Obesity Health Justice in Practice: Learnings from Community Healing Circles
This report documents the development and learnings from the Community Healing Circles, part of Centric Lab’s wider Obesity Health Justice programme. It describes how the approach emerged, how the sessions were designed and facilitated, and what themes and insights arose from them. Drawing on participant feedback as well as facilitator reflections, it captures the early impact of this work and considers how the model can inform future community-led approaches to obesity health justice.
This report documents the development and learnings from the Community Healing Circles, part of Centric Lab’s wider Obesity Health Justice programme. It describes how the approach emerged, how the sessions were designed and facilitated, and what themes and insights arose from them. Drawing on participant feedback as well as facilitator reflections, it captures the early impact of this work and considers how the model can inform future community-led approaches to obesity health justice.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
A plain text version of this report is available to view online here.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Why Language Matters for Health Justice
The words we choose influence how people experience care, how funding is directed, and whether people feel safe to seek support. While there are arguments for describing obesity as a disease, we have found that the term “condition” better supports our focus on inclusion and health justice.
Our Framing of Obesity as a Condition
At Centric Lab we are making a shift in the way we conceptualise and communicate obesity.
Science is a process that creates opportunity for clarity and accuracy over time, meaning that the longer we observe a phenomenon, the more information we will gather to make adjustments.
We have now been focused on obesity for three years, working directly with doctors and patients
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
A plain text version of this report is available to view online here.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Dissemination and Impact of The Peoples’ Obesity Health Justice Pamphlet
This document provides an overview of how the pamphlet has been disseminated to date, and summarises the key themes emerging from feedback from the community.
This document provides an overview of how the pamphlet has been disseminated to date, and summarises the key themes emerging from feedback from the community.
The community-led People’s Obesity Health Justice Pamphlet was developed to challenge harmful and inaccurate narratives about obesity, centre the voices of lived experience, and provide practical tools to support self‑advocacy and navigation of the healthcare system. The outcomes being a heightened sense of self and better relation with their healthcare journey.
The findings indicate that the pamphlet has opened up constructive conversations, helped people feel less isolated, reduced shame and self‑blame, and offered a practical means for communities to engage with the complex issues surrounding health and care.
The feedback has also provided valuable insight into future avenues for this work, particularly the need to better address experiences of medical gaslighting and systemic barriers, and to consider how similar resources might be used within healthcare settings.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
A plain text version of this report is available to view online here.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Healing, Not Thinning: Part Two
This second report builds on last year’s pilot on micro-healing grants. One year on, we returned to the same participants — B, R, and L — to understand what had changed and/or evolved.
Revisiting Micro Healing Grants as a Pathway Toward Health Justice for People Living with Obesity
Last year, we introduced the concept of micro healing grants — small, flexible grants designed to return autonomy, dignity, and choice to people living with obesity. These grants were part of a broader inquiry: how can health justice be advanced by creating the conditions for self-defined, self-directed healing?
This second report builds on that pilot. One year on, we returned to the same participants — B, R, and L — to understand what had changed and/or evolved.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
A plain text version of this report is available to view online here.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading