Engaging diverse groups in co-creation activities to promote listening and develop innovative pathways

Over the past two years Ways to Wellness has been leading conversations about maternal mental health and service design in North East and North Cumbria.

Through our project steering group we connected with Centre for Digital Citizens and Happy Mums Foundation. Early conversations with both parties, together with perinatal and maternal mental health colleagues, highlighted an opportunity for participatory scoping research. We worked together with a large group of partner agencies working across North Cumbria to engage a diverse group of women and birthing people in co-creation activities, raising awareness and promoting listening with communities whose voices may be unheard or excluded. The theme for the listening was diverse experiences of motherhood.

We can now share a blog piece kindly written and curated by Caro Claisse and hosted by Centre for Digital Citizens, together with partner agencies, with a link embedded to a zine output produced following significant co-production activity in North Cumbria listening to mums and mums to be from marginalised communities.

Speaking about the research, Ang Broadbridge, our VCSE Maternal Mental Health Services Project Manager said:

“The co-design approach and care taken to craft a safe, supportive and empowering environment and experience resulted in rich storytelling scaffolded by creative activities led by Centre for Digital Citizens and in partnership with Happy Mums, and wider partners listed in the blog piece. The zine medium is very powerful, a zine is a collection of original content, a medium of creative expression with an authentic storytelling aesthetic. We hope through sharing our creative process others may see the value of deep listening to learn from lived experience to influence service design.”

Participants included those who had experienced homelessness, the asylum system, criminal justice system, from LGBTQ+ communities, mums from minoritised ethnic communities and mums who were neurodivergent, through carefully considered outreach undertaken by Happy Mums, supported by partner agencies.

Read the blog post: Research co-production with Happy Mums: listening to mums and mums-to-be (digitalcitizens.uk)

The Zine produced through the participatory research project can be read online: Motherhood Zine Collage - ePrints - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)