Lived experience across VISION

Including the voices of those who have experienced violence and those who have caused violence is an important element within VISION. We engage directly with people with lived experience of domestic and sexual violence and abuse and other types of violence across social groups and ages.

We use the research involvement framework developed by Survivors Voices to articulate the level of involvement and are clear about the roles and expectations and acknowledge everyone's contribution in publications.

To enable appropriate support and training of people with lived experience of violence, we are collaborating with existing organisations with a track record of research co-production and who are recruiting and facilitating lived experience groups to engage with VISION researchers.

1. SafeLives Changemakers

We are working with SafeLives’ young person authentic voice group, called Changemakers, to explore adolescent domestic abuse, including the 16-year age threshold applied by the police. This work is VISION’s response to a question posed to us by Thames Valley Police: should the age at which the police formally recognise domestic abuse be reduced from 16 to 13? Working with the group will inform the development of a substantive and methodological framework for future research.

2. Violence, Abuse, and Mental Health Network Lived Experience Advisory Group

VAMHN has successfully integrated the voice of survivors of domestic and sexual violence and abuse into its work and pioneered co-production of research and policy engagement. Its focus on measurement is closely aligned with VISION and as a result, VAMHN is recruiting a lived experience group that provides input into VISION research as one of its key purposes.

3. Partisan

Partisan is a Black-led community interest company best known for their work on the borders of traditional mental health services, creating alternative help systems that centre marginalised and racialised communities. Partisan is recruiting a group of young people for a series of monthly workshops. The engagement will look at the co-design of a research study, new research ideas for VISION, a complex systems analysis of violence, dissemination of findings of existing studies, and policy implications.