People Bank

At Arthritis Care, it’s important to us that our work is informed by all people living with arthritis. The People Bank is a bank of people with arthritis who are willing to be involved in the different areas of our work. We are looking to boost our membership of people from ethnic backgrounds to ensure that we capture all the experiences of people living with arthritis.

This includes:

• being interviewed for articles in Arthritis News
• coming along to a focus groups
• commenting on drafts of new publications
• speaking to the media 
• taking part in focus groups

Being involved

Most of the role can be done over the phone and on email. It is up to you how much you would like to get involved in. To join the People Bank, we need you to fill in a questionnaire telling us about your interests and your experience of living with arthritis. The more information we have, the more effectively we can involve you in the most relevant ways. This also means that we include the views of the widest group of people.

Experience

You do not need any media or writing experience to participate in the publications team’s work. You just need experience of living with arthritis. Read Len's story of being part of Arthritis Care's People Bank.

How it works

• Interviews – This would involve a 15-20 minute phone conversation with one of our publications team at a time that suits you, on an aspect of living with arthritis.
• Focus groups – Attending a group meeting to share ideas and tell us the issues that affect your day-to-day life. We pay your travel costs and provide a sandwich lunch.
• Feedback – Before we print a new publication we send out draft copies by post and ask people to comment on the content, layout and design.
• Media – The media approach us to find people with arthritis to speak with for newspapers, magazines as well as the radio and TV. We provide full preparation and support before the interview.
• Events – At some events it is important for Arthritis Care to be represented by people with arthritis. We would compensate travel costs to and from the event.

You can sign up to the People Bank online or you can download a copy of the full questionnaire. Please return it to: Publications department, Arthritis Care, 18 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD. Or email it to HelenN@arthritiscare.org.uk