As the classic 1988 British Telecom ad says “It’s good to talk”. And it was very good to talk about the Carewell Project with not only the University of Reading research team and Community Researchers but with the staff and trustees of the two organisations (Reading Community Learning Centre & Refugee Support Group) who were responsible for recruiting the Community Researchers and with the local representatives of policy and decision-making organisations: Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Council.
Over an informal lunch, there was animated discussion tempered by the sober realities of the experiences of those families living with care responsibilities across countries and across cultures and the challenges the Community Researchers had encountered in retrieving those stories. The feed-back was overwhelmingly positive: “I could have discussed this all day”, “my officers could never have obtained this kind of information” (a Council Lead on Housing, Neighbourhood & Communities). There was also a feeling that such meetings were vital – time and space to discuss the underlying themes and challenges rather than only “the process” as well as truly enabling interaction between the academic, voluntary, statutory and professional sectors.
