Our Community Researchers, Shazna and Sajna, shared their PAR research methods with other PAR researchers at the SPRN event in June 2024, learning about building relationships with collaborators.
FoodSEqual’s Tower Hamlets community researchers travelled to the University of Sussex for the first time in June to attend a talk facilitated by the Sussex Participatory Research Network (PRN) and to see a poster of our research methods on display in the academic poster exhibition.
The visit was an opportunity for the Community Researchers both to share their work and to build their knowledge and skills by learning about other researchers’ challenges with PAR. The talk, When ‘I’ becomes ‘we’: Building long term relationships with organisations, explored ‘what goes on when we collaborate with partners, how the relationships change.’ The contributors worked within a broad range of subjects and communities – from experience of working with local schools and football clubs around the use of oracy to supporting displaced people, including building the capacity of a HE institution in Northwest Syria. Shazna reflects that ‘the whole workshop was a great insight into how research is carried out and useful tips were given. I found it very beneficial and interesting.’ The presentations made Sajna think about how ‘all researchers face many challenges carrying out their research and things don’t always run smoothly…once you overcome the obstacles and barriers…the sense of joy seeing the end results of your research is something else.’
The PRN is a developing PAR network and a community of practice to help share ‘meaning and understanding around the different methods.’ We were invited to showcase our work to the institution with a poster highlighting our methods and how our approach has shaped our research impact. For Shazna, it was ‘amazing seeing our work displayed amongst other posters. It took me back to when we saw posters of academics in Finland and now, we were standing there looking at our own.’
The PRN hosted a lunch with the CRs and key people leading the network, and the CRs have been invited back to take part in a discussion with members of the network and talk about their work.