March team update: feeling the co-production buzz

Welcome to our March team update! It has been a packed month of workshops, training and collaboration. From climate justice and anti-racism in co-production to mathematical modelling and embedding lived experience in suicide prevention, you’ll find out more about these projects below.

What we’ve been up to

Nicc and Asma delivered an interactive workshop supporting the Green Horizons team from Groundwork London, Disability Rights UK, Inclusion London and Inclusion Barnet to develop a theory of change (a step-by-step map that explains how the project will lead to a desired long-term goal). Green Horizons is a collaborative project funded by The National Lottery Climate Action Fund that aims to create climate-resilient urban environments that work for Disabled people, placing co-production and the Social Model of Disability at the centre of climate action.  

Nicc, Rosie and two co-producers Rianna and Yasmin delivered a week of in-person training for second year PhD students at The UCL Global Business School for Health. Building on four weeks of online learning, we explored what co-production means, the values that underpin it, and how to work in an anti-discriminatory way to create co-production spaces that are as safe as possible.

Sarah and Ela, along with other co-producers, have been planning for co-production workshops as part of the COMMET (CO-producing Mathematical Models of Epidemics Together) project. COMMET aims to co-produce a mathematical model of mpox infections, as well as resources and tools for other infectious disease modellers to use. We've designed interactive activities to explore mathematical modelling and sexual networks and started recruiting for the workshops.

Hania and Nicc hosted the second meeting for the Anti-Racism Working Group. We discussed latest updates, such as launching our Community Commitments and Collective Safety Tips, as well as making plans for sharing our anti-racism strategy with our community.

Hania and Stuart delivered an ‘anti-racism in co-production' training session for an organisation advocating for people experiencing hidden homelessness or living in temporary accommodation.

Aleem and Nicc met with the co-producers who are helping us revisit and update our safeguarding statement, we are looking forward to sharing this with our wider community very soon.

Our team of four co‑producers, Hania, Aleem and our partners at the National Suicide Prevention Alliance met again to continue planning the important work to embed Lived Experience in suicide prevention efforts across London. During this session, we began shaping the evaluation approach for the project, drawing on resources developed through the Measuring Success in Co‑Production programme.

Goodbye to Olu

Last week we said goodbye to Olu who has been supporting with our communications since May 2025. We wish him all the best for the future!

Coming up

Hania and two co-producers are delivering a co-production training session for researchers at the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. We are working together to embed meaningful involvement of people with lived experience across all aspects of cardiovascular research.

Hania and Natalie W are delivering 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.  

A big thank you to the five members of our community who provided really helpful feedback to the content of our 2025 Impact Report. This is now going to be designed so look out for it soon.  

Get involved

We're looking for people who are part of the sexual networks of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men to join a series of co-production workshops as part of the 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: 9am, Wednesday 11 March.

‍

Co-Pro Cuppas

Thank you to those of you who came along to our March Co-Pro Cuppa! It was great to see so many of you there. We had great discussions on a variety of topics including the importance of having support from senior leadership and the challenges of securing funding to co-produce the design of a project.

Our next Co-Pro Cuppa will be on Wednesday 15 April at 11.30am. Visit our events page to find out more.

‍

Image credit: Photo by Brad Huchteman on Unsplash