April Team Update: Springtime progress and reflections

With spring in the air and plenty going on, we're excited to share what we’ve been working on this past month. From presenting our anti-racism work at the Northern Race Equality Conference to co-designing new training with UCL staff and community members, we’ve been collaborating, creating, and reflecting together. This month, we’re sharing highlights from recent events, updates on ongoing projects, and ways you can get involved in what’s coming next.

What we’ve been up to

Isaac and Nicc attended the Northern Race Equality Conference to support the event as volunteers and to share the collaborative work we have been doing with Samantha-Jane and many of our global majority co-producers: Understanding Anti-Racism in Co-Production Spaces: Centring the Voices of Racialised Individuals. In partnership with People's Voice Media, this project explores how we can collectively work towards making co-production spaces more equitable and inclusive for all.  

We held the second workshop as part of a project to co-produce new online training about co-production for UCL staff and students. Sarah was joined by community members Asher and Julie, alongside UCL staff members Esme and Vas to start to decide on the content of the training session. We spent time mapping out different ideas that we can cover in the session as well as discussing what we thought we could do to make the session as interactive as possible. Throughout May the whole team (Asher, Esme, Jhono, Julie, Sharon, Sonia, Stuart and Vas) will be finalising the session plan and what the slides will look like, before we get started on recording the training.

Laura, Alice, Nicc and George, alongside Michelle and David from Croydon Council, facilitated the first workshop of our new two-year project funded by the Mayor of London’s Civic Partnership programme. The new project aims to co-produce plans with the community to regenerate the Surrey Street area of Croydon town centre. The group, which is made up of a mixture of residents and members of Croydon Council, will meet monthly to discuss and develop plans. This builds on the work we did last year that you can read about in this blog.

We launched our Impact Report 2024 which showcases our work over the last year and the impact that it has had. It’s a great guide for both newcomers and long-time community members, covering past and ongoing projects and the impact they've had. This report highlights our achievements in line with the ambitions set out in Our Direction 2023-2028, made possible by the dedication of our community. You can find our more information about the Impact Report 2024 in our blog.  

We’re excited to be launching our Measuring Success programme report this month! The programme is all about evaluating the impact of our activities and learning more about what’s working (and what’s not) in co-production. Keep an eye out for updates as we begin sharing insights, reflections, and findings from this important piece of work.  

Co-Pro Cuppa

Thank you for coming to our May Co-Pro Cuppa! It was great to see many of you there. We had great discussions on a variety of topics including the co-production landscapes of the different nations and regions of the UK, building networks for people interested in co-production and communicating with each other effectively, and building trust with communities through co-production.

Our next Co-Pro Cuppas will take place on:

• Wednesday 4 June at 11:00 (UK time)
• Thursday 3 July at 12:00 (UK time)
• Tuesday 5 August at 13:00 (UK time)

If you have any questions or would like to know more about our work, please get in contact by emailing us on coproduction@ucl.ac.uk

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