{"id":1477,"date":"2025-08-05T11:18:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/food-systems-equality\/?p=1477"},"modified":"2025-08-05T11:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T10:29:59","slug":"joining-the-team-reflections-on-making-the-move-from-community-member-to-community-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/food-systems-equality\/joining-the-team-reflections-on-making-the-move-from-community-member-to-community-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Joining the Team – ‘Making the move’ from Community Member to Community Researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community Researcher (CR), Rachel Fricker, joined Brighton\u2019s research team earlier this year, having learned about the project through her participation in our chickpea meal kit workshops. Shelley Taylor (Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, BHFP) and Jessica Horne (University of Sussex) talk to Rachel about her experiences as a CR with BHFP. Rachel reflects on her participation in the workshops and how it led her to become a Community Researcher, offering insight into her experiences and our way of working with the CRs in Brighton.<\/p>\n

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Rachel\u2019s Participation in our Chickpea Meal Kit Workshops <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rachel first discovered the project through taking part in our chickpea meal kit workshops. As we\u2019ve explained in the chickpea toolkit blog<\/span><\/a><\/span>, we planned our research workshops to help us co-design our chickpea meal kit product innovation with the community in Moulsecoomb. We asked Rachel to reflect on her experience of participating in the research workshops.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/em>As Rachel explains, she had experience with meal kits and was intrigued to be part of our co-production work, which aimed to develop an affordable chickpea meal kit. We asked Rachel how she felt about participating in the research, and she reflected that:<\/p>\n

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Rachel draws attention to the stigmatising narratives related to food insecurity that local food hubs and organisations work hard to address[1]<\/span><\/a>. We asked Rachel how she found the experience of participating in the workshops after her initial reservations, and she told us that:<\/p>\n

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Community researchers are \u2018peers\u2019 of those they research due to shared characteristics, geographical proximity, and experiences[2]<\/a>.<\/span> Community researchers bring their own experiences from life and different configurations of paid and unpaid work, which they use in their roles. CR work can be a route back into paid work in the public sphere, as Rachel\u2019s case shows. In Brighton, our CRs have experience working in local food hubs, the catering industry and in public sector organisations, including Brighton and Hove City Council.<\/p>\n

In Brighton, an opening for a CR role became available towards the end of last year. As Rachel explains, Shelley advertised the role to the community members participating in our workshop.<\/p>\n

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Rachel\u2019s Involvement in Our Pilot Launch Workshop <\/strong><\/p>\n

The CRs play an important role in facilitating our workshops. Before the workshops, Shelley and Jessica work together with the community researchers to co-design the workshop questions and research activities. We meet at least twice to plan the workshops. In the first planning meeting, the team discuss draft research aims and objectives and decides which questions to ask. In the second meeting, we review the questions and give the CRs the opportunity to practice their facilitation roles. It\u2019s really important for Shelley and Jessica that the CRs have the space to share their views. We make sure that we have enough time to visualise the workshop and work at a pace that suits the needs of the team.<\/p>\n

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In our Pilot Launch workshop in April 2025, Rachel played a key role in supporting our colleagues at Reading who ran an eye tracking study. We asked Rachel how she found this process.<\/p>\n

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Here, Rachel reflects on the skills she developed as part of the \u201ceye tracking\u201d research we undertook within the workshop. She also highlights the complexity of incorporating new research methods and technologies in our research workshops, which can change how we approach data collection. After each workshop, the CRs reflect on the key learnings including what went well and what could have been done differently.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the team of CRs, including Emma and Cailen, will be analysing the data from our chickpea meal kit pilot and making adaptations to the recipes for our kit, based on participants\u2019 feedback.<\/p>\n

Key Points for Community Research <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Rachel explains how she became a community researcher after taking part in our research workshops.<\/span><\/p>\n