Piloting Community Research Awareness Sessions at Rainbow Home North
Tuesday August 4, 2026
By Vicki Harris
This month’s blog is by Vicki Harris, Head of Public Partnerships, Newcastle Health Research Partnership & Clinical Research Directorate, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
It highlights a pilot project delivered with Rainbow Home North to raise awareness of health research among LGBTQ+ people seeking sanctuary in the North East. It explores how the Community Research Awareness Sessions helped build understanding, trust and engagement, and how the learning is now informing the development of new resources to support similar sessions in the future.
In October 2025 and February 2026 , Rainbow Home North hosted two pilot Community Research Awareness Sessions – these were coordinated by Newcastle Health Research Partnership (NHRP) and delivered in collaboration with Connected Voice Haref, the NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network, the NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NuTH). Rainbow Home supports LGBTQ+ people in the North East who are seeking sanctuary.
The pilot sessions explored ways to engage people in health research, build trust, and create meaningful links between research organisations and communities that are traditionally under-represented in research.
We ran two different sessions with the group, which looked at:
- What is health research, and why it is important
- An interactive ‘sweet consultation’ exercise exploring questionnaires, outcomes and feedback
- An introduction to a research matron and her role.
- A urology research nurse shared health information on urinary tract infections (UTIs), symptoms and when to seek support
We had great feedback from our participants about the sessions.
“Thank you for today’s amazing lecture. I really enjoyed it and learnt a lot.”
“Thank you for the effort and care – we really appreciate it.”
The learning from these pilot sessions is feeding into a resource bank for practioners to deliver Community Research Awareness session, and this is being developed through Creating Connections, supported by NIHR HealthTech Research Centre, NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF), Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NuTH) and Newcastle Health Research Partnership. The session format and content are being co-produced with Involved and Equal, who are a community interest company providing disability inclusion advice, consultancy, and training
The aim is to develop standardised and accessible resources, including:
- PowerPoint presentations
- Videos
- Interactive activities
- Facilitator notes
These resources will support practioners to deliver Community Research Awareness sessions consistently, helping communities understand health research and access opportunities to get involved across research delivery partners.
We will be sharing updates on these new resources soon, and we will be launching them at our next Collaboration for Health event on 17 November, so keep an eye on our socials and comms!
“We were delighted to support a session with our group to explore health research and the research facilities at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals. Talking with hospital staff alongside interactive exercises helps break down barriers to using health services and demystifies the world of health research.”
Jill Hardie, CEO, Rainbow Home North