People-centred research,
inclusive innovation and
stories of change
We specialise in working with people whose voices are less heard and whose experiences are less understood.
As well as designing and delivering our own projects, we work with governments, public sector organisations and charities, helping them understand, design, evaluate and innovate with and for the communities they serve.
If you’d like to explore the possibility of working with us, please get in touch to arrange a chat. In the meantime, you can find examples of our recent projects below.
Our services include:
Qualitative research
Participatory and coproduced research
Narrative and story-led approaches
Creative methods
Process and impact evaluations
Inclusive innovation and people-centred service design
Our Projects
Flying Start Parent Journeys
Nesta and Cardiff Council
Our recent research collaboration with Cardiff Flying Start and Nesta, as part of its Fairer Start Mission, explored families’ journeys through early years services and identified opportunities for innovation.
How ‘blended’ services meet community needs
The Wales Centre for Public Policy in Wales
We are currently working with The Wales Centre for Public Policy in Wales to understand the opportunities and challenges of blending online and in-person approaches to meeting community need. We’ve been gathering practice-based evidence to understand what the different approaches to blending are, what makes them work well, who they work best for, and what gets in the way.
Growing Up in Dudley
Dudley Metropolitan Brough Council
In January 2023 we were commissioned by Dudley Metropolitan Brough Council to undertake qualitative research to understand what it’s like to have a baby, bring up a child and be a young person in Dudley. The project aims to inform strategic priorities around public health, commissioning of services for families, children and young people and help shape the future of Start for Life and Family Hubs in Dudley.
Evaluating community resilience
Public service organisations, and health boards
This year we’ve been working with public service organisations, and health boards across Wales to help them evaluate programmes designed to increase community resilience. We evaluated systems leadership and public narrative programmes with community leaders and young people as part of a regional approach to tackling poor social and health outcome in North Wales. We also evaluated the Covid Community Support Hubs Pilot which has provided an emergency support to communities during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Evaluating community resilience.
Understanding data poverty
Good Things Foundation, Nominet & Virgin Media O2
A worrying number of households and individuals are not able to access or afford the amount of internet data they need to function in society. Over the past few years our work on this topic has included research for Nesta to understand what data poverty is and who’s affected and how many people experience data poverty in Wales and Scotland. We also worked with Local Trust to explore community-led action on data poverty’. And in 2021 we evaluated the pilot of the National Databank for Good Things Foundation, Nominet and Virgin Media O2.
Exploring pandemic experiences
Throughout the pandemic we saw that groups of people were missing from mainstream narratives about the impact of Covid-19 on people’s lives including: Participatory research with young people (age 15-18) to understand their experiences of the pandemic and their attitudes and behaviours around testing and self-isolating to inform the Test, Track and Trace programme. With funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, we also undertook narrative research with refugees and asylum seekers, young people not in mainstream education, and people with sight loss and blindness as part of our Conversations That Count project.
We are a purpose-driven community interest company and reinvest our profits into projects that increase equality and wellbeing.
Rosa Robinson
Rosa has extensive experience in designing and delivering participatory research on health, wellbeing, equality and inclusion. She cares about ensuring that the ‘less heard from’ voices in society (people who struggle to participate or are often overlooked or excluded) are listened to and have opportunities to play active roles in creating social change. Rosa passionately advocates people-centred design, creative methods and systems thinking.
Michèle Aitchison
Michèle is an experienced community engagement practitioner and facilitator. She has vast experience of working with people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, including asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable people with complex needs. Miche is committed to enabling people to improve their wellbeing by making connections with their local community.
Ben Castle
Ben is an activist for social and environmental justice. Ben is a trained teacher and counsellor, who works with children and young people with additional needs and is interested in psychotherapeutic approaches to increasing wellbeing.
We’d love to hear from you
We work across the UK but we’re based in Cardiff. If you’d like to work with us have a project idea or would like to find out more about what we do, please get it touch via the form or email hello@framecollective.org.uk