This Small Charities Week, Raising Voices in Research is celebrating all those who have promoted and supported health research. We would like to encourage those who haven’t engaged before to come and chat to us to see how getting involved in health research can support your organisation’s mission!
Across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight there are a many small charities that support people living with, and people caring for those with a wide range of health issues. To better understand these health issues and to create treatments that work, we need health and social care research. Without it we wouldn’t have the COVID-19 vaccine, single-dose breast cancer treatment, and liver treatments – all of which have improved the health of communities across the UK (NIHR, 2021)
Our Raising Voices in Research project aims to support VCSEs – including small charities – to increase their understanding of health research and promote research participation. Previously, only certain groups of people took part in health and social care research, meaning that the outcomes of that research will likely only work for those populations. We hope that Raising Voices in Research will help improve accessibility and inclusion in health and social care research, so more communities can take part in research. By increasing the diversity of research participation, we can ensure that research outcomes, such as treatments and medicines, will work for more people.
We recently chatted to That’s TV Hampshire about this, you can view our interview here
It is a long journey to achieving this aim, but we know with the help of small charities, we can share this message and help to improve the health and wellbeing of our Hampshire and Isle of Wight communities.
Want to get involved?
Join the research collaborative, a space where Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations, community members, and researchers can come together to discuss best practice for engaging underserved communities in research and share opportunities for research participation, involvement, and engagement.
Follow this link to join the research collaborative or send us an email via enquiries@rvir.co.uk to find out more.
