New Publications on Lay Engagement in Public Health

Good news! Colleagues at the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Metropolitan University have  had two papers on  lay  engagement in public health programmes published in high quality, peer-reviewed academic journals. Think they will be well worth a read if this is your bag...

Both articles focus on the subject of lay or citizen engagement in the delivery of public health programmes and will help disseminate the  findings from the People in Public Health Project to those involved in third sector research, policy making or practice.

Details of the two are as follows:

 

1) ‘Citizens bridging the gap? Interpretations of volunteering roles in two public health projects’  

Published in Voluntary Sector Review. It explores the role of volunteers in a neighbourhood health project in a disadvantaged housing estate and a sexual health outreach project. Using interviews conducted with a variety of stakeholders it examines the rationale for citizen engagement in the delivery of public health programmes.

Reference: South, J., Branney, P., Kinsella, K., (2011) ‘Citizens bridging the gap? Interpretations of volunteering roles in two public health projects’ Voluntary Sector Review, Volume 2, Number 3, pp. 297-315(19)

2) ‘Lay perspectives on lay health worker roles, boundaries and participation within three UK community-based health promotion projects’ .

Published in Health Education Research. This examines the perspectives of community members receiving services delivered by lay health workers.  It draws from qualitative interviews with programme recipients from a breastfeeding peer support service, a walking for health scheme and a neighbourhood health project.

Reference: South, J., Kinsella, K., Meah, A., (2012) Lay perspectives on lay health worker roles, boundaries and participation within three UK community-based health promotion projects. Health Education Research; doi: 10.1093/her/cys006

Click the links to access the abstract,  Full Text or PDF for this paper.

Social Capital Measurement Framework

I heard from Lucy at the Angus Gillis Foundation in the Eastern Cape today. I visited AGF back in October whilst in South Africa for my WCMT fellowship and spent a really useful day with Lucy and colleague Kath, learning about their work with Positive Health Champions (read the post here).

Anyway...Lucy got in touch to let me know how they'd been using some of our work and thinking around demonstrating social capital as part of their evaluation planning and to do some thinking around how they capture their own impact as an organisation. Lucy said:

"We started by using the first three layers of the framework to identify examples and illustrative anecdotes in our own work. Then we discussed the different categories to see how relevant they are for the work that we do and whether we would make any amendments or additions. It was SUCH a useful tool and proved a great starting point around which to frame our thinking. It also turns out that the different dimensions of social capital that you have identified make a lot of sense in our own programme. We’re going to take it forward by using a very slightly adapted framework to help us identify, capture and communicate our impact and to formalise our M&E systems."

 Lucy sent some great pictures of the process too:

And...as a reminder, here's the framework I shared with them so you can see the links.

Great to know the framework has been useful and that my visit was mutually beneficial in so many ways!