LeedsACTS! is excited to share St George’s Crypt’s case studies on the benefits of collaborating with academic partners.

LeedsACTS! (Academic Collaboration with Third Sector) aims to bring together expertise and skills of the local community, academia and third sector across Leeds to better make sense of local societal challenges and develop innovative solutions to address them. This cross-sectoral collaboration is key for finding solutions and ways to mitigate the impact of a range of issues impacting local communities, including people experiencing homelessness.

The following case studies demonstrate some of the value of academic collaboration with the third sector.

Occupational Therapy – St George’s Crypt

St George’s Crypt collaborated on a research project run by occupational therapy Masters students, through Leeds Beckett’s Role Emerging Placement programme, looking at occupational health needs of clients with a history of homelessness and alcoholism in a ‘wet hostel’ setting, which highlighted massive occupational need.

Mandy Graham from School of Rehabilitation and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Beckett, and Karl Witty, CommUNIty (Leeds Beckett community-focused partnership) worked with St George’s Crypt to develop a bid for Third Sector Health Grants – Leeds South and East CCG to fund an Occupational Therapist (OT) position, based on the findings of the research.

The collaboration worked with Leeds South and East CCG then Leeds CCG, and Leeds Beckett, to evaluate the work delivered by the OT, and all the projects supported through the Third Sector Health Grants. This developed the evidence to support the full commissioning of a range of services.

Based on the foundation model that St George’s Crypt created, Leeds CCG commissioned a full-time OT position working across the city specifically to support people with a history of homelessness or those at risk of homelessness.

Faith in a City Setting – St George’s Crypt

St George’s Crypt developed a bid with Revd. Professor Michelle Briggs, Director, Centre of Pain Research, School of Health and Community Studies, Leeds Beckett University and Dr Jo Sadgrove, Leeds University, to look at how faith impacts on the work of St George’s Crypt and how faith organisations work with the Public Sector in Leeds.

Through COVID, the terms of the research evolved to look at how the Faith Sector, Third Sector and Public Sector had developed partnerships, built relationships, and engaged better to confront the challenges presented through COVID.

St George’s Crypt worked with Leeds Church Institute and researchers through VAL/Leeds ACTS to develop and deliver the research project, culminating in a citywide conference spanning all three sectors looking at lessons learnt through COVID and how to use the partnerships developed to rise to challenges raised through food insecurity, climate change, the Ukraine war – a world in crisis.

Ultimately, St George’s Crypt were able the utilise this research to develop and externally fund a role within the Crypt looking at church engagement.

Greenwood: Community Climate Action – Meanwood Valley Partnership

Initially, St George’s Crypt discussed the potential project and student involvement with Sonja Woodcock, LeedsACTS. Sonja highlighted a PHD engagement programme, the Postgraduate Research Student (PGR) Placement Scheme, as a method of accessing academic expertise to undertake our community/business engagement project.

The team at St George’s Crypt applied for this programme and were successful. They also applied for a Master’s student, and so had a research and consultancy team of one PHD level and one Master’s level student to work alongside our community group.

After successfully securing National Lottery funding, St George’s Crypt are now running a series of workshops aimed at engaging local businesses with climate action and have had a number of potential successes, notably Meanwood Valley Farm agreeing to take waste cardboard for their green gardening.

Leeds ACTS!