Coventry University and the Council brought together people from voluntary and community organisations across the city to collaborate on training courses.
Coventry University and the Council brought together people from voluntary and community organisations across the city to collaborate on enhancing the University’s longstanding ‘community researchers’ course and a ‘co-creating wellbeing’ course.
Delivered through the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), the courses will run later this year and provide the voluntary sector and members of the public with the skills and knowledge to conduct meaningful research within their own communities.
The goal of the HDRC is to improve our understanding of how different factors impact our lives and health, including the environments where we live, our housing, jobs, education, and early years experiences.
The involvement of residents and those working in communities within this research is crucial.
This interactive and creative workshop brought together the collective expertise and experiences of those working in Coventry communities to shape the training and ensure it’s accessible, interesting, and reflective of our diverse communities - as well as showing how research could help them better provide services in communities.
Grace Haynes, Head of People & Culture at Coventry City Council, led the event and emphasised the importance of collaboration.
She said: "I had the pleasure of leading a community engagement event with my colleague Dr Maxine Whelan from Coventry University. The focus of this event was to share with our diverse community organisations how they can better make use of research to tackle some of the issues they face when trying to deliver their services to the diverse communities across our city. It was an excellent collaboration event and we’ve had such wonderful feedback.”
A colleague from one of the voluntary organisations that attended said: “This was a great opportunity to network and provide feedback. It was a relaxed atmosphere with lots of opportunities to have open and frank discussions.”
If you’re interested in finding out more about the HDRC or either of the two courses mentioned, contact the team at CoventryHDRC@coventry.gov.uk