Authentic Community Engagement

Dr Sondra Butterworth brings a distinctive insider-outsider perspective to community engagement, inclusive research, and participation practice.   As a Community Psychologist, educator, researcher, and founder of EDIRA Academy, she combines over 20 years of professional experience with lived experience of health inequity, long-term conditions, and rare disease within her family. This means she understands engagement from both sides: as someone working within systems and as someone directly affected by how those systems listen, include, or exclude. This unique perspective shapes her practical, honest, and trust-led approach. Dr Butterworth understands the pressures professionals face, but she also recognises the emotional labour, barriers, and frustration communities can experience when engagement is tokenistic, inaccessible, or disconnected from real life.  Her work helps bridge that gap, supporting organisations and practitioners to engage more authentically, build trust, and create more inclusive ways of working. If you would like support with community engagement, inclusive research, training, or strategy, you can book a consultation with Dr Sondra Butterworth through EDIRA Academy to explore how this work could support your team, project, or organisation.