We’ve had some fabulous feedback about our the Health Research Ambassador programme.
“I feel the Health Ambassador job is a really valuable and needed role. The interest from the researchers has been great as I feel they are not always sure how best to connect with the communities. More work is required with the communities themselves as it takes time to build relationships and build trust. Education is required on both sides.
“I would like to see a future where it is not THEM and US but seen as a joint responsibility to help make a difference for future generations in terms of involvement in health research.”
- Samina Baig Health Research Ambassador
“We planned to host focus groups to talk about food relationships and disordered eating with people from diverse ethnic backgrounds living in Bristol. However, we were working to a tight deadline and were unsure how we would reach people from within relevant communities.
“Samina, a long-term health ambassador at Caafi Health, support us by sharing our call for participants with her network. With her support, we were able to recruit 16 participants from Somali, Bengali, Indian, Pakistani, and Caribbean backgrounds over a 4-week period. This gave us the opportunity to hear from a range of people about an important, but understudied topic.
“What is more, Samina worked with us to review the cultural relevance of our focus group questions. This was important to our project as it helped us to ensure that the wording used was appropriate, acceptable, and accessible for the participants, and helped us have interesting and insightful conversations.
“Thank you Samina!”
- Gemma Bridge and Christine Ramsey-Wade, University of the West of England, Bristol
“I had the privilege of collaborating with Health Research Ambassadors at Caafi Health, who played a crucial role in facilitating our efforts to share information and organize a workshop about eczema and food allergy in children. The professionalism and dedication of the Health Research Ambassadors team has been evident throughout our collaboration. Their expertise, proactive approach and tailored strategies have been invaluable and have ensured that our research reaches a diverse audience and that the workshop will be a success.
“We had a fantastic response to the information we shared. 24 people responded within a week to say they were interested in attending our workshop – more than we expected or hoped for. Most importantly, the majority were parents of children with either eczema or food allergy, which is exactly who we wanted to reach.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with the Health Research Ambassadors and hope to do so again in future work.”
- Dr Andrew Turner, Senior Research Project Manager, Centre for Applied Excellence in Skin and Allergy Research, University of Bristol
“I loved the talks and the engagement.”
- University of Bristol researcher – Health and Research Promotion Day, Avonmouth, Bristol, January 2024
From the Health and Research Promotion Day, Avonmouth, Bristol January 2024:
“We managed to scan and see a huge number of clients from the Eastern European population whom we want to concentrate on testing.”
“It was good to talk to so many members of the public and to network with health professionals.”
From Health Research Ambassador organised events:
” A workshop like that was so needed especially when you don’t get closely to these health checks from the GP, and hopefully you’ll do more of these.”
- Health and Research Promotion Day, Avonmouth, Bristol January 2024
From the Heart Health Workshop, February 2024, in response to the question ‘Did you learn something today?’
“Very useful advice on statistics. Interesting info on research at Bristol Heart Institute”
“Indeed, to buy a blood pressure kit
– check my blood test result (on the NHS app)
– monitor my blood pressure
– control my weight”
From the Ramadan Health Workshops, March 2024, in response to the question ‘Did you learn something today?’
“I didn’t know that we are needed in our community to help with research.”
“Learnt how to breakdown food content to be watchful of every ingredient.”
“Good talk about salt sugar content in food and what sort of food is healthy portion sizes that are recommended. Very useful.”