Join The Social Responsibility and Public Engagement (SRPE) Team in looking back at a few of their highlights of 2020. Although 2020 has been a challenging and unprecedented year, the SRPE Team has been able to continue virtually engaging, involving and celebrating with staff, students, Public Contributors and the public.  Here are a couple of highlights from the year:

International Women’s Day Event

This year’s theme was #EachForEqual. To raise awareness of this topic, the Faculty welcomed Anita Shervington who discussed social justice, what “fair” means and gender bias – something she felt as a child but did not know the name for. The SRPE Team also hosted a Smart Works GM clothing drive which was a brilliant success, with over 135 items of clothing being donated along with accessories and toiletries. These donations helped support local unemployed women in their upcoming job interviews. Thank you to everyone who donated! Read more here.

Annual Celebration Events

Every year, the Faculty celebrates the positive impact being made in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and Social Responsibility (SR) at our annual celebration events.

PPIE Celebration

The Faculty’s first online PPIE Celebration event took place on 8 July via Zoom. This year’s theme was ‘PPIE in a Socially Distanced World’ where attendees explored how PPIE can continue to adapt and benefit health and social care during these unprecedented times. Hosted by Dr Stephanie Snow, Academic Lead for Community Engagement and Involvement and Kay Gallacher, Public Contributor, the event welcomed 50 attendees including staff and Public Contributors. The event also included an activity led by Dr Hawys Williams, SRPE Manager, which asked groups of attendees to discuss how our community can effectively conduct PPIE during and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. The discussion points from each group were collated and translated into a simple resource of hints and tips to aid the wider community in their socially distanced PPIE activities in the future. Read more here.

SR Celebration

The Faculty’s first online SR celebration took place on the 22^nd July on the Faculty’s Facebook account. It featured highlights over the past year– including a brand new short film about ‘What is SR in FBMH’. Photography from events throughout the year appeared on-screen whilst the audience tuned in. Professor Mahesh Nirmalan opened the event by introducing SR and the brand new short film. Four speakers then presented their project lightning talks about plastic waste, closing the pharmacy attainment gap, service learning and COVID-19 research. The event was then closed with a heartening speech from Dr Hema Radhakrishnan thanking Faculty staff and students, who has been involved in SR over the past year. Read more here.

PPIE Forum Meetings

The Faculty’s PPIE Forum (comprising of Faculty Leads and Public Contributors) meets quarterly to provide strategic direction to the SRPE team and wider PPIE community. The main aims of the Forum include building and promoting PPIE activity and best practice, developing the Faculty’s PPIE webpages, providing a central point for information and advice, and developing and promoting training in PPIE. Our January meeting promoted the upcoming opportunity for new Public Contributors to join our Forum.

The Linnean Society Lecture

For the last six years, the Faculty has had the privilege of hosting the annual Irene Manton lecture with the Linnean Society of London. The lecture celebrates the significant contribution made by women to the Natural Sciences. This year’s lecture took place on Thursday 3rd December where guest speaker Eleanor Drinkwater, PhD student from the University of York, delivered her lecture entitled ‘Metamorphosis: a 300 year story of intrepid women, rainforests and butterflies’. Read more here.

Museum of Medicine and Health

With several public engagement events cancelled in 2020, the Museum of Medicine and Health aimed to make the collections more accessible online. Most notably we were disappointed we could not welcome our school groups on campus this year for our Annual Charlotte Beswick Inspiring Futures event. Aware that schools were first closed completely, then later with many pupils experiencing periods of home schooling, the museum launched its new Digital Learning Resource History of Medicine aimed at Key Stage 4, or anyone interested in Manchester’s healthcare past.

For more information about other PPIE events, training and funding opportunities, you can sign up to our monthly digest, visit our website, follow us on twitter or email srbmh@manchester.ac.uk. For further PPIE resources, visit the Faculty’s PPIE Toolkit

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