Research for what? Making an impact with community-led action research

Ironically, we hear the term ‘impact’ being used so often that it can be in danger of losing its power. But the real-life stories from Knowledge is Power’s support to groups to carry out their own research should give this topic a bit more ‘impact’!

What is impact?

Impact can be about improving your activities, such as in the case of Dunterlie Foodshare in East Renfrewshire, who carried out a survey with foodshare recipients. It can be about improving services, such as Shetland Community Connections, whose research into the disabled access of venues and services in Shetland has led to commitments by providers to act on the issues raised in their report. Alternatively, change can be about wider attitudes in the community. Moray Wellbeing Hub and Community Action Blackburn have sought to use their research to raise awareness of neurodiversity and firework safety respectively. Both groups have developed engaging videos to help them to do this.

Importantly, there is a need to manage expectations when it comes to research and positive change. Understandably, communities and commissioners have high hopes that community-led action research will lead to better solutions and ways forward for communities and public services. We always try and emphasise that communities doing their own research make an important contribution to influencing change, but won’t change the world overnight! It’s also worth remembering how long it has taken endless academic and scientific research findings on things like smoking and climate change to filter through into policy change (and these battles aren’t over yet).

Where we can be even more certain about the impact of community-led action research is in terms of the benefits for community researchers (those who are supported to carry out community-led action research). Relatively well-documented benefits of communities leading on research include increases in skills and confidence. For instance, Falkirk Youth Initiative reported a marked increase in the confidence and skills of young people who participated as community researchers, including in relation to online learning tools and methods.

A less well-discussed benefit for the researchers is in terms of group-validation. Some community-led action research has highlighted the value of the work that a community group has undertaken, and this can provide an important source of motivation and encouragement. For instance, Dunterlie Foodshare researched the ‘magic’ of volunteering in the Foodshare. In their own words:

“Every one of us got something from this experience and I’m pretty sure most of us ended up in happy tears. In particular, we discovered how close a bond we had formed during the pandemic.” (Dunterlie Foodshare’s Knowledge is Power report).

Sometimes, the dual impact of improving services and benefits to community researchers are both felt at once. This has been the case for Dundee group Taking Up Sophie’s Fight, some of whose members have gone on to shape the development of a 24-hour mental health crisis centre in Dundee as well as a Mental Wealth Academy in the city. As in all good ‘co-production’ it’s not hard to see that the further involvement of communities in shaping services has benefits for everyone taking part as well as for local services.

All about the action

Knowledge is Power supported groups to build ‘action’ into their research from the start. Groups were asked to consider: What are you trying to achieve with your research? How will you use your research to get there? Who are the important people to connect with?

As can be seen from the examples listed above, this support paid off with groups being able to take forward action that had, or is having, some real impact. We also learned from Knowledge is Power that more can be done to ensure community-led action research has as much impact as possible. We would therefore like to see more resources and time invested in the ‘action stage’ in future programmes supporting this approach. SCDC is currently a partner in an NHS England-funded programme of support for community-led action research in the South East of England, Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR), which has brought in specialist support to help groups influence services through their research.

Prepare for impact

The learning from Knowledge is Power is part of a growing body of evidence showing the value and impact of community-led approaches to research. By putting the power of gathering and using evidence into the hands of communities, the approach has also shown its potential as a key tool for realising current policy ambitions in Scotland around community empowerment, community wealth building (and other place-based approaches) and public service reform (particularly in relation to the coproduction or co-design of public services).

SCDC will be continuing to work with partners from a range of sectors to explore ways of investing further into support for community-led action research so that many more communities benefit from the impact it can have.

Find out more