency in the sex worker literature to focus on harm reduction, drug use and addiction, and to consider only the risks they pose to others (Department of Health, 2014, Putnis and Burr, 2019). Street sex workers face extreme health inequalities, and without fully understanding the nature or extent of their experiences, from the women's perspective, little can be done to address these. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature using the following research questions. • From the women's perspectives, what are sex-working women's patterns of engagement with health care providers? • From the women's perspectives, what are the critical junctures at which they do and do not seek professional assistance? • What is the impact of criminalisation, stigma, bias on their health outcomes? • What are the implications of these findings for future policy and service provision? Methods: Using Feminist Constructivism, timelines were used alongside semi structured qualitative interviews to capture the women's critical decision-making in their health seeking behaviours. Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse both the timelines and the transcribed interviews - comprising of 16 interviews and timelines from seven interviewees. Findings and Discussion: From the TA, 3 meta narrative threads were generated: service provision; stigma and bias; and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma and experiences. A key unique contribution of this thesis is the evidence that substantiates both the need to advocate for decriminalisation of sex work, and the decriminalisation of possession of drugs for personal use, if street sex worker health inequalities are to be addressed. Additionally, the rich narrative data provided by the creative methods used that gives a first-hand account of the sex workers' experiences in healthcare. Activist Pedagogy (Aslet, 2014) is identified as a strategic tool for development. A further contribution is methodological, and this thesis demonstrates effectively how creative methods can be used to work with underserved populations.