This year’s Engagement Day delved into how we can ensure partnership working is equitable, has its desired impact, and is meaningful for all involved.

Last Wednesday, on 13 November, over 100 attendees from different departments at Imperial heard from and about a diverse range of organisations and people that the university has partnered with. From schools and parent/carers to community artists and a women’s homelessness service.

Director of Public Engagement Vicky Brightman-Hahn opened the day, welcoming Imperial delegates as well as a few guests from international universities. She referenced the recent launch of Imperial’s Centre for Societal Engagement, which aims to “ignite curiosity for STEM in society through collaborations, contributions, and communications, driving transformative inclusion on a local, national, and global scale”. 

“Partnerships are at the heart of the work of the Centre” she commented, “listening to and learning from others. And that is central to today’s conference.” 

Keynote speaker Diana Pound, the Managing Director of Dialogue Matters, followed. Diana, whose work includes facilitating global dialogue about water, climate, ocean management, and food security, applies evidence-based participation practice to achieve better-quality decision making. She highlighted several barriers to positive partnerships and how to overcome them, including prioritising “psychological safety” which determines “how likely we are to express a new or different idea.”
 Diana encouraged attendees to remember that effective partnership working comes from sharing power, and that this should apply to every step of the process. Sharing knowledge and understanding is the starting point, but truly equitable partnerships will work together to agree priorities, resolve differences, and co-produce ideas. Most importantly, everyone involved should be empowered to make decisions and implement change. 
 

Building trust is paramount 

A panel discussion chaired by Engagement Manager (Capacity Building) Charlotte Coales brought the perspectives of partners to the forefront featuring Matthew Barnett, Head of Children, Young People and Families at Nova; Joe Brown, Head Teacher at Old Oak Primary School; Toby Laurent Belson, a multidisciplinary community artist; and Charity Jere Gondwe, a Parent/Carer involved in projects to improve the quality of life for children and young people.  

The panel raised important points on how large institutions hoping to partner with grassroots and community organisations can fail to consider how these groups operate. For instance, recognising the pressures that community partners have on their time and that working hours might not align with the 9-5 of university employees. They urged teams to make sure that they could offer flexibility, as well as consistency and clarity over what they are asking of partners.   

Building trust and forming genuine relationships was a key theme of their discussion. The speakers stressed that researchers from Imperial need to hear partners out when they voice concerns or mistrust of institutions, instead of giving explanations or excuses. Ongoing communication, even when outcomes aren’t what you hoped for or mistakes have been made, is always necessary.  

The importance of trust was reiterated in four ‘Deep Dive’ afternoon sessions. For example, Jodie Chan (Public Involvement Officer, Institute of Global Health Innovation) shared details about ongoing research with The Marylebone Project, a charity which provides life-changing services for homeless women.  

Early conversations with the charity and the women they support revealed a distrust of researchers caused by negative experiences in the past. By openly listening to these concerns, the team decided to centre their project on how research is done, how it can be harmful, and working together with The Marylebone Project to co-develop a framework and set of conditions to enable better ways of working with communities on health and care issues. 

Quick-fire presentations 

Speakers including Imperial staff and partners presented punchy 6-minute ‘lightning talks’ on fascinating initiatives: a scheme connecting Black students with mentors from high tariff Universities, a community craft project raising awareness of women and asthma, and the takeover of a Westfield shopping unit to create ‘The Gene Home’ – a pop-up shop exploring genes, health, and heritage.  

The final lightning talk came from Tom Morton, Participatory Research Lead (Public Engagement) along with Eurydice Caldwell and Noushin Pasgar, Founder and Partner of Gener8te, a social enterprise that empowers people, especially those with dyslexia, to achieve their goals.

The three spoke about working together to co-produce The Collaboration Kickstarter: a seed fund for engaged research with communities.They shared honest reflections on how feeling “lost and overwhelmed” at points “pushed [them] into a space where [they] were truly co-producing." Always being on the same page wasn’t necessary, because they worked together to build trust and transparency, which allowed them to feel “safe enough to be shaky and curious. That’s where innovation happens.”  
 

Good conflict 

At the start of the day, Diana Pound had made similar comments about “good conflict”. She stressed that conflict could be healthy if everyone is operating with a “win/win” mindset, and while many feel averse to conflict, this is “where you find innovations”.  

These sentiments were echoed in the final remarks of the afternoon, which came from spoken word poet Dan Simspon. Dan rounded off this uplifting and thought-provoking day with two original pieces, inspired by the speakers’ presentations and conversations between delegates.

His poems acknowledged the challenges of partnership working, but ultimately emphasised that putting in time and effort to generate meaningful connections leads to incredible things:  

The joy of working in partnership is the conflicts between people  // Unexpected collisions of creativity lead to originality:  The trouble with working in partnership is surprise. The joy of working in partnership is surprise. 

Get in touch with the Public Engagement team to hear more, register for the Societal Engagement Newsletter, and get involved in programmes and for advice, training and funding opportunities.