We pride ourselves in working in partnership and collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders including patients, community “at risk”, Clinical teams, academics and researchers.

We have had over a decade’s experience in community outreach programmes in the UK, using our evidence-based and multi award-winning Peer Educator initiative.

We have worked with grassroots community organisations as well as statutory bodies (who have funded our work) to provide accredited training to people from the target community, called Peer Educators, to engage with their own communities and spread the word through building trust and rapport.

Our Peer Educators are sometimes people directly affected by the need for organ donation and are representatives of the target community in terms of language spoken, faith and culture as well as health and lived experience. We have run successful projects in London, Birmingham and currently in Scotland where we are managing a project, now in its fifth year, in partnership with and funded by the Scottish Government. We have worked in partnership with a range of BAME communities across the UK.

Evidence based outreach programmes like Kidney Research UK’s Peer Educator model should be more widely deployed. Peer outreach initiative to increase the registration of minorities as organ donors | Clinical Kidney Journal | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Kidney Research UK’s Peer Educator initiative – a heritage of over 17 years, evidence based and multi award winning model, deployed in several cities across the UK.

Kidney Research UK funded and facilitated a qualitative research project investigating the barriers and enablers to organ donation in minority ethnic communities over 15 years ago. The findings revealed that these communities needed culturally congruent information and support to make their decisions in the context of their faith and culture. As a result of discussions from the advisory and steering group, Kidney Research UK’s Peer Educator model was used then for the first time in raising awareness of organ donation.

Peer Educators are lay people who may have some connection to organ donation and kidney disease but they don’t need to. They do, however, need to have a strong desire to help educate their communities about life saving decisions around organ donation. Nor do they need any prior knowledge as Kidney Research UK provided accredited, standardised and quality assured training which can lead to a qualification for the volunteer. This could be equivalent to an HNC, or 1st year undergraduate. This seminal outreach work was independently evaluated by the University of Central Lancashire and forms the basis of the evidence base for the impact of Peer
Educators in allying fears and promoting registration in minority ethnic communities onto the NHS ODR: peer outreach initiative to increase the registration of minorities as organ donors | Clinical Kidney Journal | Oxford Academic (oup.com).

The Peer Educator model has been used by the Charity for over 17 years across the kidney disease/health spectrum. The initiative is now multi award winning across the UK. Four individual Peer Educators have received awards in the Queens and Kings honours for their volunteering in organ donation.
Following the Charity’s success in cities in England, in 2013 the Scottish Government approached and funded Kidney Research UK to establish volunteer Peer Educator (PE) initiatives in Glasgow and Edinburgh to raise awareness of kidney health and disease within
these communities; PEs are volunteers from the Scottish Asian communities who champion equality for faith and cultural groups. They are bilingual and are a “link” between NHS and community members in disseminating information around kidney health and organ donation campaigns. Initially, the Scottish Government funded the project for 2 years, however, year on year, having seen the impact evidenced through qualitative and quantitative means, the Scottish Government continued funding through a commissioned process.

Now in their 10th year of funding, our 16 volunteer PEs have participated in >200 events, engaged with 12, 641 people and signed >1291 people to the NHS organ donor register (ODR), with 1 person saving up to 9 lives!

During the pandemic digital platforms hosted 13 webinars within the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh communities, and Interfaith Scotland, reaching 1393 people online. Engagement with local community radio stations and social media campaigns aided information dissemination. The groups revised and updated NHS Blood and Transplant faith leaflets for Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities with contributions from faith leaders and community members to ensure acceptability.

Overcoming barriers, myths and misconceptions and building trust within the communities has been vital in the success of the project. Working with PE volunteers, community members are more engaged at ease and willing to listen to information which is easily understood. YouGov polls have shown at 10% increase within these communities on organ donation.