April update: How our co-production projects are beginning to bloom

Welcome to our April Update! With the blossom in full bloom and the sun finally shining, we are excited to share how with your support, our current projects are developing. We also have some new opportunities to get involved, that includes a last chance  to share your thoughts and reflections on how we are progressing against our five-year strategy.

What we’ve been up to

Hania and four co-producers attended a LACES (London Alliance for the Co-Production of Evidence Synthesis) Advisory Group meeting, where they discussed ongoing projects happening within LACES.

Hania, Nicc and two co-producers attended the Executive Board meeting for the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence (BHF CRE), which we are a part of, and discussed how to embed co-production in research projects. We also delivered a co-production training session for researchers at the CRE.

Hania and Natalie W delivered a co-production training session to a project group based at the University of Bristol who are co-producing research about the links between race and preeclampsia, a condition that affects some pregnant women.  

We continued our work with IMPACT at Birmingham University and People's Voice Media to develop a training module about anti-discriminatory practice in co-production.  Aleem and Isaac met with the rest of the team who are co-producing it and great progress is being made.

Nicc, Aleem, Priya and Homn, together with our colleagues Abi and Archibong at the University of Warwick, planned and delivered an anti-racism and co-production training workshop for members of the Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health, which we are a part of, to support learning for the team as a whole.

Sarah supported two workshops as part of the Co-Producing Mathematical Models of Epidemics Together (COMMET) project which were peer-facilitated by co-producers from the wider COMMET team. 11 people joined our co-production workshops to explore their experiences of the mpox outbreak and to share their thoughts on sexual and public health policies.

George, Asma, Aurora and Chris met to co-produce plans for our next themed Co-Pro Cuppa about Payment and Alternatives to payment which will be on Thursday 7 May 13:00-14:30 (UK Time). We plan to have discussions on this topic from the perspective of people with lived and living experience as well as from an organisational perspective. So if you would like to join us, you can sign up via the registration link at the bottom of the Co-Pro Cuppa page of our website. We’d love to see you there.

Coming up

We are working on a programme with the National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA) to meaningfully embed lived experience in suicide prevention work across London.  This month our co-production team that includes Hania and Aleem will be running a session for co-creating a shared set of principles for lived experience work in suicide prevention.

With the support of you, our community, we have been working hard on our 2025 Impact Report as well as new page on the website to host all our Impact Reports in one place.  We are excited to say that we will be launching this very soon so keep a look out for this.

Get involved

Reviewing our strategy

Thanks to those of you who completed our survey to share your thoughts and reflections on how we are progressing against our five-year strategy ‘One Direction 2023-2028.’  If you would still like to take part in this we have extended the deadline to 9am on Thursday 16 April.  You can find more information about this on our current opportunities page.

Findings from this survey will be shared at our online workshop on Thursday 23 April (13:00-15:00 UK time) which is now full. However, if you would like to join the waitlist you can find out more in our blog. We will share more about this process in coming months.  So please keep an eye on our website for details.

Join co-production workshops to understand how infectious diseases spread during outbreaks

We have extended the deadline for sex workers to express an interest in taking part in co-production workshops as part of the Co-Producing Mathematical Models of Epidemics Together (COMMET) project. You’ll take part in activities that help researchers understand the kinds of situations and behaviours they need to think about when building mathematical models of how mpox spreads. This includes exploring things like queer sex culture, what influences people’s decision-making around sex and within sex work, and other types of social contact. Visit our blog to find out more. Deadline: Thursday 30 April, 9am.

Attend the Engage Conference with us

We have an opportunity for a co-producer to attend one day of the Engage Summit on Thursday 30 April. We’re looking for people who have previously been involved in our work as we will be delivering a workshop about co-production and evaulation and would welcome your input if you are interested in this. You’ll be paid in line with our payment policy, and your travel expenses and conference fee will be covered by us.

If you would like to take part, please complete this form by 9am Tuesday 21 April. The successful person will be chosen at random.

Co-Pro Cuppas

Our next Co-Pro Cuppa will be Thursday 7 May 13:00-14:30 (UK Time) on the theme of payment and alternatives to payment. You can find out more and book you can  via the registration link at the bottom of the Co-Pro Cuppa page of our website.

Image Credit: Canva Pro

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