Research Café - Woking

Come and join us for a friendly and informal Research Café, where we’ll chat together about what wellbeing means in our day‑to‑day lives, what helps us feel well, and what makes it harder.

Everyone is welcome. You don’t need to know anything about research to get involved. This is simply a space to listen, share, and learn from each other’s experiences.

Inspired by community “wellbeing portraits” created in different parts of the world, this Research Café gives us a chance to talk about what supports our wellbeing, map out what matters to us, and help shape ideas for future research and local action. We’ll be drawing on a Doughnut Economics approach, which many communities globally use to focus on fairness, wellbeing, and caring for the places we live.

The session will be interactive, friendly and informal. You can join in as much or as little as you like. Activities will include:

• Simple mapping activities: Sharing places, people and activities that support your wellbeing.
• Group discussions: Talking together about what helps people live well, what gets in the way, and what could make things better locally.
• Picking our shared priorities: Using a quick and easy voting activity to highlight the issues that matter most to the group.

This event is open to:

• Local residents and community members
• People who live, work, study in Surrey
• Anyone interested in wellbeing, community life, or health inequalities

We want to better understand the many things that shape our health and wellbeing, including social, environmental and community factors such as housing, transport, employment, and climate change. What you share will feed into ongoing work to reduce health inequalities and support healthier, fairer places to live.

• ✅ Lunch will be provided.
• ✅ Everyone who takes part will receive a £50 thank‑you voucher, as recognition for your time and contribution.
• (Please book in advance so we can arrange lunch and vouchers).
• ✅ Please let us know any dietary requirements or accessibility needs when booking and we’ll do our best to accommodate.
• ✅ The venue - Woking Library is fully accessible.

If you do have any questions, please contact us on [email protected]

Info: Informal arrival, refreshments, settling in

Info: Welcome from HDRC Surrey & SMEF; purpose of the Research Café and focus on wellbeing and wider determinants of health

Info: Introducing the idea of creating a first wellbeing portrait, inspired by community led Doughnut approaches. Individual reflection and small group mapping of places, people and activities that support wellbeing (Woking and beyond)

Info: Vegan and Veg lunch provided; informal discussion and time to view outputs while eating

Info: Participants prioritise key wellbeing needs, barriers and ideas using dot voting

Info: What stands out, what feels most important, and how insights will inform future research and action. Also, how we’ll share outputs and how to stay connected

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Woking Library and room hire, Gloucester Walk, Woking, United Kingdom

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