Our community
Our community is diverse, international and open to everyone!
Our community is diverse, international and open to everyone!
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Whether you’re a veteran co-producer or a total newcomer, you belong to an organisation or you’re interested from a personal perspective, and whatever form of experience or expertise you bring - you’re more than welcome to join us.
Our co-created core values guide everything we do. In October 2023 after discussions with our community these evolved into five core values from our original four, to better reflect our evolving ethos and our new strategy.
Proactively promoting inclusivity by being equitable in our approach and implementing mechanisms to promote inclusive decision making.
Committing to being open about the work that we do and acknowledging our position of power as individuals and addressing power imbalances.
Challenging the status quo, championing social justice, and welcoming new ideas and ways of working.
Building mutually beneficial relationships based on empathy, respect, honesty, and trust.
Embracing ongoing self-reflection and valuing diversity of knowledge, experience, and perspective.
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We’re in the process of developing a community space right here on the website, to make connecting and learning together even easier.
In the meantime, you can watch some of our community sharing their perspectives on co-production in our Co-Pro Stories videos.
You’re also very welcome to join one of our upcoming events. We’d especially recommend our monthly Co-Pro Cuppas – bring your brew and let’s see where the conversation takes us!
Behind the scenes, you’ll find Niccola, Rafael, Vanessa, George, Rosie, Aleem and Krisztina connecting our community and supporting our work – drop us a line and say hi!
We also have an Allies Group made up of people from a variety of backgrounds, with different types of experience. They question us if we need it and support us in making connections and in challenging the status quo - 'the system' we want to change.
Niccola has been co-producing Co-Production Collective since the very beginning, championing co-production and developing the partnerships and collaborations which are helping us change the culture of research and beyond. She has a young son who keeps her VERY busy and is always up for coffee and cake.
Rafael supports the processing of financial tasks for Co-Production Collective while working as a Support Officer for the UCL Office of Open Science and Scholarship, which is dedicated to promoting and advancing open science practices across different disciplines. Prior to his current role, Rafael worked at the British Library and studied at Central Saint Martins after moving to the UK from Rio, Brazil. His interests include films, reading, exercising, traveling, mental health, and neurodiversity. He has a small (and very vocal) doggie named Elton!
Vanessa is working on developing our programmes, with the intention of helping us to increase our ability to support more co-production. She likes to think creatively, and about how to work together to make a difference through co-production. She spends a lot of time in various sporting activities, generally running around with and after her four daughters, and aspires to make more time for painting, reading and relaxing!
Rosie supports our work with NHS England to make hearing checks more accessible for children and young people who are autistic or have a learning disability. She has a background in supporting individuals with complex needs facing homelessness. Despite living in a busy city, she loves the outdoors and is always looking for new places to wander or nestle down with a coffee and a good book.
George focusses on the sharing of what we do as a community with others. She also gets involved in some of our work with external organisations sharing our learning and thinking through with them what co-production is and how to go about it. Outside of work she is a wellbeing coach and author who loves to create spaces for women to take time out of their busy lives to reconnect with who they are so that their light shines brighter in the world.
Aleem supports the co-ordination of our projects, working closely together with our network of co-producers and wider community. He is particularly interested in connecting underrepresented people with research for mutual benefit. At other times, when he is not supporting learners in vocational training at college, he is kept busy trying to keep up with his three fabulous teenage daughters!
Krisztina supports the co-ordination of our projects, working closely together with our network of co-producers and wider community. She has a special interest in gender and sexuality, especially in the Eastern European political context. Outside of reading and thinking about gender studies, she enjoys spending time in the outdoors and looking for various little things like interesting rocks, fossils, and four-leaf clovers.
