Impactful research on child development relies on the community engaging with both the projects and services on offer, and the research itself.
The Community Research Advisory Group
Communities have a vital contribution to make to research and we have worked to develop systems to ensure community members can support our research and evaluations by sharing feedback with us about the appropriateness and acceptability of tools and methods.
To do this, we set up a Community Research Advisory Group, made up of members of the public living in the Better Start Bradford area. The group meet regularly to advise us on everything from information leaflets to how we can explain our research to the world. Our aim is to foster and build a trusting relationship which will be harnessed by further developing participatory approaches whereby community members will take an active part in research in a co-productive way.
What has our research told us about Community Engagement so far?
At the beginning of the programme we set out to use qualitative methods to understand how ready and willing communities living in the three wards were to tackle the issues identified as the primary outcomes of the programme. Findings from this research suggested that participation in projects aimed at improving social and emotional health and nutrition and physical health was likely to be low in certain communities.
We used this to work directly with services and help them adjust intervention to increase uptake and ensure the community was ready for participation.
Theme summary written by Sara Ahern
the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub 