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Putting the NIHR Community Engagement Toolkit into practice ‘on the ground’ as part of the Rooted in Nature project

The Rooted in Nature programme helps people to enjoy nature-based activities as part of looking after and improving their health and wellbeing. The programme works with people who might not usually consider nature-based activities and who have health and other challenges in their lives that can be a barrier.

As well as improving the health and wellbeing of those who participate, the project aims to increase connection between health and nature-based organisations or professionals and understand how using a Social Prescribing model can increase sustainability of community activity.

Researchers from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) North East and North Cumbria (NENC) have been awarded a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to evaluate the impact of the project.

The Rooted in Nature (RiN) research team were asked if they would like to demonstrate the NIHR Community Engagement Toolkit principles ‘on the ground’ – to explore what using the toolkit in practice would look like.

The NIHR Community Engagement Toolkit is aimed at supporting researchers who are developing grant applications with, and for, diverse communities. It was launched in 2022 and has been co-produced with community partners and facilitated by the Research Design Service in the East of England, North East and North Cumbria , South Central and Yorkshire and Humber regions.

Visual blog shares how the team used the toolkit

Members of the RiN research team have produced a visual blog  to reflect on how successfully they have used the NIHR Community Engagement Toolkit to engage with people involved in the project, and cross boundaries between the academic and voluntary sectors.

You can download the visual blog, below.

The blog also considers the positive effects this has had, and the ways that engagement can be improved in future projects.

The blog is a collaborative effort between members of the RiN research and programme delivery teams who explore and describe the ways in which they have enacted these principles, the impact of doing so and what they might to do to improve upon this in future.

The development of the blog has been led by Charley McFarlane-Troy from Newcastle University, who is a research associate supporting the project.