by Stephanie Powell
This academic year we have expanded our community connections and made progress in weaving their valuable insight through everything we do. We also collaborate directly with community organisations and have highlighted examples below. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all community organisations, GP supervisors and practice team members that support this work, and we hope that it has continued to create new opportunities and insights for you.
Community organisations presented to second year students undertaking their Community Collaboration Projects, about how their organisations positively impact health and the opportunities that collaborations with medical students and GP practices offer. Speakers were from Dalgarno Trust, a community centre whose countless initiatives support the health and wellbeing of residents in North Kensington, and QPR in the Community Trust whose programmes are supporting residents to flourish in White City.
The BME Health Forum, whose work provides space for marginalised groups to voice their healthcare priorities and feed this back to healthcare providers, co-created curricular materials to support third year students to consider effective collaboration and co-creation during their Community Action Project in MICA.
Third year students who undertook an optional short course in Promoting Health Equity visited local groups to understand how their activity impacts health equity. They toured almshouses and had coffee with residents at Hammersmith United Charities, joined an adult English language class to discuss what matters to the health of attendees at Urban Partnership Group and spoke to volunteers and attendees of the food bank at Dalgarno Trust.
There have also been countless examples of community collaboration during student projects during their GP practice placements. During the Annual Teachers Conference, GP tutors and community organisations shared the opportunities that community-engaged student projects provide. Attendees mentioned they are an opportunity to: forge new connections with community organisations, to understand and address local health priorities that might not be visible from the practice alone, and enhance local trust towards the practice.
If you have any feedback, suggestions or questions please contact Community Collaboration Lead Steph: stephanie.powell@imperial.ac.uk