TY - JOUR

T1 - Undertaking graphic facilitation to enable participation in health promotion interventions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Denmark

AU - Sandholdt, Catharina Thiel

AU - Srivarathan, Abirami

AU - Kristiansen, Maria

AU - Malling, Gritt Marie Hviid

AU - Olesen, Kathrine Vingum Møller

AU - Jeppesen, Mette

AU - Lund, Rikke

N1 - © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - This study reports on a health promotion intervention (HPI), where graphic facilitation (GF) was used as an innovative method to enable participation in a co-design process in a multi-ethnic and disadvantaged neighbourhood in Denmark. The aim was to enable middle-aged and older residents to participate in the research process of planning and evaluating the HPI, as well as in the activities it constituted. GF was used to document statements and inputs from residents through visual meeting minutes and resident experiences with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown were drawn by a graphic facilitator. We use the ladder of participation as a framework to unfold the participation enabled by GF. During the HPI, data were produced through ethnographic field studies in and outside the neighbourhood and in design workshops with residents. The study finds that GF helped in reaching a target group difficult to engage in research and that the engagement of a graphic facilitator shifted the power-balance between the researchers and the residents, redistributing expertise. Carrying out GF in a HPI is a collaborative endeavour and in addition to research competences, it requires the artistic and relational skills of a graphic facilitator. The co-created process of the visual minutes and COVID-19 experiences created a sense of ownership and encouraged the residents to reflect on their interaction with the researchers. The redistribution of expertise was conditioned by the power dynamics present and GF helped unfold these dynamics. This is especially important in an HPI engaging socio-economically vulnerable populations.

AB - This study reports on a health promotion intervention (HPI), where graphic facilitation (GF) was used as an innovative method to enable participation in a co-design process in a multi-ethnic and disadvantaged neighbourhood in Denmark. The aim was to enable middle-aged and older residents to participate in the research process of planning and evaluating the HPI, as well as in the activities it constituted. GF was used to document statements and inputs from residents through visual meeting minutes and resident experiences with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown were drawn by a graphic facilitator. We use the ladder of participation as a framework to unfold the participation enabled by GF. During the HPI, data were produced through ethnographic field studies in and outside the neighbourhood and in design workshops with residents. The study finds that GF helped in reaching a target group difficult to engage in research and that the engagement of a graphic facilitator shifted the power-balance between the researchers and the residents, redistributing expertise. Carrying out GF in a HPI is a collaborative endeavour and in addition to research competences, it requires the artistic and relational skills of a graphic facilitator. The co-created process of the visual minutes and COVID-19 experiences created a sense of ownership and encouraged the residents to reflect on their interaction with the researchers. The redistribution of expertise was conditioned by the power dynamics present and GF helped unfold these dynamics. This is especially important in an HPI engaging socio-economically vulnerable populations.

U2 - 10.1093/heapro/daac034

DO - 10.1093/heapro/daac034

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35748284

VL - 37

SP - ii48-ii47

JO - Health Promotion International

JF - Health Promotion International

SN - 0957-4824

IS - Supplement 2

ER -