By Shona Ulrichsen
Community-Embedded Researcher for the REALITIES Clackmannanshire Hub

Honestly, being a Community Embedded Researcher – or CER – in the REALITIES research had messed with my head a little. I am not an academic, and have spent the last 8 years growing and nurturing a small, community-based youth organisation—Ochil Youths Community Improvement—firmly focused on relational practice as a way to improve outcomes for young people in Scotland’s smallest mainland local authority. I dipped my toe into the REALITIES world in the last funding cycle—REALITIES Phase 2—when another organisation in my area had invited me along, giving me a glimpse into the research world.  The current phase—REALITIES 3—now sees me in the involved and focused role of the community-embedded researcher for the Clackmannanshire hub.

So, what does being a CER mean for me? Well, I think it is slightly different for all the CERs – we are focusing on different experiments, are based in different localities, and may or may not have been involved in earlier REALITIES work.

For me, the hardest part has been trying to separate the work of REALITIES from my wider work at OYCI, where I juggle many different responsibilities and where there is much crossover with the wider project. Nothing is linear, so it can hard sometimes to separate out—our GDPR project within REALITIES is a good example. While the work is being progressed from the REALITIES project, it is informed by our wider practice and experiences and will have consequences for how we work going forwards when the REALITIES funded period has ended.  Starting on the GDPR work, Project Lead Marisa de Andrade explained to me that ‘this is how we make change happen’: slowly, on the ground, using lived experience, small tests of change that eventually move mighty systems. At the time, I couldn’t quite see it.

Then two things changed for me: Firstly, I stopped trying to separate REALITIES from my wider work – they are so interconnected– REALITIES is operating at the research/policy/practice ‘edge’, so separating my ‘research’ role from everything else simply doesn’t work. Secondly, I started taking the relational and co-design approach of REALITIES into our public sector partnerships, which totally changed the dynamic and helped open doors that previously had been closed. I could see that REALITIES was starting to help influence policy and practice at local level in a way we could never have achieved alone. We had always worked this way with young people but tried to fit into the ’norms’ of working with statutory sector. Instead, we are now helping them understand new ways of working for different outcomes.

There has been so much personal learning for me as a third-sector leader from engaging in the research. Whenever we have a meeting online, but especially when we come together in person, there is so much to digest beyond the research. Hearing the work of the other CERs, the academic team, the consortium and the wider MCA projects (of which REALITIES is one of 12) all helps expand and inspire what we do in this tiny wee corner of Scotland. It exposes us to ground-breaking thinking and practice, and to lived experiences in the communities where REALITIES is operating. The impact of the investment (of both time and money) of all the CERs and their respective organisations seems truly transformative. It has accelerated our development through giving us the opportunity to engage in a genuinely collaborative and supportive project that connects, binds and inspires. Being part of REALITIES has forced me to peek out from the day-to-day, be bold, take time to reflect and absorb. This practice is critical for growth and development – both personal and organisational – but with every organisation I know struggling for capacity, it can be very difficult to protect the time for this.

So, I will close with a big thank you to REALITIES for opening my eyes, even if initially I found it hard to do so!