Community Engagement Toolkit

This toolkit aims to support researchers and community partners to develop health and care research projects together.

It has been co-created by Voluntary Organisations’ Network North East (VONNE), National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) partners through Creating Connections, and several Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the North East and North Cumbria.

Why did we develop this toolkit?

We know that health and care research is more relevant and more useful when it is shaped by a broad range of communities, including those who are most marginalised in society. We also know that VCSE organisations often work with these underserved communities and have trusted links that are integral to involving these groups. However, for researchers and VCSE organisations to collaborate effectively on research projects, there are a range of practicalities and challenges to think through.

We co-produced the toolkit’s resources with community partners through a series of workshops, to help address some of these challenges, and provide both VCSE organisations and researchers with practical tools to help them work together more effectively.

10 Guiding Principles:

The 10 Guiding Principles show our community partners’ views on how they would like researchers to engage with them, to build inclusive, sustainable partnerships.

They were co-produced with community partners involved across four Reaching Out Projects facilitated by the NIHR Research Design Service (RDS). Click here to find out more about the background to this work and the Reaching Out projects.

10 Guiding Principles

Small screenshot of a page of the 10 Guiding Principles document, which shows some text that says "2. Find trusted community workers/leaders who can help broker introductions with wider communities" and some illustrations that show a fishing net, some people shaking hands, a door, a tree and an acorn

In this resource, community partners share guidance on building inclusive, sustainable partnerships when developing health and care research projects together.

Animation

A screenshot of the video showing some text that says Principle 3: respect the vast knowledge and experience of communities, with illustrations underneath of two people, with text that says Everyone's view is equally important. The people are hand drawn stick figures, and they have speech bubbles beside them, overlapping with the text.

For people who prefer an audio-visual resource, VONNE created an animation of the 10 Guiding Principles.

Putting the principles into practice:

VONNE and community partners produced resources to support early conversations between researchers and VCSE organisations. These practical tools are designed to guide open, clear discussions about priorities, timescales, funding and more.

Screenshot of the front cover of the resource, which shows text that says Considerations before agreeing to an initial conversation with a researcher. The text is in a green thought bubble, shown above the heads of two women. The women are illustrated in a cartoon style and both are wearing hijabs (head scarf worn by some Muslim women). They are sitting round a table where there is tea and cake.

Considerations before agreeing to an initial conversation

Time is precious for VCSE organisations. Most organisations don’t have dedicated staff for work relating to research, meaning that taking the time to meet for an initial conversation with a researcher can be difficult when capacity is already stretched.

This resource intends to provide a framework and a traffic light system to help VCSE organisations decide whether it could be valuable to have initial exploratory conversations.

It is also helpful for researchers to understand the stretched capacity of the VCSE sector, and the things that organisations must consider when deciding where to dedicate one of their most valuable resources, time.

Screenshot of the front page of the resource, with text that says Exploring a potential partnership for research. There is a blue speech bubble that has text in it that says A conversation guide, and underneath the bubble there is text that says for VCSE sector and research-based partners. There is a small illustration of two women shaking hands and text that says Good to meet you.

Conversation guide for VCSE and research-based partners: Exploring a potential partnership for research

When both partners have reached the point of wanting to take discussions about a research project forward, this guide aims to support both parties to have a productive conversation about working together. Often VCSE organisations and researchers want to work together but may be unsure of what questions should be asked in these initial discussions. Historically, VCSE partners have felt that the agenda is often set by the researcher.

The guide includes advice on how to prepare for the conversation, what questions to ask, and important topics to cover. It aims to put both partners on an equal footing and remove any power imbalances, encouraging more positive and reciprocal research partnerships.

Screenshot of the front page of the resource, which shows the illustrated research cycle, which is a series of illustrations connected in a circle. There is text in the middle of the circle of illustrations that says The Research Process. The rest of the illustrations are small and the text is too small to read but all show different icons that represent parts of the cycle, e.g. a piggy bank for grant applications, a laptop for data analysis, a magnifying glass for evaluation and a pair of binoculars for identifying the research topic.

The research process: Points of opportunity for involvement of the VCSE sector

VCSE organisations are most often approached to be involved when the research project is underway, perhaps to participate in a focus group or feed into a survey. While this is still valuable, this resource intends to highlight different points of opportunity for VCSE organisations to be involved in research at all points in the process.

The resource aims to encourage researchers to think more creatively about how they can work with VCSE partners, especially in shaping projects, sharing findings, and implementing changes informed by the research. Likewise, it intends to empower VCSE organisations to see the value that they can add to projects at different stages.

A screenshot of the video, which shows a speech bubble with a women's head in it - this is a still image taken from the video. The image is in black and white and the woman has long, light hair and is wearing glasses. There is text beside the image that says Megan Hardiman, Projects Coordinator, Elders Council of Newcastle. There are illustrations on the screenshot too which show two cartoon heads and text that says Be responsive, communicate regularly, feed back any outcomes and say thank you.

Video: Applying the principles of the Community Engagement Toolkit

This video features reflections on how the Community Engagement Toolkit’s 10 guiding principles have been applied in practice and showcases positive examples of this.  It intends to bring these guiding principles to life and features colleagues from the VCSE and research sectors who have been involved in co-producing these resources. You can find the British Sign Language version below.

A screenshot of the video, which shows a speech bubble with a women's head in it - this is a still image taken from the video. The image is in black and white and the woman has her hair tied back and is wearing glasses. There is text beside the image that says Samantha Drude, Youth and Community Team Leader, People First Independent Advocacy. There is a woman in the bottom right of the screen who is a British Sign Language Interpreter. She is signing, with her thumb pointing upwards. There are illustrations on the screenshot too which show a spade and some text that says Do the groundwork and prepare.

Video: Applying the principles of the Community Engagement Toolkit (British Sign Language)

This version of the video has British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation.

We would like to thank the individuals who were involved in the creation of these resources for offering their time and expertise to improve collaboration between the VCSE and research sectors. We would also like to thank the NIHR Centre for Engagement and Dissemination (now the NIHR Central Commissioning Facility) for funding this work.

An illustration that shows a clock, a clipboard with a sheet of paper and on the paper there is text that says take time to find their agenda. The text on the clock says time precious. There is text beside the clock that says Respect priority is needs and interests of the group.

The illustrations were created by artist Bethan Laker in collaboration with North East and North Cumbria Reaching Out partners. Filming and narration were led by Amy Langdown and the films were edited by Roots and Wings CIC. A huge thank you to all creative partners who supported this work.