April 6, 2022
Strong winds, heavy rain, temperatures remaining above average, with a chance of snow. The capricious month of April brings not just whimsical weather forecasts but changes and new opportunities in co-production as well.
Instead of practical jokes, we spent 1 April having a cuppa and a chat with our community, discussing ambitious ideas to push co-production further. One of these ideas was using amore apt term than the wide-spread ‘safe spaces’ and consider the need for ‘brave spaces’ where challenging encounters and negotiations can occur. As one of the attendees said, ‘We all have issues, numerous and complex, so co-production has to be flexible.’
Switching up the structure of the event also came up, in order to use our time together most effectively. Following up from last month's suggestions, we are now piloting a new structure (timings are approximate):
o Intro to Co-Pro Collective and format, intros to each other in chat (10mins)
o Breakout room#1 – intro, conversation (30mins)
o Main room –share insights from conversations (10mins)
o Breakout room#2 – intro, conversations (30mins)
o Main room –share insights from conversations and close (10 mins)
This change will hopefully give us more chance to meet each other and share ideas, whilst keeping our open and flexible approach– let’s see where the conversation takes us! Join us on 4 May at 2pm to see how this will work out in practice, or register for later dates on 1 June and 4 July.
We’re doing lots of prep for the first of our Journey of Change co-creation sessions, taking place on Thursday 28 April, 10am. There are still some spaces left if you would like to join us as we start to think through where Co-Production Collective is heading, and how we’re going to get there – register here. Don’t worry if you can’t make it though, there’s a second session on 26 May and there will also be opportunities between sessions to get involved in your own time. Find out more in our blog.
While we’re planning the Showcasing the Value of Co-production project, there is still time until Sunday 10 April to sign up to for the opportunity to help us demonstrating the value of co-production in a more comprehensive way than ever before. Read our recent blog to find out how to get involved.
Elsewhere, Lizzie and co-producer Chandrika are advising Kira from Ada Lovelace Institute (also a member of our co-production community) as she trains and supports peer researchers from APLE Collective to research how their communities are being affected by data and AI in healthcare. This is part of a wider project investigating health and social inequalities in data-driven systems, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, and how we can make sure technology is used to tackle inequalities and improve health outcomes, rather than make them worse.
Towards the end of the month, Lizzie will be in conversation with co-producer Vita, from Maternity Voices Matter (one of our co-production pilot projects), at Imperial College’s Engagement Day. This in person event(!) is for Imperial College staff and students interested in how participatory research can make a positive impact for our collective futures. We’ll be sharing Co-Production Collective’s work and exploring topics such as power, payment and ethics.
Finally, Nicc will be on a panel alongside others including co-producers Sarah and Jessie (from Traverse) at the NHS England and NHS Improvement Start With People conference on 28 April. It's a busy month!
Our team will be on Easter closure – from Tuesday 12 April for a week. Hope you enjoy the long bank holiday weekend and looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming events very soon!
In the meantime, if you have any questions or suggestions for us, please get in touch at coproduction@ucl.ac.uk
Interested in finding out more or exploring how we could work together?
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