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 Safe Young Lives Authentic Voice Group

We are working with SafeLives’ Safe Young Lives Authentic Voice Group 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

Members of the VAMHN Lived Experience Advisory Group have a wealth of experience in consultancy, training, and research. Drawing on these skills, as well as on their experiences of violence, abuse, and mental health difficulties, they have been steering VAMHN activities since their formation. Their work has included identifying priority areas for future research, developing VAMHN grant funding processes, and producing resources including webinars, podcasts, blogs, and reports. The VAMHN LEAG have been working with VISION researchers to advise on current and former research and to inform how experiential knowledge and evidence is integrated across VISION activities. Future work will involve the co-design of a research study to be conducted by the VAMHN LEAG.

3. High Trees and Partisan

High Trees Community Development Trust is a multidisciplinary charity based in Lambeth who work with their local communities in Tulse Hill to deliver impactful services that focus on community needs. Partisan is a Black-led community interest company that work to create alternative mental health help systems that centre marginalised and racialised communities. Collaborating with these two organisations, VISION researchers will support a participatory action research project that will be co-delivered with young peer researchers from the High Trees community. The engagement will involve the co-design of a research study to be carried out by the peer researchers, new research ideas for VISION, appropriate training for peer researchers, data collection and analysis, the delivery of a report, and findings that contribute to VISIONS’s complex systems analysis of violence.