A critical reflection on the challenges and benefits of conducting community- engaged research: working with community-based researchers and organisations

This is a working paper to accompanying the Final Report of In Their Own Words: A pilot study to elicit perceptions of dignity and dignified care from a purposive sample of African- Caribbean and Black Welsh people aged 50 years and older living in Wales.

A review our community engagement work may yield recommendations that could be considered by other researchers when conducting research in an urban, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic research context. It is also of worth to note that, this report builds on earlier reflections on community-based research and engagement work (Saltus 2006) and will be, in part, framed in the context of the eight categories or dimensions that Meleis (1996) proposed as essential for evaluating methodological rigour in research and scholarship: contextuality, relevance, communication styles, the awareness of identity and power differentials, disclosure, reciprocation, empowerment and time. The study presented an opportunity to explore what other dimensions may need to be considered when working with minoritised groups in general and older people and elders from particular minoritised background in particular.