Community is the best medicine (virtual conference)

Discover how community houses are being used in a local area to support groups of local people to lead and design community activities and control budgets, and the impact this community connectedness has had on health and wellbeing.

Sarah Gorman, Chief Executive, Edberts House 
Ella Mirea, Resident, Edberts House 
Dr Mandy Cheetham, Research Fellow North East and North Cumbria Applied Research Co, Northumbria University 

Hear how the BAME Wellbeing Project in Bristol worked innovatively to develop formal, paid partnerships with 8 local community organisations, delivered free group-based wellbeing courses for people aged 50+ from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and have trained Wellbeing Facilitators from the South Asian, Chinese, Somali, Bangladeshi, Middle Eastern and Afro-Caribbean communities. 

 

Hear how communities are identifying and developing local assets to build sustainable relationships between artists, community, voluntary and health organisations in four localities in Newcastle and Gateshead to address social determinants.

Mihirini Sirisena, Research Associate, Newcastle University 
Mandy Cheetham, Research Fellow, Northumbria University
Mark Mulqueen, Programme Director, 3Blue Stone Collaborative

This session will explore the role of community pharmacy and clinical home care in improving health and wellbeing for patients and communities. 
 
Our speakers will discuss the value of community-based health care, the impact of and learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic; and future opportunities to bring care closer to home and deliver services in new ways to support the health of local communities.

Najmin Begum, Pharmacist Manager, Lloyds Pharmacy
Natalie Bingham, Lead Nurse for Oncology, Lloyds Pharmacy Clinical Homecare
Ravi Sharma, Director of England, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Richard Sloggett, Founder and Programme Director, Future Health and former Special Adviser to Health and Social Care Secretary

Hear how the local health and wellbeing board in Keighley has agreed in principle to transfer 1 per cent of its budget to community-level activity from 2022, modelling a genuine shift in power to communities. Learn about the local voluntary sector partnership leading on the development of the community health frameworks to deliver improvements in health outcomes for people in Keighley.

Susie Finlayson, Development Manager, Power to Change 
Bill Graham, Community and Innovation Lead, Modality Partnerships
Vicki Beere, Chief Executive Officer, Project 6 
Katharine Greathead, Head of Evaluation and Impact, Leeds Community Foundation 

Learn lessons from the evaluation of the Big Local community empowerment initiative, a Lottery-funded programme in which residents from 150 areas in England collectively decide how at least £1 million should be used over 10–15 years to make a positive difference in their area.

Rebecca Mead, Senior Research Associate, Lancaster University
Anne Townsend, Senior Research Associate, Lancaster University 
Elaine Samson, Resident Advisor, Shadsworth with Whitebirk Big Local Board 
Mohammed Khan, Community Development Officer, Blackburn with Darwen Healthy Living

Hear how hospices are inviting local people to receive training as ‘compassionate neighbours’ and are connecting with people living nearby who seek a new relationship to help them cope with loneliness arising from serious illness and challenges in the last years of life  .

Heather Richardson, Joint Chief Executive, St Christopher's Hospice 
Kate Heaps, Chief Executive, Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice 

Learn about a peer-to-peer training project where experts-by-experience, including people with a learning disability and family carers, co-produced training to support carers of people with a learning disability to use a tool that helps them to identify early signs that someone is unwell and to navigate the health service.

Alison Tavaré, Primary Care Clinical Lead, West of England Academic Health Science Network 
Louise George, Senior Project Manager, West of England Academic Health Science Network 
Sandra Akintola, Senior Project Manager, West of England Academic Health Science Network
Hannah Little, Patient Safety Improvement Lead, West of England Academic Health Science Network

Learn how Talk for Health, commissioned by the NHS in North London, teaches lay people   the skills of therapeutic talk, then supports them to lead and/or participate in an ever-growing network of ongoing groups in an accessible, mutual community practice.

Nicky Forsythe, Founder and Chief Executive, Talk for Health
Cerdic Hall, Senior Nurse Consultant, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Hear about the Cities Changing Diabetes programme in Leicester (a joint working project funded and developed by and between Leicester Diabetes Centre and Novo Nordisk) and how the Leicester Diabetes Centre has been working alongside local partners and training community champions in local places of work and worship to raise awareness of type 2 diabetes among their peers.

Resham Sandhu Singh MBE, Chairman, Sikh Welfare and Cultural Society, Leicestershire UK
Sophie O’Connell, Operations Manager, Centre for Black and Minority Ethnic Health, Leicester
Professor Azhar Farooqi, Chair, Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group

Hear about an innovative, evidence-based approach that shifts decision-making to local communities by engaging them as ‘citizen scientists’ in an investigation about their health and the built environment. As part of this, local communities are asked to identify and map the barriers they face every day when making choices about living more healthily. 

Christine Hancock, Founder and Director, C3 Collaborating for Health 
Antonia Bunnin, Associate for Community Engagement, C3 Collaborating for Health

Hear about the Well Communities approach, which seeks to develop an evidence-based framework for communities and local organisations to work together to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities, through comprehensive community and stakeholder engagement, needs assessment, asset mapping and co-production of a local programme of community led action, alongside a core programme of community capacity building activities.

Professor Gail Findlay, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Connected Communities, University of East London 
Professor Gopalakrishnan Netuveli, Professor of Public Health, Institute for Health and Human Development (IHHD), University of East London
Elizabeth Walters, PhD Student

Learn about a community approach to family support in East London, focusing on working with families with children with a learning disability, facilitating networks and collaboration to increase community connectedness and enabling peer support.

Rachel Ashcroft, Senior Development Manager, Royal Mencap Society 
Raksha Patel, Family Support Programme Manager, Royal Mencap Society 
Nelufa Akanjee, Family Co-Facilitator, Royal Mencap Society 
Tracey Schofield, 0-5 Collaborative early years quality improvement manager, London Borough of Newham 

Hear how an established community development approach was used in Greenwich to build a successful local response to the pandemic.

Aideen Silke, Head of Live Well, Royal Borough of Greenwich
Kelly-Ann Ibrahim, Public Health Programme Manager, Royal Borough of Greenwich 
Khadija Ahmed, Founder and Director, Afyah Organisation and Afyah Centre 

Learn how the place-based partnerships in Northern Devon were able to develop a framework for unleashing community capacity in March 2020 to support residents affected by Covid-19.  

Andrea Lisa, Beacham Programme Manager, Northern Devon Healthcare Trust 
Hannah McDonald, Community Partnerships Manager, One Northern Devon

Discover how the relationship between the diverse communities in Newham and the local authority were transformed during the pandemic, through a community champions programme to foster community conversations.

Anne Bowers, Community Engagement lead, London Borough of Newham 
Jason Strelitz, Director of Public Health, London Borough of Newham 

Hear some of the key lessons and practical learnings for the health and care system in implementing community approaches.

Kiran Kenth, Director of National and Regional Programmes, Royal Society for Public Health
Jane South, National Adviser on Communities, Health Equity and Mental Health, Public Health England
Helen Goulden, Chief Executive Officer, The Young Foundation
Jenny Pitts, Programme Lead, National Development Team for Inclusion

Hear evaluation findings from this Leeds city-wide programme that consists of community builders (paid workers), community connectors (active citizens) and ‘small sparks’ funding, and how it delivers a Social Return on Investment (SROI).

Verity O'Hara, Asset Based Community Development Officer, Leeds City Council 
Joanne Curtis, Community Development Manager and Community Builder, LS14 Trust 
Jennifer Woodward, Research Fellow, Centre for Health Promotion Research, Leeds Beckett University

Learn how this neighbourhood approach has brought together public sector partners with local people to increase awareness of the help available for victims of domestic abuse, encourage the community to have conversations about the issue and identify community champions and increase awareness and training across the entire workforce.

Kim Adams, Programme Director, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Leeds City Council
Rachel Ainscough, Senior Development Manager, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust 
Dr George Winder, Clinical Director, Seacroft Primary Care Network 

Hear how the Neighbourhood Resilience programme worked with ward-sized neighbourhoods experiencing health and social disadvantage in nine local authorities to enhance resilience through local initiatives to improve social determinants of health that were led and facilitated by the local communities.

Harris Kaloudis, Senior Research Associate, Department of Health Research, Lancaster University
Jennie Popay, Distinguished Professor in Sociology and Public Health, Lancaster University 

Hear from our panel what they think the future should hold for the role that communities play in health and care and how we can change the balance of power.

Merron Simpson, Chief Executive, Health Creation Alliance 
Maff Potts, Director, Association of Camerados