Partnerships

An excellent forward thinking partner, collaborating around research into understanding Poverty, exploring areas and delving into Government policy deliverables, specifically for people experiencing disadvantage, disabilities and exclusion.

We worked closely with them in Summer 2024 on their ‘Dear Prime Minister letter’s campaign’, writing and contributing one of the fifteen letters which were presented to Keir Starmer on his hundredth day in office at Prime Ministers questions, sponsored by Cat Smith MP. Our letter focussed on the concerns around lack of housing and aspirations of young people facing a future of uncertainty due to the economic forecasts

This fabulous opportunity to be part of these letters was instrumental is us being invited back to Parliament in Feb 2025 to spend time With Baroness Sherlock looking deeper into matters around Poverty.

Lived Insights is instrumental in supporting the development of this interactive online platform, integrating digital voice from our research bank of knowledge.

A fabulous research partner and ongoing mentor for our own organisational development, in particular Alan, who brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to us on research methodology.

We were delighted to partner up with them in 2024/5 on their North Yorkshire Food Insecurity strategy delivery, providing the York element of the research findings.

We value their invitations to join new projects as they emerge, especially allowing us to expand our reach into North Yorkshire communities.

We continue to work with this organisation to understand more about how to deliver outcomes, campaign on issues, specifically around Poverty, and keeping sustainable in the face of challenges and focussing on keep fighting for the things we’re passionate about for our communities.

Lived Insights were a founding member of this group from 2023, adding/bringing our insights and knowledge/experience of challenges our cities residents are facing and where its more marginalised citizens are finding access to support even more difficult in these challenging times

This great organisation showcases us wider perspectives outside of the UK as well as within the UK to reflect, contrast issues facing people experiencing poverty.

Their international work is such a rich source of seeking similarities, not differences to those people facing challenges which allows research to re-imagine a different way to approach issues

We have worked closely with this organisation over a few years now, helping to deliver workshops, assisting in running events and attending a number of All-Party Parliamentary Groups.

We enjoy linking up with them, especially their media Guru, Gavin, who helped us to co create and frame our ‘Unheard Voices’ series of published stories with YorkMix, where we shared ‘system stories’ through the lens of individuals we have supported, rather than their personal stories which are sometimes dismissed by places as one of incidents rather than systemic failure which is more the reality of peoples struggles at points in their lives

We’ve worked extensively with this Collective around Poverty on issues for over three years, producing workshops, delivering conferences, assisting with regular campaigns for change to policies and striving for better outcomes for people experiencing poverty.

Based all across the UK, this brilliant group of organisations and individuals shine up every space they touch, from bringing humility, dignity and often laughter to the Houses of Parliament when attending All Party Parliamentary Groups(APPG’S) through to grassroots activism, they deliver insights that amaze people who might think they understand issues around poverty, yet once they’ve listened, then their attitudes shift quickly

We collaborated with Groundswell as part of their Listen Up project to produce a Comic Relief supported film around homelessness which was showcased at their Annual TV spectacular.

This including a four minute precis of the work Groundswell were funded to deliver ,including podcast clips of a Lived Insights founder, Miles, interviewing Prince William on his vision for his Homewards Royal Foundation project.

The lead up to the live event included filming on location in London with the BBC, meeting one of the founders of Comic Relief, Richard Curtis,to discuss our work, through to getting VIP backstage passes for the event and even meeting DR Who who was co-hosting the night!

A special thank you to producer Catherine for her unwavering help from day one to a very nervous interviewer when we met the future King.

A great partner with us at the APLE Collective partnership across the UK – a true lived experienced peer led organisation whom we collaborate with around poverty and associated themes

One of our early collaborations , we supported them in a project into DWP research, helping bring content together to inform Government and policy leads on some of the barriers and situations people face when accessing ongoing welfare help or for the first time.

We are always interested in continuing to help this organisation, and others where we can to influence high level changes on other challenging situations.

This early piece of support actually gave us the appetite to delve deeper into Welfare reforms, and in Summer 2025, we were personally invited to join one of the five DWP collaboration committees looking at Disability reforms for 2026 onwards, led by RH Stephen Timms.

Our committees – ‘The Right to Try work’ findings and suggestions have now fed into the proposals due to the House of Commons in 2026 as we currently understand

Our original mentors, when we were an idea in heads through to where we sit today, we are grateful and value Kenny’s support.

From helping us establish ourselves in the city, inviting us to join new opportunities and connecting with people and places we never thought we could access we grew and still grow.

Being a critical soundboard for our ideas, some great, some awful, through to collaborating on numerous projects, such as ‘A Place for me’, us contributing research content to the development of the online presence ‘Outside Influence’ and in particular writing, collaborating and producing the ground breaking publication of ‘Homeless Bound’ showing a new perspective on how homelessness should be viewed through the media and public lens.

A Lived Insights founder became a reporter for their Comic Relief funded ‘Listen Up Project’ for three years, reporting back on local issues and reflections from people experiencing homelessness and associated challenges.

Being able to connect up regularly with UK reporters from London, Scotland, Coventry, Manchester this was a brilliant way to share everyone’s valuable insights and peoples perceptions on how to address homelessness and was instrumental in how we collectively formed impactful, powerful articles, media pieces, audio links to a UK wide audience.

Working in this collaborative way taught Lived Insights some valuable learning for our own development in how to inform changes to those that hold the levers of power and influence to begin the reduction of people facing housing crisis, intervention to truly support those facing them.

This opportunity also allowed for personal growth for Miles, re energising his love for writing creatively, bringing creative visual art ideas in, collage, poetry, to demonstrate feelings of desperation for those drowning in the darkness as a pose to dry written content which very few digest in the same way.

An outstanding organisation we’re proud to to have supported in the way we did, and continue to where invited to.

Miles from Lived Insights worked with Groundswell from 2021-2024 as a regional reporter on issues around homelessness. He was selected, alongside another reporter, to invite Prince William to a private podcast event in London in 2023 where the day was spent informally chatting about experiences and situational circumstances on homelessness, to support the development of the vision Prince William had to create his own Organisation – Homewards.
The day was a brilliant opportunity to truly demonstrate the situations people face, often through no individual fault, simply life’s challenges that everyone could face at any time, grief, loss of employment, relationship breakdowns to name just a few.

‘I left that discussion truly feeling heard and believing that the Prince would act on the commitments he shared with us privately’ (Miles)

We collaborated on the production of York’s Drugs and Alcohol strategy for the city using our own research gathered alongside our housing resettlement project findings.