Community Cancer Champions’ Project: Learning From the Design and Implementation of an Integrated Health and Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Asset-Based Community Development Project – A Case Study From Plymouth, England

Background: Cancer survival rates vary significantly between low and high-income areas. By leveraging community assets, healthcare inequities may be addressed. Nationally, Macmillan Cancer Support (Macmillan) (a national cancer charity) is working with local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations to improve cancer care.

In Plymouth, where cancer mortality is above average, Macmillan has partnered with the Zebra Collective (Zebra) (a community cooperative), Age UK Plymouth (a local charity), The Wolseley Trust (Social Prescribing team), and General Practice (GP) surgeries. In Spring 2024, the Plymouth Cancer Champions’ Project (PCCP) launched to address these inequities through community-led approaches via peer-to-peer community engagement and volunteer recruitment.

Approach: This Integrated Care Case is a practice-based account of how through an embedded ethnographic action research approach, a small community cooperative (Zebra) is influencing its’ local low-income community’s understanding of and engagement with cancer care services from an asset-based community development approach.

Findings: The PCCP prioritises involving individuals with lived experience, including those from lower socio-economic status backgrounds, minoritised ethnic groups, and cancer-affected backgrounds, in leadership roles. This collaborative, community-driven approach fosters inclusivity, empowerment, and engagement, and a deep contextual understanding of the community context including barriers and strengths. Through an innovative asset-based community development approach, the deficit narrative is countered- enabling people-led change, influence and learning within cancer care inequity and integrated care.