Public Engagement
Promoting public voice through more impactful conversations and exchanges

Aims

Testing materials and methods for early, health evidence-informed, deliberative public engagement.

Drawing on our learning throughout TRUUD about ways of enhancing public engagement in urban design, we are co-designing new materials which aim to provide new entry points for thinking and talking about health and the built environment during engagement activities related to both local and city-wide contexts. We will be testing these materials with the public and assessing their impact through bespoke, hypothetical public engagement activities founded on creative methods.

The learning from this work can inform future communication and engagement with the public during early stages of health-related interventions around urban planning and street improvements.

Methods

(i) Design of new health evidence visualisations with plain English ‘explainers’ to emphasise current health and well being risks posed by the ‘status quo’.

(ii) Co-design of public-facing communication materials to improve understanding of health impacts of streets through an adaptation of the Healthy Streets Indicators and relevant concepts.

(iii) Co-Production of a short film highlighting the individual and familial impact of current street and traffic impacts and the possibilities for positive change, drawing on lay evidence. This builds on our prior work producing generic short films on the impacts of built environments on health which have demonstrated the potential power of lived experience story-telling.

(iv) Co-design of reciprocal, deliberative engagement activities to facilitate discussions drawing on the above materials as evidence. These will create a space for the public to discuss the relationship between the built environment and health, their concerns and ideas for positive change. We will prompt discussion using creative, accessible, and engaging visual and audio materials that can be adapted to a range of demographic groups.

We will be testing all three elements with the public in Bristol, where various urban street transformation interventions have been initiated over recent years.

Our materials and activities will be co-designed with members of the public, including the TRUUD Public Advisory Group, partner community organisations and creative specialists from the organisation Knowle West Media Centre.

Outputs

Following the co-design and testing phase (May 2025) we are producing a toolkit based on our learning, with detailed example of our materials and methods. The lessons shared will be relevant to health-promoting initiatives across the UK, including low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and wider urban street transformation projects.

On completion of this work the materials used for testing in engagement will also be made publicly available for replication.

Films

We commissioned a series of films to detail first-hand experiences and the impacts of overcrowding, lack of green space, damp, noisy or polluted environments on respiratory illnesses, mental health, child behaviour, the school-run, and quality of life. The families explain the toll of living conditions on their physical and mental health in a series of films aimed at promoting change urban planning policy and practice in the UK.

They use evidence gathered through TRUUD research and our HAUS economic modelling tool. See our living in unhealthy places page for the films and data behind them.

Academics

Dr Andy Gibson at the University of the West of England

Dr Jo White at the University of the West of England

Maisie Black at the University of the West of England

Looking for more information?

Find out more about programme integration (WP3)