Ideas Alliance is a social enterprise that builds bridges between communities and organisations, stories and strategy using collaborative and co-design approaches. We are working alongside Calderdale Council to go out and have conversations with mums who have successfully breastfed in the past two years.
A large number of women in Calderdale breastfeed, but a significant number don’t. We want to understand what is working well for women in certain demographic groups who successfully breastfeed. The insight we gather will be used by Amy Brown, Professor of Child Public Health, to inform the writing of the Calderdale Infant Feeding Strategy. To help us do that, we are recruiting a team of four community researchers who we will train and support to go out into their communities and listen to women’s experiences.
The role
The role will be carried out as part of a supportive project team, and you’ll work together in pairs to carry out the research. We will provide you with all the training, equipment and ongoing support you will need for this role.
The Community Researcher role will likely include:
- Supporting with planning: work with the Ideas Alliance team to plan what questions we should ask and how best to do this.
- Leading information-gathering: make contact with mums within communities and find out answers to research questions – this may involve, either independently or in pairs, going to where people congregate – cafes, children’s centres, libraries, places of worship. You will not be expected to go into people’s homes.
- Supporting analysis of the findings: work with us to make sense of and build a big picture from all of the information we collect.
- Supporting and publicising the work: help us share what we find with people who need to hear it.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for people with certain skills and energy who are willing to learn and be trained to do this work. We are especially interested if you are:
- Connected to many mums with young children within North and/or Central Halifax, or are able to talk with mums and build these connections
- Curious about people
- Good at getting people to talk, and good at listening to what they are saying
- Reliable
- Keen to work as part of a small team
- Able to be unbiased and non-judgemental of others
- Excited about talking with people from a wide range of backgrounds
- Committed to making a difference for local people
- Organised and can plan what needs to be done
- Keen to be trained and supported to become one of our team of community researchers
As an associate of Ideas Alliance you will need to manage your own tax responsibilities but we will provide you with information and guidance for this.
References will be sought prior to confirmation in post and the role requires us to complete basic DBS checks.
How to apply
If you are interested in becoming a Community Researcher please complete the short application form. Alternatively, we’re happy to accept voice or video recordings – please contact Kate to let her know.
The closing date is Thursday 30th November 2023 (5pm).
How we will use your data
We collect, process and store your data as part of our recruitment process. We will only use the data you provide to us for the recruitment process. Please read our privacy notice for full details of how we process the data you provide us as a job applicant.
Got a question?
You can contact Kate at Ideas Alliance via email: kate@ideas-alliance.org.uk or mobile: 07469 507 296 for more information.