BU Research Blog

Dear colleagues, are you involved in research which affects people who are homeless?

In the BU PIER (Public Involvement in Education and Research) Partnership, we have been collaborating on a community led project to engage with people who are homeless and vulnerably housed across Dorset on the enablers and barriers to having a voice in research and service development. The project is funded by NHS England through the Research Engagement and Network Development (REND) fund which is awarded to ICS’s (Integrated Care Systems). In Dorset, this is led by Dr Helena Posnett, Consultant in Public Health – Trust lead for Health Inequalities at Dorset Healthcare and is a collaboration between Dorset ICS, BU PIER Partnership, Bournemouth HealthBus and Lantern Trust (based in Weymouth) with PIER leading on the community led research strand. We have been using a community researcher model (engaging people with lived experience) to capture the views and experiences of those in their community.

We are hosting a stakeholder event on Monday 11^th March at the Spire in Poole to share some of this work and to bring people together to co-design more inclusive ways that people can be heard and involved. We have two or three more places for BU colleagues to attend (we are seeking to carefully balance the attendees between people from the homeless and research communities). Having researchers involved would be really valued as we seek to co-design inclusive approaches to public involvement of marginalised and seldom heard groups.

If you are interested (and available on the 11^th March), please get in touch

Mel Hughes

mhughes@bournemouth.ac.uk