University of Sussex Researchers have begun analysing the innovative approaches taken by six organisations and partnerships across the country in addressing extra-familial risks faced by young people. The £1.9 million Innovate Project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, is exploring new ways of combating safeguarding risks beyond the family home, such as sexual and criminal exploitation, peer-on-peer abuse, and gang affiliation. The research, led by Professor Michelle Lefevre at the University of Sussex, launched last year with innovation mapping projects which included three reviews and a practice survey. Now the study is moving into its fieldwork stage where experts from the universities of Sussex, Oxford and Bedfordshire, and counterparts from Research in Practice and Innovation Unit, will closely study three promising frameworks supporting service development in the six case study sites.