Ten community-led research projects to reshape local health services
“Yesterday we were the ones advocating, today we are the ones bringing change.” – Noorullah Sidiqi, Community Researcher (Health Inequalities Among Afghan Women in Hampshire)
This report aims to celebrate and amplify the work of the community researchers who took part in our Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR) Cohort Three, showcasing what each project set out to understand, what researchers learned, and how organisations are already acting on insights. The research shines a spotlight on experiences that are often missing from formal decision-making – particularly among groups experiencing health inequalities.
People who design and deliver health services are under constant pressure to make the right decisions with limited time and resources. Voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector organisations – working every day to support healthy communities – hold insights that statutory services cannot access alone.
The Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR) programme, trains staff and volunteers from these organisations in community research. Researchers use their trusted relationships and lived experience to reveal how services are experienced, where they fall short, and how health inequalities manifest locally. This kind of grounded intelligence rarely appears in routine data, yet it often determines whether well-intentioned plans become services that actually work. And the legacy that CPAR leaves behind is a trained workforce, that can (with appropriate resource) continue their work in community research engagement, and participation.
This report was written by Houda Davis and Lara Bautista.
