Insight Academy

Community-led organisation harnessing the insight of lived experience.

Click here to view our current learning opportunities

Are you a tutor, trainer, or facilitator? Interested in working with us? Click here

Insight Academy

The INSIGHT Academy is part of the Changing Futures Programme, delivered by Expert Citizens C.I.C. & Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The training we provide is available free of charge to anyone living / and or working in the Stoke-on-Trent area.

Since its inception in August 2022 the INSIGHT Academy has delivered over 292* individual sessions to over 5097* attendees . 157* organisations have benefitted from these sessions include those from the local authority, police, health services, support services, housing providers, volunteers and community organisations.

All our training is co-designed and co-delivered through lived experience. We also offer people with lived experience the chance to become trainers themselves with our train the trainer programme.

Lived Expertise

Expert Citizens has an extensive national network of contacts with cutting edge systems thinkers and leaders. Many of these bring their own lived experience which we supplement with testimony from local people using co-delivery and local case-based examples.

Our network includes expertise related to:

The implications of legislative change and the current policy landscape for those supporting customers and how to navigate systems; e.g. legal literacy, navigating benefits, and homelessness

Expertise on issues affecting people experiencing multiple needs in context and effective approaches to support; e.g. suicide, self[1]injury, hoarding, loneliness, drug and alcohol addiction, grief and loss

Understanding the root causes of multiple disadvantage to inform empathetic and effective practice; e.g. PIE, trauma informed care, and motivational interviewing

Professional development including wellbeing and resilience in order to maintain capacity; e.g. mental health first aid, building resilience, and emotional wellbeing

INSIGHT Academy

Our range of opportunities includes:

Accredited courses

Learning delivered over multiple sessions, the successful completion of which leads to the award of a qualifications (e.g. Level 3 Education and Training).

Non-accredited courses

Learning delivered over multiple sessions designed to meet a specific current training need of those supporting people experiencing multiple disadvantage (e.g. navigating the benefits system).

Masterclasses

Standalone learning sessions led by local and national experts on key subjects identified as current learning priorities through the Learning Programme’s planning and development process.

Bespoke workshops

Expert Citizens CIC co-design and deliver a wide range of bespoke workshops to meet the specific learning requirements of organisations who work with customers experiencing multiple disadvantage.

Local Partnerships

Expert Citizens will work in partnership and alongside existing learning and development organisational teams and system across social care and health.

Communities of Practice

These multi-agency communities centre on case-based learning to aide reflective practice around a particular theme, such as hospital discharge for those with multiple disadvantage.

Arts based learning

Expert Citizens were central to the development of a performance arts-based learning opportunity in 2025 called Punishment Acts: Tales of Retribution, Reparation and Redemption. The play was co-produced with Ride-Out and cast included a mix of professional actors and Expert Citizens members.