Community Conversation At UCLan Burnley Campus

The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) warmly invites you to a Community Conversation at our UCLan Burnley campus on Wednesday 11th June to discuss and develop the connections between local area priorities, your work and interests, and our research.

Making a real-world impact with our research is important to us. We want to work closely with people, particularly around the university’s campus area. This means strengthening the partnerships we already have as well as inviting new people and groups to chat with us. We are keen to hear about what you think is needed in the area, how our research could support you, and how we might work together more effectively. 

Please sign up via the registration form. We can reimburse expenses for local travel, and we welcome you getting in touch to discuss any specific requirements that might enable you to attend. 
 
The Community Conversation is being hosted by three of the University’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Institutes that have a combined membership of around 190 research staff and cover a huge range of subjects and disciplines. We will showcase some of the current collaborations with community groups, the voluntary sector, local authorities, and small businesses. Most importantly we will invite you to shape our future work.   

On the day, tea and coffee will be served from 10am with the event starting promptly at 10.30 with a roundtable discussion of Burnley’s unique characteristics, opportunities, and priority needs. This will be followed by a focused session on how research could be used to address these opportunities and needs. Lunch from 1pm will be an opportunity to network and discuss any ideas that you may have. 

For people who are new to our work, or who may not know the full extent of the research we carry out, we include below some video clips and quotes from current partners to give a taste of what we have done together. If you have any questions or require more detail, please email [email protected]. 

We look forward to hearing from you and working together for the benefit of the local area. 

With best wishes, on behalf of: 
Professor Niki Alsford - Director, Institute for Area and Migration Studies (AMIS) 
Professor Candice Satchwell and Elaine Speight - Co-Directors, Institute for Creativity, Communities, and Culture (ICCC) 
Professor Nicola Lowe and Professor Champika Liyanage - Co-Directors, Institute for Planetary Resilience and Community Transformation (PACT) 

Why would anyone not employed at a university want to talk about research? 
Some real-life examples of collaborations between University of Central Lancashire researchers and local groups and organisations. We hope they show the scope for working with academic researchers to tackle some of the pressing issues facing society. 

VIDEO – James Fleming GP, founder of Green Dreams Project, Padiham, East Lancashire 
James is a GP, and now also an honorary Professor in General Practice, who studied for a Masters degree at UCLan to understand a phenomenon that his patients were presenting with at his surgery. His contact with UCLan eventually led to him setting up the Green Dreams social enterprise that looks at the social causes of people’s physical and mental health. UCLan researchers provided a literature review to help establish an evidence base which supported the idea of social prescribing and helped the organisation grow. UCLan researchers have recently been collaborating with him on written submissions to the Kings’ Fund and the Houses of Parliament to lobby Government on childhood nutrition. 
(Note in the video: CCG is the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group; CCGs have since been restructured.) 

VIDEO – Zee Jogi, Founder of Zee’s Defence Academy, Blackburn, East Lancashire 
Zee is a self-defence instructor who founded her own charity Zs Defence Academy with a wide range of activities and interests. Her involvement with UCLan started when Dr Ambreen Chohan contacted her to see if her organisation may benefit from research support to evidence base their self-defence classes. Since then, she has expanded the ways in which she has engaged with the university, through being involved in further research projects and providing training to students and staff. 

TESTIMONIAL – An example of working together to broaden access to heritage 
“In my previous role as Director of Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and in partnership with the British Textile Biennial, I worked with a range of team members from the Institute of Creativity, Communities and Culture on the development of the Lancashire Textile Gallery – an online resource funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Digital Skills for Heritage programme. This brought together heritage collections from across Lancashire, with the purpose of creating a resource for academics, students and contemporary artists to broaden access to and reinterpret our textile heritage. In addition, members of the university’s Psychosocial Research Unit led on the evaluation of the impact of the project. The input of all team members brought a broad range of skills, as well as passion and enthusiasm for the project which was invaluable in making it a success.”  
- Charlotte Steels, Cultural Manager, Burnley Leisure & Culture 
 
VIDEO – Chris Davis Brookfield SpacePlace, Preston, Central Lancashire 
Chris Davis is a trustee of Brookfield SpacePlace in Preston. The charity provides creative community development support for inhabitants of the Brookfield estate in Preston to improve their quality of life. Chris has recently been working with researcher Julian Manley, Professor of Social Innovation, in a partnership with UCLan that helped to set up the YourMap project. The project developed an interactive map of valuable local assets for the benefit of residents right across Preston. Next steps for YourMap include providing a stepping stone to help people connect with each other and provide even more value in the local area. 
(Note in the video: Mondragon is a federation of worker cooperatives in Spain.) 

VIDEO – Dan Whitehouse Rosehill Arts Trust Ltd, Whitehaven, West Cumbria  
Dan is the Creative Director and joint CEO of Rosehill Theatre. He has worked with several researchers based at the university’s Westlakes campus, West Cumbria. His collaboration with the university started with one initiative and has branched out across others including through the West Cumbria Child Poverty Forum. 

TESTIMONIAL – An example of working together to acquire funding to support ‘cultural infrastructure’ activity in the local community 
University researchers Ursula Pool and John Scanlan have been working with partners from local arts organisations, charities, and councils in West Cumbria for the last five years on initiatives that address low levels of engagement in the arts.  As a leading member of a local consortium of organisations, they developed a successful bid for £1.8m in funding to create new cultural infrastructure in West Cumbria.  
Lorrainne Smyth, the CEO of ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, which took on the role of lead organisation to manage the award, said that Ursula and John's role was crucial in making the bid the best it could be, in terms of the development of the underlying concept and helping the consortium to clarify its objectives in bidding for this funding. Following the award of funding in 2022, Ursula and John became part of the management of the programme, undertaking the role of Learning Partner which was an integral feature of this Creative People and Places programme which now operates under the name of “Everyone Here."