Our current work
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Our current work
Our Research Programmes and Projects
Our approach is strongly end-user-focused, embedded in a community development and co-production philosophy.
We work with governments and practitioners in ensuring that our research impacts upon policy and practice worldwide: recently we have worked in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
Our research is conducted by key academics and within two core themes: Online Harms and Cybercrime and Community Health and Wellbeing.
Our research focuses
Children and Young People's and Vulnerable Adults' Voices in Health Service Research
Focus on patient and public involvement in research to influence research, policy and practice.
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Cybercrime and online harm
Research that focuses on cybercrime and online safety, to influence policy and practice.
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Social prescribing
Focus on social prescribing, asset based community approaches and social return on investment.
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Healthy ageing and life course
Focus on public health services, social epidemiology and policy from a life course perspective.
Find out moreOngoing research projects
Communities keeping well evaluation:
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: 1 January 2024
End date: 31 July 2026
This evaluation aims to understand the impact of the programme on reducing health inequalities and preventing long-term conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and COPD. We also want to learn about the effectiveness of new partnerships and methods introduced by the programme. The programme's main goals are to improve LTC prevention among Core20PLUS populations, strengthen the role of Primary Care Networks in community health, and enhance collaboration with these populations in designing and delivering health services.
Partners: Tower Hamlets Council, PCNs, Tower Hamlets CVS
Exploring the potential of digitised approaches to social prescribing
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Ainul Hanafiah
Start date: 1 September 2021
End date: 31 July 2024
This project, led by Professor Ian Tucker from the School of Psychology, Dr. Atiqur Rahman Ahad from ACE, and Dr. Ainul Hanafiah from ECR ICC, aims to explore how digital social prescribing (SP) can help improve and manage mental health issues. The research involves mapping digital SP interventions across the country, conducting interviews at five different sites, and selecting one site for detailed real-time data collection using technologies like Fitbit and mobile apps.
Health visiting service evaluation
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: 1 November 2023
End date: 31 March 2024
This evaluation falls under the Maternity and Early Years team, part of the Healthy Children and Families team at Tower Hamlets Council's Public Health Division. It's crucial for the council to enhance families' service experiences, address access barriers, and inform a robust re-procurement process. The evaluation aims to guide decisions about whether to keep the current provider, suggest improvements for accessibility and effectiveness, and determine the ongoing need for additional support for vulnerable families. This evaluation will shape the re-procurement process for the 0-5 Specialist Public Health Nursing contract, which begins in Spring 2024.
Partners: Tower Hamlets Council
Virtual reality risks against children
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Julia Davidson
Start date: 1 March 2023
End date: 29 February 2024
Led by Prof Julia Davidson OBE and Dr Elena Martellozzo, alongside researchers Ruby Farr and Paula Bradby, this project explores how the Metaverse (MV) impacts children's development. While the MV offers advantages, it also brings risks like mental health issues and susceptibility to abuse. As platforms like Roblox gain popularity, addressing concerns like grooming and cyberbullying becomes crucial. The research aims to tackle these challenges through various investigations, leading to a VIRRACK TOOLKIT REPORT and an educational film for increased awareness and safety measures. Key objectives include understanding tech companies' difficulties, assessing professionals' needs, enhancing safeguarding measures, and gathering children's perspectives on MV safety.
Partners: Middlesex University, Kabuni, and ChildNet
Healthy lives evaluation
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: 1 December 2023
End date: 31 May 2024
This evaluation is part of the Children and Adolescents team's work within the Healthy Children and Families team of the Public Health Division in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It aims to inform the re-procurement of the Health Lives contract, with the service specification being updated in Spring 2024. The evaluation seeks to answer questions about improving service accessibility, effectiveness, and user satisfaction, as well as assessing the extent to which schools and the needs of children and young people are being met. Additionally, it will examine evidence of the service's effectiveness and assess the market for potential alternative providers.
Partners: Tower Hamlets Council
Community health equity programme
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: April 2023
End date: March 2025
The Institute of Connected Communities (ICC) will serve as a critical friend to the program team, offering expert advice to foster evidence-based decision-making aimed at addressing health inequalities. Our role involves guiding the team in designing robust data collection methods, enhancing monitoring processes, and suggesting effective data analysis techniques. Throughout the project, we will prioritise research, information gathering, reflection, and learning, sharing our insights with Community Action Redbridge and other stakeholders to strengthen the program's impact. Additionally, we will provide coaching to the programme manager and M&E officer, along with group coaching sessions for the entire team, to support their development and ensure alignment with the program's goals of tackling health inequalities.
Partner: Community Action Redbridge
Common Health: Assets - a realist evaluation of how, how much and in what circumstances community led organisations impact on health, wellbeing and health inequalities
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Marcello Bertotti
Start date: 1 September 2021
End date: 31 August 2024
This project aims to establish what are effective community focused approaches to maximising the potential of people as assets to improve health, wellbeing, and health inequalities as well as what are the mechanisms underlying community focused approaches that enable implementation and ensure scalability and sustainability.
Partners: Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Scottish Communities for Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), New NHS Alliance, Queen’s University Belfast, Bournemouth University, Annexe Communities, University of Cambridge
Capabilities, Opportunities, Places and Engagement: Approach for Social Inclusion of Difficult to Reach Young People through a “Relational Proximity” Community Network (COPE)
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Marcello Bertotti
Start date: 1 December 2021
End date: 30 November 2023
The project aims to implement an integrated intervention based on an innovative and experimental ‘relational proximity’ approach for social inclusion of difficult to reach young people as well as the evaluation of how this intervention may add value and be integrated in the current design of NEET employment and social services.
Partner: Healthcare Trust, Province autonomous of Trento, Italy
Pro-active care pathway frailty awareness CPD
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: April 2023
End date: July 2024
We're creating a CPD training package for community healthcare teams to support the Proactive Care Pathway. This multimedia training will empower those living with frailty to boost their resilience and understanding. We'll tailor the content and delivery to suit learners' needs, with input from stakeholders and self-assessment options. The CPD will draw on research insights from Hackney, ensuring its relevance. Learners will be encouraged to enhance their cultural competencies and make evidence-based decisions.
Partner: Neighbourhoods Programme (hosted by Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust)
Breast cancer screening evaluation
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: 1 April 2023
End date: 30 November 2024
The Institute for Connected Communities is conducting an independent evaluation of two breast cancer screening projects: one focusing on improving participation for people with Learning Disabilities (LD project) and the other on enhancing language support during screening appointments (Language project). The goal was to gather evidence on screening uptake, barriers, and disparities to inform strategies for improving access and equity. The evaluation provided detailed insights into the process and impact of these projects, benefiting breast screening services in Central-East and North London, and beyond. Recommendations were made for further development and strategies to maximise impact.
Partners: Cancer Alliance
STAR Social Transformation and Advocacy through Research Evaluation
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: 15 September 2021
End date: 31 October 2025
This project aims to create a specialist research training route that identifies and creates resources to address the impact of systemic racism and class inequality on research careers through an interconnected chain of activities, enhancing research and research advocacy skills from school to undergraduate to masters to doctoral levels.
Partner: OfS/Research England
CYP Diabetes Transition Evaluation
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: November 2022
End date: December 2024
The evaluation aims to support the development of sustainable service models to maximise improvements in outcomes for children and young adults transitioning from paediatric care. Ipsos MORI are the evaluators working with up to 21 pilot sites between September 2022-March 2025 to identify key scalable themes and learning to underpin improvements in diabetes transition and young adult care. Dr Sharpe’s is a consultant on behalf of Ipsos Mori lending his expertise in NHS service improvement evaluations as well as participatory research with young people and adults living with chronic conditions.
Partners: Ipsos Mori and NHIR
Proactive Care Pathway CPD training package for the City and Hackney Neighbourhoods Programme
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Darren Sharpe
Start date: April 2022
End date: March 2023
In collaboration with the Neighbourhoods Programme (hosted by Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust), ICC will co-design with residence and staff, and deliver an evidence-based in-person training event that will raise awareness about frailty in the cultural context of City and Hackney. This training is aimed at volunteers and those people working with residents living with or at risk of frailty. In addition, a need was identified to develop further culturally appropriate pathways to support people. The training event will be aimed at multidisciplinary cohorts of Neighbourhoods resident/staff/volunteers with the aim of building frailty aware neighbourhoods.
The Tīpuna Project
Principal Investigator/Main Researcher: Dr Rachel Liebert
Start date: 1 February 2023
End date: 31 January 2026
The Tipuna (‘Ancestor’) Project (TTP) is Māori and Pākehā (White settler) collaboration based in Aotearoa to innovate and evaluate research practices that include Indigenous and settler ancestors in order to counter (1) the denigration of Indigenous ways of knowing/being, (2) the historically traumatic nature of the research space for Indigenous peoples and (3) low settler accountability, before translating these counter-practices for local and international decolonising initiatives more broadly. Using participatory action research (PAR) as both a methodology and a case study, we are asking overall: What are the decolonial possibilities and complexities of including ancestors as co-researchers in PAR?
Partner: UK Arts & Humanities Research Council
