The journey of Knowledge is Power

In this blog, David Allan, Deputy Director of SCDC, shares some his reflections on the community-led action research programme, Knowledge is Power – which just published its programme learning report.

Image of David Allan

Knowledge is Power – what a powerful term in itself. Now we’re at the point of writing it all up and looking at next steps it’s made me reflect a bit on where it came from and why we believe that community-led action research is so powerful and so impactful.

I want to start by rewinding 4 or 5 years to 2018/19. By this time SCDC had already delivered the SCARF programme and produced the ARC resource. Various small programmes had been delivered where we had supported community groups and projects to design and deliver their own research into issues which were important to them. We had also just delivered a small-scale ‘pilot’ community-led action research programme in 2 test sites and had extensive discussions with a full range of stakeholders – including funders, academics, researchers, government and community/voluntary sector partners – on the benefits and opportunities of community-led action research.

Bringing it all together

All of this led to the development of the Knowledge is Power programme - and with funding support from NLCF, SG, and others we were able to get it underway in 2019. Work was well underway, initial training delivered, and groups developing their research plan when … the COVID-19 pandemic hit and put a lot of the work on hold. This was so frustrating for the groups and their plans, and for us in terms of our support for the process.

We were extremely fortunate to have such supportive and understanding programme funders who gave us leave to extend the programme delivery period by a year. This allowed us to work with the groups to refine their research aims and approaches, and to support them in dealing with the challenges to their research projects which had been thrown up by the pandemic. We also spent a lot of time in developing a robust toolkit to support community-led action research and helping our participating groups to share their experiences and learning as the programme progressed.

Resilience and impact

Reflecting on the programme, we never fail to be amazed by the resourcefulness and resilience of the groups we work with. Although 1 or 2 of the groups had to come off the programme due to the huge demands on their time presented by the COVID response and other local factors, the majority of our participants were able to take their research projects through to completion.

On the back of this we have developed considerable learning about community-led action research – its impact, what helps (and hinders) and what needs to happen next as we look to the future. It’s fair to say that the themes which have emerged are not new in community development:

  • community capacity and assets;

  • community engagement and inclusion;

  • the impact of c-l action research;

  • and the need for investment and support

It’s refreshing to see how community groups are recognising what the issues are, are happy to share their learning, and are developing innovative responses to the challenges they face.

We’ll be continuing to explore the learning and insights we’ve gained from the Knowledge is Power programmer You can read lots more in the KIP Programme Learning Report and more about community-led action research here.