Celebrating our involvement in CommonHealth Assets

In February 2022 we published a blog sharing the news of our role in CommonHealth Assets (CHA), an ambitious new research project led by the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), examining the work, activities and impact of community-led organisations (CLOs) on health and wellbeing, with a focus on understanding what works, for whom, under what circumstances, how and at what costs.

Three years on, and as CHA comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on our involvement in this special project, which has impacted me both professionally and personally, and achieved far more than I could have envisaged at the start.

The project brought together – under the excellent leadership of Prof Rachel Baker at GCU – academic colleagues  from London, Belfast, Bournemouth and Glasgow, alongside community partners from across the UK: Annexe Communities, Healthy n Happy, Healthy Valleys, Help & Care, Getting Better Together, Colin Neighbourhood, Bogside and Brandywell, The Oak Health Living Centre, Vita Nova, Poole Communities Trust, Faith Works, Volunteer Centre Hackney, Poplar HARCA and the Bromley by Bow Centre. This mix of skills and knowledge, expertise and experience brought a depth and richness of thinking, discussion and learning to the project.

CHA has successfully worked across academic disciplines and utilised many methods over its duration, embedding traditional research methods alongside creative and innovative approaches – from participatory photography, a four timepoint longitudinal survey and Q sorts with community members, to interviews and workshops with CLO managers and stakeholders, a synthesis of government policy, an examination of the sustainability and scale of CLOs, and groundbreaking realist economic evaluation – all informing the project ‘programme theories’. These help us to understand the role of CLOs and how they work, their communities, their funding and how participants feel before and after taking part in community activities and the difference this makes to their lives. A number of academic journal articles have now been published by the research team, with many more to follow, alongside blogs sharing the project’s approach and discussing very early findings. Learning from the project will support the evidence base as to what works in supporting health and wellbeing in community settings.

A truly multi-site, multi-method and multi-disciplinary project

At the heart of CHA, and central to the collaborative approach taken, has been the Lived Experience Panel, a group of incredible individuals who have worked with us over the last three years to make sure that the project has been clearly informed by community voice. Leading, learning and developing the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) component of the project and working with this group, alongside my colleague Mohasin Ahmed, has given me a huge sense of achievement and has been a very rewarding experience.

Successfully embedding meaningful and reciprocal PPIE in the CHA project has provided a mechanism for community expertise and insights to enhance the design and delivery of the research while providing a rewarding and empowering experience for Panel members. The LEP has shaped project outputs and has strengthened the research by making sure it is relevant to communities and CLOs – increasing its chance of impact and making a real difference to local people, and their health and wellbeing and life opportunities.

Evaluation was embedded at the centre of the LEP to ensure ongoing learning and improvement. This allowed us to assess, with confidence, the overall impact of being part of the Panel for those involved, and the contribution of the Panel to the CommonHealth Assets project. We are now working on the final evaluation report which captures this impact fully, and will share this shortly.

Alongside the LEP, we have travelled around the country to visit and see firsthand the important work of CLOs, whilst working hard to provide valuable insights and advice to the research team. These visits were also an occasion to create memories together: an outing to the beach in Bournemouth, an open-top bus ride in Belfast, a tour of the Bromley By Bow centre in London, and visits to Glasgow’s Kelvingrove museum and the MacIntosh House at Glasgow University. Throughout this journey I have learned a lot from Panel members about their lives, communities and ambitions for the future, including the things that affect these, and the importance of their involvement in the research that shapes their lives.

We have shared much of our learning from working with the LEP along the way through our blog series, reports and videos – where you will get a sense of the work that we have done together, our approach and learning, and hopefully also a sense of the fun we have had in the process.

Although the project officially finished at the end of February, the writing of research findings, the sharing of learning, and our work with the community organisations to put the findings into practice will continue for some time to come. We will carry on sharing new project outputs on our website and socials.

On behalf of GCPH, I am proud to have been part of the CHA team and to have had the opportunity to learn, travel and work with colleagues from across the UK and to build partnerships for the future, with colleagues who share a passion for research and evidence, and who value and recognise the importance of the community and voluntary sector and its role in responding to and mitigating the daily experiences and challenges of health inequalities and poverty.