Abstract

This project focused on community participation and capacity building through undertaking needs led health improvement work. It involved a partnership between the local residents, primary care trust and university. This paper covers the evaluation of the project in relation to enabling involvement and offering development opportunities for both practitioners and residents through health improvement initiatives. Both residents and practitioners were involved in the evaluation design, data collection and analysis. Focus groups and in-depth interviews were undertaken to identify key themes for both groups and commonalities across groups. The key findings from the evaluation showed that effectively involving local residents is a time consuming process and involves risk taking for both residents and practitioners. Practitioners also need to develop the necessary skills to involve others and work in partnership to share decision making and leadership of health improvement initiatives.