Community Wellness and Health
As part of its core values, PCVS prioritises community health and wellbeing and believes that everyone deserves the best holistic health care and overall wellbeing possible regardless of their race, religion, political belief, economic or social background.
JOY Platform Awareness and Engagement
Project Outcomes: The JOY platform awareness and engagement project successfully raised the visibility and accessibility of the platform within local community organisations. The project aimed to increase knowledge of JOY and improve digital literacy across VCS organisations and communities. Key activities included outreach efforts, training sessions, and participation in various local events.
Challenges and Learning:
- Digital literacy, especially among elderly populations and minority communities, remains a significant barrier to platform adoption.
- Cultural and language barriers also impacted the level of interest and usage of the JOY platform.
- The project successfully engaged key stakeholders, though ongoing efforts are needed to increase adoption and understanding of the platform’s value.
Conclusion: The project significantly raised awareness of the JOY platform, reaching over 200 organisations and 500 individuals, with tangible increases in platform sign-ups and user engagement. Future efforts will focus on improving digital inclusion and addressing cultural challenges to further embed JOY into community support systems.
Key Outcomes
- 34 organisations signed up to the JOY platform.
- 6 digital literacy training sessions were delivered to improve understanding and usage of JOY.
- 500 flyers were distributed at events to increase awareness of JOY.
- Over 200 organisations were directly engaged, with targeted outreach to VCS groups and businesses.
- Events included presentations at cultural festivals, health and wellness workshops, and networking events with more than 150 attendees across the year.
- 5 local community organisations and 2 social prescribers participated in JOY-related workshops and awareness sessions.
- ESOL students in partnership with Gladca integrated JOY into their curriculum, reaching several dozen new arrivals.
Reaching the Community:
- Engaged with more than 500 individuals through community events, festivals, and direct outreach efforts.
- Health and wellness events attracted over 200 attendees, with JOY promoted through activities in local businesses, community hubs, and healthcare settings.
- The survey results indicate that 52% of participants had heard of JOY by November 2024, and 26% had accessed the platform, reflecting a positive increase in platform engagement.
Health Research Project
The aims of the project were to increase awareness of, and participation in, health research amongst underrepresented communities; development of health networks between medical professionals and academics; decrease health inequalities amongst the general population. It linked medical professionals and researchers together better than before, meaning that research was not duplicated; researchers had better access to underrepresented communities for research and this is leading to a reduction in health inequalities; and communities were able to partake in health research to better improve their health outcomes.
Community Research Champions
PCVS, working with the Clinical Research Network, as part of the “REND 2” project, trained 17 individual Research Champions from 9 different community and faith groups. We trained the Research Champions over three sessions, so they understood health research, why and how it’s done, and why it is important for health research to reflect the diversity of our society, especially about health inequalities and improving health and social care services for all. The Research Champions had conversations with their communities to understand the barriers to research and worked with them to overcome these barriers to research participation. Their insights are valuable learning for researchers who are working with such communities.
Key Outcomes
Key outcomes included collaboration with Cambridge University Hospitals to devise a COPD research study aimed at south Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities; networking meeting between the community research champions, researchers, academics, health professionals, local authority; recruitment of underrepresented groups to a Dementia research study; continuing engagement events organised by the community research champions within their communities.
The community research champions listed these as positives from the project.
Learning about research, what to expect and who to go to
Gaining new knowledge
Being inclusive, hearing from minority communities
Being part of this group is like being part of a change.
Meeting new people
Talking to our communities and learning new information about them
The training was interesting
Trying to help people in the community
Raising awareness and promoting health research
Funding for the community organisations is positive and is an incentive, it helps to host meetings and put together information.
Current Research
You can check current Research and access our database of Research-based reports here
