WHAT'S HAPPENING ACROSS MORAY'S COMMUNITY RESEARCH NETWORK
- 43 minutes ago
- 2 min read
There’s plenty happening across Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray, our community research network. With our live projects continuing to develop, test new approaches and build learning around what supports mental wealth in Moray.
The Collective Voice Data Visualisation Project has made significant progress, moving from an initial prototype to a public beta following workshops with community members, partners and decision makers. The interactive tool aims to make lived and living experience data more accessible, meaningful and useful, while keeping community voices at its heart. Feedback has highlighted its potential to strengthen community ownership of data and support more ethical approaches to using lived experience in decision-making.
The Peer Support in Moray research project is building strong foundations, with partnership and governance arrangements in place and a paid peer researcher now involved. Work is underway to map peer support activity, develop research tools and refine the research questions. The focus at this stage is on creating a robust, co-produced and ethically sound approach before moving into fieldwork.
Core partner Earthtime is progressing its research into the wellbeing benefits of outdoor parent and child groups. The project is exploring how Waddle Toddle’s intergenerational groups, delivered in care home settings, can support the wellbeing of parents, young children and older residents. A peer researcher has been appointed, and work is continuing on the research and ethics arrangements. The team will also be sharing the project and its approach at the Global Intergenerational Conference later this year.
Anticipation is building as fellow partner tsiMORAY kickstart their research project. Recruitment is underway for a community researcher to lead the Changing the Story project which will support Moray community organisations to capture and showcase the difference they make in reducing isolation, improving wellbeing and creating connection.
The Research Working Group is also moving into an important new phase, with a focus on bringing learning from across the different projects together. Rather than simply increasing the number of projects, the next stage will focus on deepening existing work, identifying common themes and developing a stronger shared understanding of mental wealth in Moray. A light-touch learning cycle is being introduced to support reflection, shared learning and collective sense-making across the programme.
Together, these projects are helping our collaboration build not just a body of research, but a growing picture of what mental wealth means in Moray — and how community knowledge, lived experience and research can help shape what comes next.
Part of the Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray (CMWM), funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and The Young Foundation.
Hosted by Moray Wellbeing Hub CIC, the Collaboration for Mental Wealth in Moray is a network of partners who are researching what works for creating mental wealth in Moray through the co-creation of solutions and community-driven action. Partners in the network are the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), tsiMORAY, Science Ceilidh, Arrows (A Quarriers Service), Earthtime for All, and Grampian Regional Equality Council (GREC).
