Communications
A key element of GoWell was the communications and learning component which was established to ensure the GoWell findings and programme developments were shared with participants and their communities as well as with policy and practice professionals.
In short, the GoWell team wanted to ensure that all those with an interest in GoWell were given the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way.
A number of different communication and dissemination mechanisms were used to try to achieve this which are outlined below.
Community newsletters
The aim of the GoWell community newsletter was to provide participants and their communities with general information about the programme and feedback on what the GoWell team found out about their area and Glasgow as a whole.
There were approximately two editions of the community newsletter produced each year for each of our study areas, and these were disseminated to the 24,000 households across our communities. These can be viewed in our Publications section using the ‘Newsletter' filter on the right hand side of the page under 'Publication type'.
Reports, briefing papers and journal articles
One of the main ways we communicated our research findings was through the production of written outputs including our research reports, briefing papers and journal articles.
Each of these served a different purpose/audience: our research reports provided longer and full details of findings and methodologies; our briefing papers summarised key findings and policy and practice recommendations; while journal articles were peer-reviewed published articles which provided much more technical and methodological detail and findings. All of these can be accessed within our Publications section.
E-update
The GoWell E-update was an e-newsletter aimed at keeping policy and practice professionals informed of progress and developments in the programme. It was produced quarterly and provided updates on findings, progress and events.
Community engagement
Our community engagement aimed to facilitate capacity-building and empowered learning. One of the ways we were doing this was by enhancing GoWell’s communications for its newsletters and its network.
Annual event
We hosted an annual event in March each year. This provided an important opportunity for local community representatives, practitioners and policy-makers to come together to consider and discuss key findings that emerged from GoWell over the previous year. It also acted as a forum that informed future developments and priorities for the programme.
Seminars
In addition to the annual event, a priority was to regularly feedback and discuss findings face-to-face with our sponsors, key stakeholders and our study communities. In this regard we held seminars and made presentations to a range of groups including housing association management committees, Glasgow City Council area committees, community planning partners and voluntary organisations.
We used Twitter to build up online relationships with key individuals, organisations and groups with an interest in housing, regeneration and health and our study areas. We regularly tweeted new GoWell findings and developments.
Website
We created this website to help keep participants, their communities, and policy and practice professionals fully informed of GoWell progress and developments and to act as a resource for all those with an interest in housing, regeneration and health.