Lived Experience Academy
CPD accredited pathways to empower the understanding and practice of lived experience.
Transforming lived experience into leadership
The Lived Experience Academy is a pioneering initiative,
developed and delivered by Lived Experience for Lived Experience.
Lived experience leadership is not about individuals - it is a unity of
approach. It is a connection between people, organisations and
communities at all levels.
Lived Experience brings a fresh and valuable
perspective to discussions. Our ethos is to prevent
Lived Experience becoming tokenistic, and to
encourage people to see their lived experience as a strength
on which they can build.
The Lived Experience Academy creates opportunities for people to explore their resources and capabilities without becoming pigeon-holed by a single aspect of their life.
EK360 offers a range of structured, accredited pathways to support people to utilise all aspects of life, such as mental health, trauma, disability and social disadvantage to become valued leaders, educators, and change-makers.
Click the boxes below to find out more about our CPD accredited pathways.
Lived Experience Leadership
Community Leadership
Trauma Informed Practice
The Lived Experience Leadership accreditation is a structured, apprenticeship style programme that develops people with lived experience into confident, skilled, and ethically grounded contributors to organisational change.
It is built around core competency domains - Personal Insight, Communication, Collaboration, Project Application, and Professional Development. The programme supports learners to translate lived experience into measurable improvements across services, projects, and culture.
This framework provides clear progression, supervision, competency assessment, and real-world application, mirroring the professional rigour of an apprenticeship pathway.
Click on the tiles below to find out what the course includes.
Influencing through community voice
In this unit, participants will learn about constructive challenge, influencing decisions, documentation and ethical reasoning.
Do you want to:
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Build an ethical, skilled lived‑experience workforce through clear boundaries, safeguarding awareness and competency framework?
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Strengthen service design and decision‑making with practical recommendations, co‑design, and underrepresented voices?
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Improve outcomes and evidences meaningful impact through insight‑driven transformation, quality changes and trackable development?
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Create a sustainable pipeline of lived‑experience leaders by teaching communication, collaboration and leadership skills that support long‑term involvement?
To find out more about this course, or to talk to one of our team about booking spaces, get in touch with our team through email or give us a call.
The Community Leadership accredited course is a practical, workshop style programme designed to help community members, volunteers, and staff use an asset based, lived experience driven approach to strengthen community resilience.
The course introduces participants to Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), focusing on how to identify and leverage personal and community strengths to create sustainable change. Through practical tools and collaborative approaches, learners will explore asset mapping, appreciative inquiry, and inclusive facilitation.
The program covers project design, governance models, resource mobilisation, and participatory evaluation, enabling participants to turn stories into strategies and develop impactful community projects. By the end, learners will confidently design, pitch, and evaluate initiatives that celebrate local assets and foster community-led growth.
Click on the tiles below to find out what the course includes.
Influencing through community voice
In this unit, participants will learn about constructive challenge, influencing decisions, documentation and ethical reasoning.
Do you want to:
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Strengthen community capacity and leadership by equipping staff to lead local action, build networks and shape shared visions?
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Develop sustainable, asset‑based initiatives, learning how to turn lived experience into practical projects using ABCD techinques?
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Improve inclusion and equity across services by tackling power dynamics, co‑production and inclusive practice?
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Generate measurable community impact through community‑led evaluation outputs that demonstrate real, tangible change?
To find out more about this course, or to talk to one of our team about booking spaces, get in touch with our team through email or give us a call.
The Trauma Informed Practice accredited course strengthens trauma informed understanding and practice through a lived experience lens, using a participatory model that is codesigned and delivered by people with lived experience.
The course supports professionals in people‑facing roles and anyone wishing to develop Peer Group Skills. It introduces the need for trauma‑informed practice, highlighting the prevalence and impact of trauma and the importance of avoiding re‑traumatisation.
On this pathway, participants start to build psychological safety, explore and define trauma through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), develop practical trauma‑informed communication skills, and assess their own and organisational readiness. By the end, learners will develop an understanding of key principles, strengthen their confidence, and bring empathetic, safe and inclusive approaches into their everyday work.
Click on the tiles below to find out what the course includes.
Influencing through community voice
In this unit, participants will learn about constructive challenge, influencing decisions, documentation and ethical reasoning.
Do you want to:
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Dramatically reduce risk by preventing unintentional retraumatisation?
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Boost staff confidence fast with real‑world, lived‑experience expertise?
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Improve service quality instantly through practical, usable techniques?
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Create safer teams and safer environments across every frontline role?
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Strengthen organisational culture with simple, sustainable trauma‑informed habits?
To find out more about this course, or to talk to one of our team about booking spaces, get in touch with our team through email or give us a call.
Network of Peers
The Network of Peers is designed to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our consumers and to enable them to support each other through carrying forward their solutions.
Learn more
Upon completion of any of our courses within the academy everyone will be invited to join our Alumni network. This is designed to keep the attendees connected to the academy, fellow attendees and the wider network of past attendees. There will be a message board to share questions, opportunities or simply stay connected.
There will also be a number meetings during the year to bring everyone together and highlight some of the great work people are doing and share updates on the progress of projects set up by members.
We hope to enable an open, sharing network that will give everyone the opportunity to utilise the experience and expertise of the rest of the network as well as an easy access resource when members are seeking to employ people within specific groups or with specific skills for research or employment.
Click on the tiles below to find out how the Network of Peers supports course participants.
Influencing through community voice
In this unit, participants will learn about constructive challenge, influencing decisions, documentation and ethical reasoning.
To find out more about this course, or to talk to one of our team about booking spaces, get in touch with our team through email or give us a call.