Community engagement and co-design Peri O’Shea and Karen Fisher December 2018
Community engagement in research Why – engagement to participate and act on research Expertise – consumers, representatives, community members Research quality – relevance, validity, stakeholder ownership Capacity building – public, researchers and policy makers Sensitive to consumer needs, concerns, outcomes Impact – policy, practice and social change How Governance, advisors, partners, researchers Examples UNSW Community Reference Panel https://csrh.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/centre/community- reference-panel/ Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE) Coproduction network www.scie.org.uk/coproductionnetwork/index.asp
Context of academic research Power relations typically asymmetrical Excludes people from the process of framing their experience Research initiated and funded by government, academics or community Research purpose usually to influence government and practitioners
Changes to our inclusive research practice Collaborate with NGOs and advocacy organisations Pay people with lived experience to be researchers and advisors Wider range of methods – observations, case studies, photos, films Critically analyse role of support people in methods Refine use of easy read materials in research methods and reports
What researchers need to do better Invest in infrastructure to make collaboration happen within research institutions – to develop mutual capacity Between NGOs, industry, universities, government Invest in relationships with NGOs Invest in tertiary education of people with lived experience - pathways to research Employ people with lived experience in research
Public distribution of research results Why Evidence based policy and knowledge translation theories Stakeholder management in policy process Public resources How and challenges Written – public report, summary report, academic publication Interaction – presentations, workshops, training Feedback to participants – accessible summaries Example HASI reports www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/evaluation-of-cls-and-hasi/ Inform implementation, quality, policy
Resources Disability policy projects and publications www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/research/areas/disability/ My Choice Matters evaluation www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/my-choice-matters-evaluation-/ Maximising life choices of people with spinal cord injury www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/research-into-maximising-life-choices-of-people-with-spinal-cord-injury/ Cousins, J. B. et al. (2016) How do evaluators differentiate successful from less-than-successful experiences with collaborative approaches to evaluation? Evaluation Review. doi:10.1177/0193841x16637950
Resources Participatory research to manage policy conflict Fisher, K.R. and Robinson, S. (2010), ‘Will policy makers hear my disability experience? How participatory research contributes to managing interest conflict in policy implementation,’ Social Policy and Society. 9(2), 207-20. Inclusive research www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/media/SPRCFile/2014_Different_ways_to_do_research_booklet.pdf Evaluation toolkit http://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/programs_and_services/policy_makers_toolkit/evaluation_toolkit BetterEvaluation http://betterevaluation.org/
Resources Research and evaluation plans, projects and publications https://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au Peri O’Shea peri@xperienhance.com 0418 455 562 karen.fisher@unsw.edu.au 9385 7800