Overview
Parkinson’s UK are working to improve the diversity of people involved in and participating in research. As part of this, the charity contacted Egality to recruit for and facilitate focus groups to ‘user test’ their research communications materials.
Egality worked with community organisation partners- Caribbean & African Health Network and South Asian Health Action to co-develop recruitment materials and messaging that would resonate with the communities and delivered a brief campaign to recruit participants for the focus groups.
We co-developed the user-testing session plans and facilitated two online focus groups with the shortlisted participants. The passionate discussions and honest feedback gave us a range of unique insights on how Parkinson’s UK’s research communications can be improved and made more accessible for communities usually under-served by the health system.
The findings were compiled in a summary report, to enable knowledge sharing internally within Parkinson’s UK.
Seeing this (Parkinson’s UK Research Support Network) website and the information that is embedded in this website, I think I would love to be part of it, and also participate fully in the fight against Parkinson’s.
– Focus Group Participant
Outcomes
- Received 65+ expressions of interest with high diversity across Parkinson’s UK and community partner’s social platforms in 3 weeks
- Shortlisted 20 participants, with a diverse mix of ethnic backgrounds, age, locations, and experiences
- Delivered two focus groups to gather in-depth insights on making research communications more inclusive and accessible
I really love that these (people’s) stories are up on the page for people to read, you know, for people that need maybe encouragement or support at any point!
– Focus Group Participant
