Coffee with the Co-researchers: Networking session

You’re invited to join a collaborative networking session with Blackpool’s Co‑Researchers who are a unique team of local residents who bring lived experience, local insight, and community voice directly into decision‑making.

Blackpool’s Co‑Researchers play a vital role in ensuring that strategies, services, and practice are grounded in the realities of the people who live here. By drawing on their personal experiences of the town, including its strengths, challenges, and opportunities, they help shape more responsive, relevant, and equitable approaches across health, social care, community services, and wider public initiatives.

This session is an opportunity for council officers, statutory partners, and external organisations to meet the Co‑Researchers, hear about their work, and explore how embedding community perspectives can strengthen policy development and service design. You’ll gain insights into their approach to engagement, co‑production, and community‑led knowledge, as well as practical examples of how their input is already influencing local priorities.

The session will be informal, collaborative, and forward‑looking. It will be a space to share ideas, build relationships, and identify opportunities for future partnership working.

Join us to:

• Connect with Co‑Researchers who represent diverse community perspectives
• Learn how lived‑experience insights can support smarter, more responsive decision‑making
• Explore opportunities to integrate community voice more deeply into your own projects
• Strengthen cross‑sector collaboration around shared priorities for Blackpool

We hope you can join us in shaping a more inclusive, grounded, and community‑driven future for Blackpool. Please feel free to share this invite with colleagues who may also benefit from attending.

Location

This session will take place in-person in Conference Room 3E in Bickerstaffe House. Visitor passes will be provided on the day to attendees outside of Blackpool Council. 

Please see The Big Evidence Fortnight full programme for other sessions you might be interested in.