What is the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG)?
The LEAG is a group of individuals who have all experience some form of violence or abuse and mental health difficulties. Together they bring with them a wealth of experience in consultancy, training, and research. The LEAG help inform the wider VAMHN, ensuring that grants included the voices of those with lived experience, offering commentaries to journal articles, and they are also planning to produce a series of blogs and podcasts on the themes of violence, abuse and mental health.
The LEAG is a group of individuals who have all experience some form of violence or abuse and mental health difficulties. Together they bring with them a wealth of experience in consultancy, training, and research. The LEAG help inform the wider VAMHN, ensuring that grants included the voices of those with lived experience, offering commentaries to journal articles, and they are also planning to produce a series of blogs and podcasts on the themes of violence, abuse and mental health.
Who is in the LEAG?
Lisa Ward Lisa joined the VAMHN as our Lived Experience Involvement Consultant. Lisa is the CEO of the Oxfordshire Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre, and a lived experience consultant and researcher focusing on lived experience of violence and abuse. She will be involved in coordinating the network's Lived Experience Advisory Group. |
L.T.
L.T. is neurodivergent and an autism advocate. She has been a charity volunteer for over a decade (multiple organisations e.g. The Care Forum), due to a strong desire to support those from marginalised communities like herself. She belongs to a number of disadvantaged groups, such as LGBTQ+, disabled, and ethnic minority. She hopes that her lived experience of complex trauma can help shape research and services for those who have also been affected by abuse and violence. She currently advises on mental health research and public involvement on a number of projects, from a similar perspective. She loves cats, ice cream (even in winter), and making art.
Naima Iqbal
Naima Iqbal is a professional lived experience researcher having worked for a number of organisations including AVA, McPin and AGENDA. Her research specialisms include multiple disadvantage, trauma, and peer support. She is also a qualified gardener and experienced crafter, using these skills to support her community.
Emily Reynolds
Emily Reynolds is a writer and campaigner based in London. After a career in freelance journalism, she now works part-time as Campaigns and Communications Manager for the user-led mental health charity Wish, as Project Office for the Haringey Suicide Prevention Group, as a Lived Experience Designer at Mind, and as a Trustee for the National Survivor User Network.
Justin Coleman
Justin is Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice. Supporting organisations from across both Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice and Levelling the Playing Field (an E.D.I Project) networks. Trustee of a Kendleshire Kids Foundation that works with Children that have suffered Complex Trauma. He is utilising his Lived Experience of 'coping with and consistently developing from' Complex Trauma, Violence and Abuse in his childhood, his aim is to support the VAMHN from a male perspective. Whilst always learning, from a lifetime of lived, learnt and qualified experiences, Justin is supporting people of all ages and organisations of all sizes, to cope with and develop further services around Complex Trauma, Mental Health and Violence and Abuse across Criminal Justice and Social Justice settings."
Twitter: @JustOneJustin
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L.T. is neurodivergent and an autism advocate. She has been a charity volunteer for over a decade (multiple organisations e.g. The Care Forum), due to a strong desire to support those from marginalised communities like herself. She belongs to a number of disadvantaged groups, such as LGBTQ+, disabled, and ethnic minority. She hopes that her lived experience of complex trauma can help shape research and services for those who have also been affected by abuse and violence. She currently advises on mental health research and public involvement on a number of projects, from a similar perspective. She loves cats, ice cream (even in winter), and making art.
Naima Iqbal
Naima Iqbal is a professional lived experience researcher having worked for a number of organisations including AVA, McPin and AGENDA. Her research specialisms include multiple disadvantage, trauma, and peer support. She is also a qualified gardener and experienced crafter, using these skills to support her community.
Emily Reynolds
Emily Reynolds is a writer and campaigner based in London. After a career in freelance journalism, she now works part-time as Campaigns and Communications Manager for the user-led mental health charity Wish, as Project Office for the Haringey Suicide Prevention Group, as a Lived Experience Designer at Mind, and as a Trustee for the National Survivor User Network.
Justin Coleman
Justin is Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer of the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice. Supporting organisations from across both Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice and Levelling the Playing Field (an E.D.I Project) networks. Trustee of a Kendleshire Kids Foundation that works with Children that have suffered Complex Trauma. He is utilising his Lived Experience of 'coping with and consistently developing from' Complex Trauma, Violence and Abuse in his childhood, his aim is to support the VAMHN from a male perspective. Whilst always learning, from a lifetime of lived, learnt and qualified experiences, Justin is supporting people of all ages and organisations of all sizes, to cope with and develop further services around Complex Trauma, Mental Health and Violence and Abuse across Criminal Justice and Social Justice settings."
Twitter: @JustOneJustin
There are also two other members of the group who wish to remain anonymous.