On the 9th of May we had our first in-person event, bringing together all Community Voice Champions, Co-Investigators and members of the core team. Hosted at Kingston University, this event was intended as an opportunity for the research team to ‘sense check’ their findings together with the Community Voice Champions to identify any gaps, elaborate on existing data and reflect on the research process as a whole.
The event began with a focus on Work Package 1, facilitated by the work package lead, Dr Meg Jensen. Meg revisited the aims of the project and the methodologies she and the Community Voice Champions had used to collect data in Work Package 1. She then shared how that data had been analysed, as well as some word clouds that had been created during an online session with all Community Voice Champions, discussing emotional associations to places that felt welcoming or unsafe in the Community Voice Champions’ local areas. This was based on interviews that Community Voice Champions had conducted with members of their communities.
Meg then introduced some interactive exercises to the room, where Community Voice Champions and Co-Investigators were asked to identify any gaps in the data and its findings, and to share any feedback on the structure and delivery of the work package in relation to the Project’s aims.
The second half of the day focused on Work Package 2, led by Dr Pete Garside. Research Fellows Dr Silke Zschomler and Francesca Taylor presented the findings of both the Community Research Hub-based activities, such as focus groups and community walks, and the interviews with social prescribers. These were also conducted as part of Work Package 2, to better understand the social prescribing process from the perspective of the social prescribers themselves. Silke and Francesca then invited Community Voice Champions and Co-Investigators again to identify any data gaps, misunderstandings or findings that needed refining.
Once the presentations and feedback sessions were complete, we broke for lunch. Drawing on my experience of attending the community walks, I designed posters that visually represented the places we visited and remarks they’d produced. Posters included place names and corresponding quotes, as well as the names of places that were mentioned during the walk but were not visited on the day. On May 9th, these posters were then annotated by Community Voice Champions with their respective Co-Investigators to better reflect the cultural and green community assets in their local area.
Finally, lunch was served by the catering team at Kingston University and Tom James, Kingston’s Senior Communications Advisor, took a celebratory group picture on the roof garden next door.
The atmosphere during the day was both hopeful and sombre. The recent council and national cuts to healthcare services were raised by Community Voice Champions and Co-Investigators, who shared their concerns about the future of social prescribing in a climate of unpredictable funding. While worrying, these concerns highlighted the importance of work done on-the-ground with, by and for communities to support their members living with ill mental health. The event was a great success, as not only were the findings enriched by the Community Voice Champions earnest feedback, but new connections between Community Research Hubs were formed – and each Hub got to take their posters home with them!
First row, left to right: Community Voice Champions and Co-Investigators during sense-checking of Work Package 1 findings; Reach Foundation discussing their Work Package 2 poster; Connect: North Korea annotating their Work Package 2 poster.
© The Abundance Project, UAL & Kingston University