Throughout 2025, the Group for Lived Experience Engagement (GLEE) - along with the Matilda Centre's other lived experience initiatives - have been working to increase capacity and opportunities for people with living or lived experience of mental health and/or substance use conditions to ensure that our research reflects their experiences and needs.
GLEE are the coordinating team for the Matilda Centre’s Lived Experience ReseARch Network (LEARN) - a community of people aged 18+ with living/lived experience of mental health and/or substance use conditions. LEARN members are passionate about using their knowledge and expertise to inform and shape research and related activities as partners and advisors.
In 2024, GLEE surveyed LEARN and staff members and found a strong, shared desire for training in lived experience research methods, such as co-design. Co-design is increasingly recognised as a best-practice approach that brings people closest to the issues into the research process, shares power, honours many ways of knowing and being, and ultimately leads to research that is more human, more relevant and more impactful.
To help build co-design skills and knowledge, GLEE are excited to announce an upcoming workshop, facilitated by Beyond Sticky Notes which will be held on 17th February 2026.
This online 2-hour interactive workshop will explore how research, community, and lived experience intersect through the principles of co-design. Attendees will have the opportunity to unpack what authentic collaboration looks like, reflect on past experiences, explore common roles, methods and tensions of co-design, and learn practical pathways to make research more inclusive, accessible and human centred.
To express your interest in being kept up to date with workshop details, please email matilda.glee@sydney.edu.au.
Interested in connecting with the LEARN for your research?
Do you have a current or upcoming research project that would benefit from lived or living experience insight? If your team is seeking lived experience feedback, co-design or co-production support, please email matilda.glee@sydney.edu.au for more information.
Want to join the LEARN?
If you have lived experience of mental health and/or substance use disorders and want to connect with peers and research opportunities, we would love to hear from you! Register your details to hear about upcoming training and research opportunities.