Shining bright in March: monthly team update

Bright days ahead

The stone associated with this sunny month is appropriately called heliotrope, meaning ‘reflecting sunlight’. Historically, cultures and communities believed it had varied powers, including to make rain, bring about a solar eclipse and support longevity, wealth and courage. If nothing else, the symbolism of this stone still rings true: March is the perfect time to take courage. The season of 12 hours of daylight is finally here!

For us, the month is already off to a bright start. Last week’s Co-Pro Cuppa was our busiest yet, with conversations touching on topics including power, payment and pathways. We also touched on how we can make sure Co-Production Collective sessions (including our Cuppas) can meet the needs of those in our community – if you have any specific ideas, please get in touch. And don't forget to sign up to April's Cuppa! 

‍

Spreading the co-production sunshine

We’re also spending much of March delivering training and support to those wanting to embed co-production across their work. Lizzie, Rory and co-producer Pat kicked this off by exploring values and relationships with researchers from Teeside University last week. The representation of disciplines and subject areas in the virtual room was so impressive – from financial technology and performance art, to policing and engineering – showing that there are no boundaries to the potential ofco-production.

Elsewhere this month, we’re delivering another session of our training for UCL’s Mental Health Science PhD students, talking to colleagues at Imperial University and continuing our Voices for Improvement work with National Voices.  We’re particularly looking forward to a project focusing on Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), a condition which results in someone having unexplained and persistent difficulties with language. We’ll be working alongside Courtney Norbury, a UCL Professor and founding member of the Raising Awareness of Developmental Language Disorder, as well as families, charities and adults with DLD, to develop a joint vision for progress in this area.

Finally, we’ll be building our own learning through attending various conferences and events this month, including: Improving Quality of Care: the vital role of people’s voices from The Kings Fund and Healthwatch England; a Mental Health Transformation session with Talk for Health and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust; Centring Lived Experience – Theory and Practice with Beyond the Rules; Hive: creative minds, participatory research conference from The Young Foundation and New Local’s Stronger Things.

It's a busy one!  

Looking to the future

Before we sign off for the month, we also wanted to mention some co-creation work we’re currently preparing with a little help from our friends at Co:Create. As you may be aware, Our Direction 2020-2022 (Co-Production Collective’s strategy) is coming to an end in 2022, so we want to take this opportunity to stop, check and challenge with our community. Are we still heading in the right direction? What assumptions are we making about what we’re working towards and how we’ll get there?

We’ll be exploring those questions and more with you in April– watch this space!

Get Involved

If you’re not already, make sure you sign up to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with the latest opportunities, learning and events from the Co-Production Collective community.

 As ever, if you have any suggestions, questions or ideas, please get in touch: coproduction@ucl.ac.uk

‍