We are pleased to welcome Sarah Wilkinson to the Worcestershire VCSE Alliance team in the new role of VCSE Community Health – Research Engagement Lead.
Sarah is a linguist and spent many years working in international organisations in Europe. With an MSc in European Policy and considerable experience in the VCSE sector and as a secondary teacher, she most recently worked at SpeakEasy N.O.W., alongside people with a learning disability, as an Engagement Coordinator.
I am passionate about supporting people to get their voices heard; meaningful change comes from listening to people’s stories. In this new role, I look forward to collaborating with VCSE partners to hear from their communities and to start addressing health inequalities.
Key to this work will be supporting community members to find out about health and care research, its impacts and how they can get involved. A particular focus for me is around removing barriers whenever possible, to ensure that the voices of people most likely to be affected by health inequalities – the so-called ‘seldom-heard’ – are amplified and form the basis of future research strategies.
Sarah will lead engagement around health and care research in Worcestershire, empowering individuals from under-represented groups to become involved as community researchers and co-designers of a framework for future research.
You can get in touch with Sarah by emailing sarah@worcsalliance.org