Research, Engagement, and Insight Team
Community-led Research and Partnership Working
Our inclusive community-led research and engagement practices, provides the link between service providers and community researchers ensuring that all have a voice.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
Community Asset Mapping
In collaboration with Healthwatch Essex and CVS Tendring we have produced a series of reports and will continue to work in new areas. Our Asset Based Community Development informed approach blends descriptive mapping exercises with lived experience, ensuring recommendations are appropriate for beneficiaries of services.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
Macmillan Community Voices
We are working in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support to amplify diverse community voices across Southend, Essex and Thurrock, helping to reduce inequalities and shape more inclusive, accessible cancer care and support.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
Evaluation
Strengthening impact reporting across VCSE, public and health sectors, locally and beyond. Following our innovative Knowledge Transfer Partnership in collaboration with Innovate UK and the University of Essex, we will build on its legacy to employ the Shared Evaluation Framework in evaluation practices.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
A Focus on Transport Poverty
The team seeks to understand the challenges that transport inequality causes for our communities. Through collaboration with partners, we will use our learning to inform recommendations for improvements. We welcome contact from organisations also seeking to work in this area.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
Conference and Academic Activity
We are active in academic and sector-based research communities, presenting our research and learning at conferences. We collaborate with others to find innovative impacting solutions to help shape stronger communities.
Get in touch to see how we can work together.
We actively advocate for building a better understanding of the role of the voluntary and community sector in adding value to the places where we live and operate. We encourage evidence-led practice in the sector, facilitating innovative applications of data for the benefit of community action, and establishing positive partnerships for collaborative working. We have recently coproduced a number of Asset Mapping reports and led projects using a ‘Single Point of Delivery’ model. Our partnership working with Macmillan Cancer Support allows us to deliver our Macmillan Community Voices Project.
With experience spanning project development, partnership working and the delivery of community‑focused programmes, our team is committed to collaborative, asset‑based approaches that prioritise lived experience. Our work focuses on meaningful engagement with communities, translating insight into practical action, and more responsive services. The team is also underpinned by a solid academic foundation, including postdoctoral research, partnerships with (amongst others) the University of Essex and ongoing doctoral study, alongside expertise in participatory research and innovative evaluation methods. Supported by strong data management and analytical capability, we combine practice, research and academic rigour to generate evidence‑led impact and drive positive change across the communities we serve.
Building trusted relationships and ensuring lived experience shapes our work.
Using participatory research and innovative evaluation to understand impact.
Bringing organisations, communities and specialists together around shared goals.
Transforming evidence and community insight into practical, responsive solutions.
The Research, Engagement and Insight team brings together data, partnerships, and lived experience to shape stronger, evidence-led communities.
Community360 working in collaboration with the VCSE Sector to build and develop new understandings around how AI can enhance organisational resilience and be implemented into organisations to build further resilience in innovative ways, as well as enhance the delivery of charitable missions.
Community360 working in collaboration with Healthwatch Essex and CVS Tendring. The report focuses on mental health - framed not just as the absence of illness, but as a dynamic state of wellbeing influenced by factors such as socioeconomic status, discrimination, early-life adversity, and social isolation. Findings produced a series of recommendations arising from both the Asset Mapping and a summary of exploration of Lived Experience.
Community360 working in collaboration with Healthwatch Essex and CVS Tendring. A report focusing on community and clinical assets relating to frailty and falls care in North East Essex, aligned with the NHS Long Term Plan (2025). It explores the strengths, services and support that exist within our communities to identify both areas requiring improvement and areas of success.
Coproduced with Knowledge Transfer Partnership, University of Essex.
Coproduced with Knowledge Transfer Partnership, University of Essex.
Coproduced with the University of Essex.
Coproduced with Knowledge Transfer Partnership, University of Essex.
Partnership working is central to our ability to bring together diverse expertise, local knowledge and lived experience to build a fuller understanding of community needs and strengths. By combining data with strong relationships across the voluntary, community and public sectors, we can co-produce evidence-led solutions and ensure that services are shaped by the people they are designed to support. This collaborative approach not only strengthens the quality and impact of our work, but also helps create more connected, resilient communities.
