Public Involvement/ALPHA

At DECIPHer, we want to improve the health and wellbeing of young people. We believe young people have a right to be involved in research about them and their lives.

Young people are experts in their lives, with different experience, knowledge, insights and capabilities to adult researchers. We started ALPHA because we wanted to bring together a group of young people with a range of experiences and opinions, to help make sure our research reflects what is important to young people. Ultimately, this helps us to improve young people’s health.

ALPHA meets once a month on a Saturday for ten months of the year, in Cardiff. In these meetings, researchers ask ALPHA about the research they are doing or will do on public health topics. ALPHA members also have time in meetings to discuss any issues they would like about the group.

ALPHA also goes on summer activity days every year – past trips have included Task Force Paintball, Cardiff International White Water Rafting Centre and Escape Rooms. The summer activity days allow ALPHA members time to get to know each other better while taking part in research activities and training, and building on key skills.

ALPHA is open to anyone aged 14-25 living in Wales. You don’t have to know about public health or research, as you’ll learn about these through fun workshops once you join. All you need is an opinion!

Membership is free, travel to and from meetings is paid for, and lunch is provided at meetings. You’ll also receive shopping vouchers for each monthly meeting, to thank you for your time and input.

ALPHA members have drawn up a constitution, setting out what it means to be part of ALPHA and what is expected of ALPHA members.

To find out more about joining ALPHA, you can tweet or DM us, message us on Facebook or contact Peter Gee, our Public Involvement Officer, at GeeP@cardiff.ac.uk or 0292 0687 218.

Since the group started in 2010, ALPHA has been involved in a huge variety of projects, including research on alcohol advertising, drug prevention, school-based health promotion, sexual health, and suicide and self-harm. For more about projects ALPHA’s been involved in, see the examples at the bottom of this page. In the future, the group will get more experience of seeing what it is like to do research, have training on a wider range of skills and have more trips.

ALPHA is run by DECIPHer, a research centre based at Cardiff University. Staff at DECIPHer carry out research projects looking at how to improve the health of young people.

ALPHA members work with research staff and students to make sure their research is about  the issues that are important to young people, and the research is run in a way that is acceptable and relevant to young people.  ALPHA members learn through fun workshops about research and public health, to help them understand the work of ALPHA so they feel comfortable giving their perspective on research.