Community Voices North West London is a collective of individuals and organisations created to test alternative models and grassroots approaches to tackle inequalities. The approach centres on collaborative effort and conversations for change led by communities and driven by their needs, rather than the agendas of health and care, or other statutory organisations. This collective rapidly progressed during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that communities remained at the heart of policies and investment in engagement and solutions to shape everyday lives. These efforts were framed by a collective desire to craft a more participatory approach and explore how this could influence/change existing systems.What emerged from Community Voices North West London was a purposefully designed collective that became a social movement. This collective has evolved into a conduit between local communities and health, care, and other statutory organisations in north-west London. Here our aim is to provide learning for people who want to establish voluntary movements composed of people similarly motivated to achieve system-wide change from an equality and community perspective. This is our story, in our own words, from a world and community, which takes people’s stories seriously, and as starting points for change.The Community Voices collective is comprised of people who live and/or work in north-west London. We belong to communities that face higher risks of COVID-19. We are not simply capturing community voices or advancing priorities set by wider structures and organisations, but ‘build[ing] a collective, context-specific knowledge, not separat[ing] ourselves from society’ (Andrews, 2011:153). Ceesu, a Community Champion whose story was collected through this collective aptly stated, ‘We are people who have knowledge, who know the language of the local community, [and] are able to tune into the local community’s needs and aspirations.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Groups most severely affected by COVID-19 have tended to be those marginalised before the pandemic and are now being largely ignored in developing responses to it.This two-volume set of Rapid Responses explores the urgent need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how policymakers, health and social care practitioners, patients, service users, carers and public contributors can make this happen.The second volume focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic. It explores a variety of case studies from across the global North and South and addresses the practical considerations of co-producing knowledge both now - at a distance - and in the future when the pandemic is over.The second in a two-volume set, this book explores the need to put co-production and participatory approaches at the heart of responses to the pandemic and demonstrates how to do this. Exploring a variety of case studies from across the global North and South, the book focuses on methods and means of co-producing during a pandemic.