Risk and resilience: exploring the potential of LGBTQ third sector and academic partnership

Abstract

The Risk and Resilience Explored [RaRE] Project (2010–2016) was a collaborative process involving a third sector agency, university partners and volunteers to better understand the risk and resilience factors associated with specific mental health issues among lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people. In this article, we discuss the project’s collaborative ethos, based on a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach. We explain how the CBPR approach benefitted from including academic partners from the onset of the project, as well as from the direct and indirect engagement of community volunteers. We then explore some of our experience of third sector and academic partner collaboration in more depth, highlighting topic summaries salient to this partnership: support and continuity, upskilling of staff and volunteers for mutual benefit, accessible communication across sectors, and aligning priorities. We conclude by setting out recommendations based on our experience for those interested in developing similarly collaborative projects.