Posted July 24th 2024
My name is Gerraint Jones-Griffiths, and I am very honoured to be a Cardiff University Honorary Associate working with the NCMH as part of the Influencing and Informing Engage to Change project.
Influencing and Informing Engage to Change is a seven-year project that aimed to supported young people aged 16-25 with a learning disability and or autism to develop employment skills and gain paid employment.
The project is led by Learning Disability Wales, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, and supported by the Welsh Government.
Researchers at the NCMH have been behind the research and evaluation of the project to find out the best ways to help young people into employment.
Becoming a Lead Ambassador
My journey began in 2016, where I was originally an Engage to Change project participant. Through this, I gained sustained employment with Learning Disability Wales as a Project Administration Officer.
In 2018, I was promoted to Lead Ambassador for Engage to Change, and my responsibility was to exhibit at events across the whole of Wales promoting the project. This included chairing conferences, and engaging with employers and project participants.
Alongside this, I managed five additional project ambassadors to ensure that people with lived experiences were better represented when raising the publicity of Engage to Change.
Part of my role also saw me work with an evaluation forum group for the project, made up of people with a learning disability, autism, or both, who were interested in providing employment feedback to the research team at the NCMH.
“A crucial piece of feedback from the evaluation group highlighted the importance of accessibility, so that everyone can understand the project’s end results.”
Making research accessible
I joined forces with the evaluation and research team at NCMH in 2021, and our first task was to create an easy-read online survey, and examine the results. My responsibility was to make sure that the results were accessible in the best way possible, which I did by making sure that no jargon was used in each report.
We also decided to create accessible videos for every report we published, and made sure that the academic journal papers we published were also made accessible in an easy-read format so that anyone, with lived experiences or not, could access them. We also used social media to make the public aware of our work.
Ensuring our reports were accessible made a significant difference to our immediate impact. For example, our job coach video totalled over two hundred views, whilst our academic paper with the same content was still waiting to be reviewed.
Making my voice heard
My most recent work with the research team aims to take forward what we’ve learnt about the best ways to support young people with a learning disability or autism into employment, and to make sure that this is implemented in government policy.
This work includes leading national and international presentations, and engaging in discussion with Welsh Government, where I have visited the Senedd to talk about our project results and discuss what Wales can learn from this work.
Visiting the Senedd was an important moment for me, because I am the only person on the research team with lived experience of autism. Therefore, I personally know what needs to be done on a government level, and it was significant for members of Welsh Government to recognise this.
Becoming an Honorary Associate
Most recently, I was nominated by Dr Elisa Vigna and Andrea Meek for Honorary Associate status in Cardiff University for the recognition of the work I have done with them.
I was privileged and humbled when I heard that I was going to be made an Honorary Associate. To me, my work is not about status, but because and I enjoy it, and it’s important to me.
I would like to see more accessible information with regards to research in the future, and I would like to continue to be more involved as a co-researcher, as my experience and knowledge provides valid insight.
On a wider basis, I really think that any research involving people with learning disabilities or autism should not happen without involving people with lived experiences, in the same practical way which I have worked with Dr Elisa Vigna and Andrea Meek.
I would also like to see co-production in research happening more frequently, and we vitally need people with learning disabilities to be included in this within universities and other organisations.
Additionally, it would be helpful if universities offered to train researchers in how communicate their work more accessibly, such as avoiding jargon and not referring to individuals as ‘service users’ or ‘case files’.
My interests in research are continuing to develop, and I am very keen to spread the word across universities and other organisations about the importance of being accessible and inclusive.
As my post comes to an end this year, I am keen to build on the network of connections that I have made so far in the hopes that I can continue my involvement in research.
If you would like to connect with me I would love to hear from you jones-griffithsg@cardiff.ac.uk
Read more
Engage to Change | Co-production in research
Watch | Engage to Change interview with parents
Watch | Job coach support and Engage to Change
Listen | Piece of Mind podcast episode 13:Learning disability, autism, and support into work
Watch | Engage to Change project highlights
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