Learning together: how can we put lived experience at the heart of what we do?
14th April 2025
New Event Series
At GCVS, we recognise the value of lived experience in informing decisions that result in the best outcomes for Glasgow’s citizens. The voices and priorities of our communities are critical to third-sector organisations—from planning their services to informing national and local policy developments and everything in between.
Our Design and Engagement programme aims to create meaningful opportunities to support Glasgow’s Third Sector with work related to engagement, participation, and service design. We have previously delivered a training programme to provide sector members with the key knowledge and frameworks to shape their approach to involving their community and those who use their services in decision-making.
But we know that this work comes with many challenges in practice, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. There is, however, a range of great work being done across the city that navigates these challenges through innovative projects, big and small.
This is why we are expanding our Design and Engagement programme with a new event series designed to create a platform for the sector to hear from each other and be inspired and empowered by sharing learning from real-life examples. The “Putting Lived Experience at the Heart of What We Do” series will run from spring to autumn 2025, with each event focusing on a different theme.
We want to hear from you
To practice what we preach, we want to invite the sector to shape these events so that they are relevant and valuable. We want to ensure that the themes reflect the sector’s interests and priorities, and we will do what we can to shape the format of these events based on the input we receive.
Launch event
Putting Lived Experience at the Heart of What We Do kicks off on 22 May with an in-person launch event. This will be a great opportunity to network with others working in engagement within the sector. We will host discussions exploring the state of this work and where the main challenges lie, so we can address these throughout the series. There will also be an opportunity to discuss your training needs around design and engagement, to shape the future of our training programme.
Project Spotlight
The Putting Lived Experience at the Heart of What We Do events will aim to create a space that recognises and captures all attendees’ wealth of experience and expertise. There will also be an opportunity for a short spotlight for a couple of organisations to present learnings from a particular piece of work.
This is not about showcasing a perfect, polished project, but rather about acknowledging all the hurdles, hiccups and challenges, and exploring which parts of your approach worked (and which ones didn’t!), to create a real and honest learning opportunity for others facing similar hurdles.
We would love to hear about any related work you’d like to share with us and others. Please fill in some basic information using the form below, and we will be in touch!
Survey
After the launch event, we will circulate a survey to gather broader views from the sector and give those who couldn’t attend an opportunity to input.
If you have any questions, please contact policy.engagement@gcvs.org.uk.