Core Academic Co-Leads: Dr Koen Bartels (k.p.r.bartels@bham.ac.uk) and Gerald Jordan (g.jordan@bham.ac.uk)
Communities are becoming a popular policy focus for improving wellbeing. However, the effects of spatially targeted interventions are much debated, as well as the definition of communities itself. What makes a strong community, how can trust, mutual support and belonging be fostered, and who might be excluded from particular communities? The Community Renewal and Recovery theme examines the complex ways in which wellbeing takes shape in diverse places and spaces and how the notion of community is mobilised in wellbeing policy and practice. How do wellbeing relationships between communities, local authorities and third sector organisations develop, and how are communities engaged, represented and involved in decision-making around wellbeing? In the wake of the Covid pandemic, we aim to identify new ways of addressing structural wellbeing inequalities within and between communities.
Discussion Group Sessions on 'Wellbeing and Communities'
We have regular hybrid discussion groups sessions about various dimensions of wellbeing and communities. The sessions have an accessible and reflective format: a member briefly offers their perspective on the focal question to kick-start an organic conversation in which we share our diverse views and experiences. The sessions are open to anyone from across and beyond the University with an interest in wellbeing and communities, and can be joined in person or online. If you’d like to join or propose a topic, please contact the Core Academic Co-Leads.
Upcoming sessions
Doing longitudinal multi-media reasearch with communities: the experieces of Our Bigger Story
Angus McCabe (Social Policy)
Wednesday 6 March 2024, 1-2pm
Creating a community of practice: Social prescribing and structural change in community wellbeing
Koen Bartels & Elizabeth Woodcock (Public Administration and Policy)
Wednesday 17 April 2024, 1-2pm
Major events legacies: Getting the communities ready for the next major event
Xiao Liang (Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences)
Wednesday 22 May 2024, 1-2pm
Lobbying and Legacy: investing in community partners
Hannah Absalom and Darren Hartley (Public Administration and Policy and TAROE Trust)
Wednesday 12 June 2024, 1-2pm
Past discussions
The Mindset Revolution project: Strengthening youth influence on mental health through arts-based and creative methods (February 2024)
Research Better Together: Participatory Research in Social Care (February 2024)
Community-led education for 'living diversity' (January 2024)
How is wellbeing framed, measured and operationalised in policy? (June 2023)
What matters for community engagement and wellbeing in Left Behind places? (April 2023)
How can we understand the legacies of large-scale interventions for social, economic and wellbeing inequalities in local communities? (Jan 2023)
How could we strengthen connections between wellbeing policy, research and communities? (Dec 2022)
In what ways can participatory approaches help to better understand and improve urban wellbeing? (Nov 2022)
What do we understand by community and how can we study the wellbeing of different types of communities? (July 2022)
How and why do we create capacities for collaboration and empowerment around wellbeing? (March 2022)
What is wellbeing and how do we understand it in relation to communities? (Feb 2022)
Community of Practice for Community Engaged Research
The discussion group sessions are organised as part of the development of a UoB Community of Practice for Community Engaged Research. There is a growing network of colleagues across the University who are collaborating with communities through co-production, action research, participatory research, and community engagement. The aim of the Community of Practice is to facilitate participants in sharing approaches, findings, and outputs of past and ongoing projects to develop mutual understanding, connections and support. Together with the Community Collaborations Network and the Public Engagement with Research Team we are organising a broader programme of discussion group sessions, workshops, and training to develop a shared vision, resources, and strategy for supporting meaningful engagement and structural change.
Shared vision
We organised an inaugural workshop in December 2023. At the workshop, participants (both in-person and online) mapped existing partners, projects and relationships, learned about existing resources, support and networks, and developed a shared vision:
We want to create a Community of Practice that facilitates accessible, consistent and reciprocal relationships between researchers and diverse communities and organisations in Birmingham
By creating an enabling environment for meaningful communication and durable relationships
In order to become serious about being a civic university
Interactive workshop
Join this interactive hybrid workshop in which we will co-produce an action plan to turn our shared vision to become a real civic university into reality. Lunch will be provided for those attending in person.
When: Tuesday 19 March 12-2pm
Where: Beech House, Longbridge 202 (O5 on campus map) and Teams
Registration: confirm your attendance and dietary requirements here by Friday 8 March 2024.
The SPARC Network is a cross-institutional collaborative learning space of academic partners from the University of Birmingham, Bangor University, and the University of Strathclyde and practice partners from The Active Wellbeing Society (TAWS) Birmingham, Wirral ABCD Network, and Gwent Public Health. It is distinctly focused on asset-based approaches to social prescribing, addressing health inequalities, and coproducing a social model of wellbeing. It aims to be a space to share experiences, knowledge, and developments, identify opportunities for collaboration, research and change, and engage in ongoing relationship-building and learning.
Commissioned by Local Trust, this in-depth research explores how communities across England have responded to, and are recovering from, COVID-19. The study is being undertaken by a coalition of researchers, led by the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC). It explores how different communities have fared during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings, alongside multiple outputs from the research, provide an insight into the impact of crisis on communities, and the factors shaping their resilience, response and recovery.
The project explores voluntary action responses to the pandemic across the four UK nations.
This ongoing research project examines the legacies of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games for disadvantaged individuals and communities. It is led by Dr Shushu Chen, Dr Mary Quinton, Dr Jet Veldhuijzen van Zanten and Dr Mark Lee. An Institute of Advanced Studies workshop took place on Wednesday 14th September 2022 at the University of Birmingham, and included internal and external academics in presentations and discussions to explore opportunities for wider collaborative and cross-disciplinary research.