Lived Insights is led by a small group of people who have experience of addiction, homelessness, mental ill health and the criminal justice system. We work alongside people who share our experiences to address inequality, poverty and exclusion by listening, gathering insights about local issues that matter and working together with policy makers to improve local services. Over the past year, Lived Insights has achieved significant success, securing three funding bids in quick succession. We have also been commissioned to deliver three lived experience consultancy, training and research contracts scheduled for 2025 and have recorded an overall increase in turnover. Organisational Development funding has enabled us to secure expertise to create a new website and marketing materials, receive ten months of support from a communications expert to develop and manage social media and access a small amount of ongoing fundraising support. A warm space grant enabled us to run a once a week Community research cafe, which has welcomed over 300 people through its doors. We have provided a safe, trusted and welcoming space offering warmth, food and connection and have held more than 200 conversations with marginalised and isolated individuals to share their experiences. Within that space, and with support from Coterminous CIC, ten individuals have accessed guidance from an employability expert, receiving practical support to pursue volunteering and employment opportunities. Building on the strong relationships we've developed within our community, we will now be working towards offering an extra additional Community research cafe session. We have supported three Community reporters with lived experience through our Community Reporters Hub, equipping them with leadership and technical skills to gather and share community insights on local challenges, with service delivery organisations and decision making boards. We have spoke with over twenty regular attendees as part of our monthly Working Circles where we identify two to three key service related issues and explore barriers and solutions to share with local decision makers, and have identified the inclusion of lived experience voices in three local service strategies, including housing resettlement and drugs and alcohol support. We are expanding our Working Circles to run as drop in sessions at local hostels and community led food provisions. Funded by the University of York and in partnership with Healthwatch York, we will be running five participatory workshops with twelve participants with experience of benefit support services to capture lived experiences, co produce a framework for change and design an event to showcase findings and establish accountability mechanisms for stakeholder, activities are planned for implementation during 2025 and 2026. Lived Insights is continuing to lead the year long Roundhouse Connection mental health network prototype across North Yorkshire, funded by local NHS transformation funding. We engaged with over twenty five grassroots mental health organisations, spoke to fifty five people with lived experience of mental ill health to develop a community led lived experience voice gathering process and community data hub. Building on our work with York and North Yorkshire COVID Recovery Insight project into Food Insecurity, having had conversations with over fifty five people with lived experience of accessing nine food provisions across York, we are now working with core partners across North Yorkshire, focussing on rural communities and their reality of food insecurity. In early 2025, discussions were held with the Swift Programme - part of the North Yorkshire Migrant Programmes team - which ensures that migrants from refugee, asylum seeking and economically disadvantaged backgrounds have equitable access to services. Following these discussions, we were commissioned to deliver an initial training programme in 2025 and 2026, comprising six participatory workshops for community development organisations. The programme will focus on embedding lived experience into organisational approaches and developing community led leadership.

The company's stakeholders are the individuals and communities that we work alongside and the charitable, statutory, private organisations and businesses that join us in our participatory spaces and utilise our research, facilitation and engagement services. We are part of the community we serve, so our community consultation approach is built on a constant cycle of listening, acting and feeding back. Our co production model ensures that evaluation and monitoring are community led, with people designing the questions, assessing whether change is experienced in real life and implementing improvements when needed. We consult support services and policymakers we work with, to evaluate whether our work has influenced local policies and inspired new collaborations. Our consultations take the form of on-going semi-structured conversations and act responsively to feedback received. The impact of these changes on stakeholders wellbeing and satisfaction is tracked, demonstrated by lived experience inclusion in three local strategies. We have a strong presence in the local community and work closely with organisations including Connecting our City, York Together, local authority departments, Healthwatch York, Good Organisation and Carecent. We are also developing our working relationships with York's Mental Health Hub Network, Aspire, and York Recovery Hub to strengthen community connections as part of our wider community consultation work. We actively seek feedback within our working partnerships and respond constructively to ensure it informs meaningful change. We have developed our website and social media to improve and increase the channels we use to consult with communities, welcome feedback, hear suggestions and make changes accordingly. All of our various stakeholders have reported back to us of how much this has been well received and professionalised our messaging and highlighting the vital work we strive to produce for and with the city. We will continue consulting, working and developing as an organisation with community at the heart of everything we do in 2025-2026

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration