We worked with Access and SIB to evaluate their multi-year Enterprise Development Programme, supporting 325+ charities and social enterprises - across six sectors - to strengthen governance, leadership, enterprise resilience, and social impact.

Shortwork partnered with Camden Council to improve community engagement for street upgrades. Over 170 Camden residents engaged in community research sessions to co-design practical recommendations to build trust, improve accessibility, and boost participation.

Shortwork worked with Petworth House and the National Trust to engage 676 local participants through participatory action research, providing insights to shape more inclusive and meaningful audience engagement and programming.

Discover how a pioneering Participatory Action Research project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, empowered community researchers to collaborate with Dulwich Picture Gallery. Together, they explored innovative ways to reinterpret Old Master paintings, making them resonate with South London’s diverse communities.

We worked with the British Red Cross and a group of refugee women across the UK to explore barriers to accessing information, rights and services. Trained as peer researchers, they engaged 48 participants from 23 countries, revealing the challenges of navigating complex systems — and co-designing solutions to build more inclusive, accessible support for refugee women nationwide.

We worked with the NHS in North Central London to put women and families at the heart of maternity service improvement. Training 15 local mothers as community researchers, we used participatory action research to gather the experiences of 179 parents across five boroughs. The findings informed key recommendations on access, continuity, and choice - and led to the co-creation of a people-centred training module for staff and new research addressing poor outcomes for Black women.

Discover how participatory research in Tower Hamlets captured older residents’ experiences of loneliness, highlighting key challenges, community assets, and solutions to improve wellbeing.

Discover how local residents in Aberfeldy, Tower Hamlets, helped identify barriers to preventing Type 2 Diabetes and proposed solutions through participatory action research.

The Public Health team at Tower Hamlets Council commissioned this PAR project to gain a deeper understanding of the barriers that prevent eligible residents from accessing bowel, cervical, and breast cancer screening services, and to identify solutions that local communities themselves believe could effectively address these challenges.

Shortwork worked with Poplar HARCA to explore staff health and wellbeing through participatory research, identifying practical solutions to enhance frontline workforce wellbeing.

A RIBA guide detailing principles, methods, and case studies for effective community engagement in architectural projects, helping architects involve local communities meaningfully in design and planning.