In 2023, UK Research and Innovation invested in a local partnership in Twerton and Whiteway, to develop a new Community Research Network. The partnership was one of twenty-five community research networks nationally, selected through a pioneering programme to empower communities to lead on research about issues that affect them.

The Twerton and Whiteway Community Research Network is led by a collaboration of four local organisations: Bath City Farm, First Steps Bath, Southside Family Project and Youth Connect South West.

Click Here to Watch our community film ➤

These organisations worked together with local residents, other groups and both universities in Bath to develop the Community Research Network. They visited and learnt from other community research projects and built local capacity in research skills and community development.

This included eight visits and workshops:

Thank you to all the organisations that shared their experience, insight and expertise with Twerton and Whiteway Community Research Network representatives and residents:

As a result of these visits and workshops, we learned:

• how to playfully engage residents in community research in a workshop with Play Disrupt.
• about training and supporting Community Researchers through University of Bristol projects, overcoming barriers (e.g. childcare/interpreters), different ways to record conversations in interviews, ethics, thematic analysis and follow up with the community.
• about framing climate action questions in different ways that people will engage with from Eastside Community Trust.
• from Black SW Network about their CRN development and the importance of focusing on human interaction and language: “a focus group is people chatting”.
• how Wick Award’s community research has built momentum from the ground up, recruiting researchers already engaged in the community. This asset-based approach has empowered residents and led to sustainable change and additional investment.
• about key attributes for Bromley by Bow’s Community Researchers: good communicators, passion and interpersonal skills, and some now in university research teams.
• about community research methods, research cycles, participatory/collaborative approaches and ethical considerations with Professor Shawn Sobers and Bath
  University’s Public Engagement team.
• about understanding equity, removing barriers to participation and the impact of privilege with The Belonging Network.
• how creative activities in safe spaces encourage conversations with Creative Twerton.
• about Asset Based Community Development with Cormac Russell, the power of residents and local organisations and how to find and listen to those pushed to the edges.
• how community research informing Community/Neighbourhood Development plans have achieved significant change with Ambition Lawrence Weston

As part of the project, the research network commissioned a community film showcasing local people responding to the question, ‘What does Twerton and Whitway means to me?’:

Film by Local filmmaker Nigel Sheppard

Next steps

We are now applying for the full-scale implementation stage of the Twerton and Whiteway Community Research Network to build local knowledge, skills, and capacity to support research produced with, by, and for our communities.

The Network is now a stronger and broader collaboration bringing in both the University of Bath and Bath Spa University and more organisations: Age UK B&NES, The Belonging Network, Blooming Whiteway and Play Disrupt.

Through this project we will develop, train and support residents as Community Researchers and work together to transform how community strengths and potential are identified and understood in Twerton and Whiteway, and how residents are involved in research about them and their communities. We will share knowledge and experience, connecting with the local community, civil society and research sectors. The evidence gathered through this research will provide information and insight that has never been available before for resident groups, decision makers and organisations.