Community First is delighted to be working with the Worcestershire VCSE Alliance to deliver the next phase of the Research, Engagement, and Community Health (REACH) programme. The mission of REACH is to improve health and wellbeing outcomes and address health inequalities through cohesive, targeted and research-informed support for communities in Worcestershire.
The focus for the next phase of REACH is to share with VCSE organisations such as yours, skills and resources to enable you to work with your own communities to gather information and gain a deeper understanding of people’s real-life experiences and needs and record and share it in a systematic way that is accepted as valid by funders, policy makers and those who design services.
“Sandycroft is really excited to be part of the REACH project and are confident that the training being offered on Community Led Research is going to be great capacity building for our organisation.”
These skills and resources could help you to discover new details, help to develop new and existing services and help to build evidence for funding bids as well as to show the value of work that is already going on.
Because many people in our communities do not know the value of health and social care research, another vital part of this work is to empower more of the people who are often left out of planning and deciding how health and care services are delivered have their views heard by getting involved. So we are also keen to encourage conversations about health research in all our communities and support better links between community and research.
It is not all about big words, lanyards and clipboards, it is about what is matters to you and your community. People and organisations can join in at a level they feel comfortable with. Being aware of health research and why it is important; getting engaged by joining workshops or training or get involved by setting up a research project of their own.
Training will consist of 2 half day sessions held in 4 locations across Worcestershire on:
30th September and 14th October am
30th September and 14th October pm
1st October and 15th October am
1st October and 15th October pm
Venues to be confirmed. We have a small amount of limited funding to support engagement.
We are also keen to hear from anyone who has previously been involved in REACH at any level.
We want you to get involved and benefit from the training, or if you have completed the training previously, to contact us about how you are using it, or to tell us what support you need to take the next step. Please email or call to register your interest. Email: amandaw@comfirst.org.uk or call 0300 302 0458 01684 210 872
More information about REACH can be found on the Worcestershire VCSE Alliance website here: https://worcsalliance.org/community-health-research/
In partnership with VCSE organisations across Worcestershire, the Alliance is working to widen engagement in health and care research across the region to better understand and ultimately reduce health inequalities.
This work has been made possible through initial funding received from the ICS Research Engagement Network (REN) development programme and Clinical Research Network West Midlands (CRN WM).