Redesigning Community Research Together

What makes someone a ‘community researcher’? According to Belong in Plymouth, it’s not about qualifications—it’s about curiosity, care, and the confidence to hold space for others.

In June 2023, Stephane and Martyn shared a draft for updating Community Researcher training. “We feel our existing training sits somewhere between what we’re now calling Basic and Enhanced,” they wrote. The update wasn’t just about structure—it was about values.

The team focused on everything from safeguarding to sensemaking, ethics to follow-up. But the biggest shift was cultural: making sure training felt grounded in real-life conversations, not just theory. As one team member said, “The system often assumes professionals are the experts. But we’ve seen that people who aren’t ‘qualified’ can be just as insightful.”

Karen Pilkington echoed this during planning sessions: “Different pieces of the system have different understandings of what ‘speaking with the community’ means… Our learning is that people who are not qualified are as interested and competent about thinking about the problems as people who are paid to do so.”

What’s emerging is a richer, more inclusive model—one that sees community research not as a task, but a relationship. Training is evolving to meet that reality, and so is the support: from check-ins and coaching, to new materials and clearer processes.

This isn’t just a refresh—it’s a recommitment to the idea that everyone has insight to offer. And that’s how you build a truly belonging-first approach to research.