Role of the Community Researchers and contribution to the project

What is a Community Researcher?

An individual who lives within, and has a detailed understanding of, a particular 'community' and uses this knowledge to facilitate the gathering and interpretation of information from community members.

Why are Community Researchers important?

They bring to a research project a unique perspective and particular skills. They contribute to the research process by:

• Articulating the experience of the research participants in their own language.
• Helping the university researchers to see things the way people in the community see them.
• Alerting the researchers to issues/topics of importance that may be overlooked and thereby guiding the research focus.
• Providing a link between the researchers and community members to increase trust and confidence.
• Advising the researchers of culturally-appropriate ways of carrying out the research, particularly alerting them to possible sensitivities or difficult issues and situations.
• Identifying suitable locations and respondents who are willing to talk and share their experiences.

The aim is to do research with the community rather than on the community; to gain insights into the lived experiences of individuals and families.

Who are the Community Researchers in this project?

Around 10 CRs were recruited from a variety of backgrounds. Because we want to speak with and understand the perspectives of a wide range of people, our CRs include both men and women, younger and older individuals, and people from the Ghanaian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and White English 'communities'.

What are the Community Researchers doing in this project?

CRs have been working alongside the university researchers in phase one of the fieldwork. They have received briefing and training and have carried out an information gathering exercise over a period of about a week in an identified 'community'. The CRs collected information from community members using a variety of tools in a number of different locations. CRs were provided with tools and guidelines to enable them to collect relevant information through observation, informal conversations, partly structured interviews and group discussions. CRs also participated in a de-briefing session following the fieldwork to bring together all the information that was gathered and to interpret its meanings.

Depending on experience and availability, some of the CRs are also participating in phase two of the fieldwork which involves detailed interviews with selected individuals.