Understanding Anti-Racism in Co-production Spaces: one year on

Over the last year, our work on anti-racism has deeply shaped our work and practices at Co-Production Collective. This has not been a separate strand of activity, but something that has run through our ways of working, our relationships, and our understanding of power, voice, and lived experience. What began as a series of conversations, learning spaces, and training sessions has grown into a clearer, more intentional anti-racist approach and strategy.

This work has been grounded in the belief that co-production cannot be meaningful if it does not actively challenge racism, structural inequality, and the ways that systems silence or marginalise racialised people. Anti-racism is not an optional extra; it is central to how we create shared power, value lived experience, and work towards social justice.

Co-Producer, Debora, reflects on the work we’ve been doing:

“There is something rather special about being part of a group that is committed to something as fundamentally important to society as anti-racist work, particularly in times that are as divisive as the one we are living through. We do it in the understanding that it is not possible to come up with the definitive chapter and verse on the subject. Circumstances and points of view are constantly evolving and so should we, but I can see enormous value in embarking on that journey together and in the intention that paves the way, and am excited for what lies ahead.”    

The work we have done in the past year

In February 2025, we collaborated with People’s Voice Media and published the report Understanding Anti-Racism in Co-Production Spaces: Centring the Voices of Racialised Individuals. This initiative responded to growing recognition that co-production can reproduce racial inequalities if racism, power, and exclusion are not explicitly addressed. The work centred the lived experiences of racialised individuals to better understand how co-production spaces can become genuinely inclusive and anti-racist.

By October 2025, a Global Majority-led Anti-Racism Working Group had been established, bringing together racialised co-producers, allies, staff, and academic partners to guide and oversee the next phase of work.

The Working Group identified three priority workstreams to work on during 2025 and 2026:

• Development of an organisational Anti-Racism Strategy, including looking at how we might need to redevelop our core values and ways of working.
• Creation of safety-focused guidance in a Collective Safety Resource to support anti-racist practice while minimising harm.
• Development of educational resources and training on anti-racism in co-production.

Our progress to date

As part of actioning the recommendations of the report, we launched The Amplifying Voices Programme in 2025. This change makers programme is a partnership with People’s Voice Media and Co-Production Collective, funded by The National Lottery Fund. This initiative is designed specifically for individuals from the global majority Black, Brown, and racialised communities who want to develop new skills, strengthen their expertise, and make a real impact in their communities.

We also set up Solidarity Space events to facilitate safe spaces for racialised people to come together and discuss experiences and topics that are difficult to bring up in daily life.

In response to feedback from community members and suggestions from our Anti-Racism Working Group, we developed our Community Commitments and Collective Safety Tips. Our Community Commitments, previously Ways of Working, provide a set of guidelines for session facilitators and attendees on how to engage, centring anti-racist principles and best practice in inclusivity. The Collective Safety Tips acknowledge the privacy challenges that come with co-production and provides guidance on personal and collective safety. The tips are designed to encourage our community members to prioritise their own safety and to hold organisations accountable in relation to being proactive about creating as safe a space as possible when co-producing. This is now an integral part of our sessions and projects.

Training sessions and talks delivered in 2025 and 2026

Co-Production Collective has delivered and contributed to a range of anti-racism activities. These include workshops, conference sessions, and discussion forums with partners across health, social care, academia, and the voluntary sector.

The training sessions cover topics such as how we define racism and related key terms, delving into each of the key recommendations of the report, tips on embedding anti-racist practices in recruitment, and creating equitable and inclusive co-production spaces. We also encourage discussion and reflection in small groups for teams to consider where in their anti-racism journey they are, both individually and as an organisation. We tailor the training to the needs of the audience, which includes options to decide on a list of key focus areas and set some goals for embedding anti-racist practices in their work.

Anti-racism strategy

Our draft anti-racism strategy is coming soon, marking an important step for Co-Production Collective. It will provide a shared overview for how we approach partnerships, training, research, and work as a community. It also signals our commitment to accountability, continuous learning, and standing alongside racialised people in challenging injustice. We will soon be sharing the draft strategy and making an open call to our community to be involved in its development.

We are also in the process of launching our new safeguarding policy which we aim to share at the end of next month. The new policy has been co-produced, with a particular focus on safeguarding through an anti-racist lens.

Co-Producer, Isaac, shares thoughts on planning ahead:

“What has felt most important is having a plan and real places to influence change. That gives this work weight, direction, and the chance to move beyond words into action.”

Looking Ahead

We see this work as integral to all we do at Co-Production Collective. We understand that creating truly anti-racist spaces is an ongoing process and we are committed to developing our practices further in 2026. Our hope is that this will support more honest conversations about race and power in co-production, strengthen relationships with racialised communities, and contribute to wider system change. We want to continue building spaces where lived experience is valued in all its diversity, where difficult truths can be spoken, and where collective action towards justice is possible.

Image credit: Illustration by Kareen Cox of Absolutely Kareen