Emma, Program Leader at Talking About Our Generations talks about the organisation’s experience at the CRIS Research Consultancy Clinic.
What’s your name and where do you work?
My name is Emma and I’m the Program Leader at Talking About Our Generations. We are a cross generational group who prior to the pandemic met monthly to share our stories around a theme over a cup of tea. Our members ages span from 20s to 90s and we feel like a family of wonderful friends. The topics we have covered include how we would like to be remembered, our favourite songs and school holiday memories. We admit we regularly go off topic but that is half the fun and we always have a great laugh and fascinating conversations.
Please can you tell us about some of your experience with the Research Consult Clinic?
During my research consultation I met the lovely Astrid. She had brilliant ideas and she really understood our group. She had even worked in reminiscence in care homes which is all about story-telling and our organisation is all about story-telling so that felt really synchronistic and beneficial. Astrid got what we were doing and was able to clearly explain the different options and her recommendations for research. She couldn't have been more helpful. It felt like a really positive experience
Please can you tell us about the idea you came up with at the Research Consult Clinic?
We would be interested in seeing what the benefits of being part of a collaborative cross generational group are. We thought a qualitative analysis of some interviews with members of our group with the aim of drawing out what they believe the benefits are from their participation and why the group works so well for them. We can help with this aspect too if that would be beneficial. Obviously it would be interesting to see how this correlates with current research.