Children Growing Up in Liverpool (C-GULL) – Involve to Engage

The Children Growing up in Liverpool – Involve to Engage project aimed to co-produce a public engagement programme for the Wellcome Trust-funded Children Growing Up in Liverpool cohort with children/young people and parents of babies/young children.

Rebecca Geary, Institute of Population Health

Three workshops were conducted (online due to COVID-19) with ‘children and young people’, ‘parents of young children’, and ‘new parents’ with representation from areas of high deprivation and ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ communities through links with community partners. Visual minutes captured workshop suggestions.

This project co-produced a plan for public engagement activities tailored to underserved population groups in Liverpool. As a result, a three year, arts based, co-produced programme of public engagement has been funded by the Wellcome Trust to enrich the Children Growing Up in Liverpool cohort. Young people and parents who participated gave positive feedback, including several who reached out after the workshops to thank us for listening and providing an opportunity to be involved in research.

Staff involved have benefitted from deeper links with local communities, a deeper understanding of what growing up/parenting in Liverpool means to people living in the city, a clearer idea of the public engagement activities young people and parents of young children would like to be involved with and building their public involvement and engagement skills, confidence, and experience.