Championing Lived Experience. Empowering Wellbeing. Accrediting Excellence
Welcome
At the Lived Experience Training Hub, your story matters. Our programmes are led by your experience, helping you share it with confidence and inspire change. We also support community providers to gain accreditation to strengthen their services.
Explore our Lived Experience pathways
Learn to share your story safely and powerfully while developing speaking and facilitation skills. Our experience trainers support you to speak with impact, create inclusive spaces, and gain confidence in personal, social or professional settings.
Become a Delivery Partner
Reach a wider audience by becoming a Delivery Partner to offer the LEAFS, joining a growing network across the UK. You'll receive full training, including a comprehensive Train the Trainer package with transferable skills for all your training needs, plus resources and ongoing support.
Lived Experience Service Accreditation (LESA)
LESA is a quality assurance service that helps community-facing organisations demonstrate that their services are inclusive, safe and impactful. LESA assesses services against five key standards, providing a comprehensive feedback report and permission to display the Lived Experience Training Hub logo as a mark of excellence.
Lived Experience Training
Lived Experience Accredited Facilitator & Speaker (LEAFS) programme
3 day accredited programme
Unit 1: Lived Experience Speaking
Unit 2: Lived Experience Facilitation
Assessment is through observed practice and a reflective workbook
The LEAFS programme empowers individuals to share their stories safely and effectively, build presentation skills, set healthy boundaries, and develop core facilitation techniques. Delivered by a skilled Lived Experience Trainer in small groups of four to eight participants, creating a safe, collaborative environment that encourages peer learning and networking. You'll have the opportunity to practise sharing your story, receive feedback from both peers and the Trainer, and facilitate peer presentations in a supportive environment. On completion, learners receive AAL accreditation, recognising their skills in safe, ethical, trauma‑informed sharing.
Next course dates:
- April 2026 - 16th, 20th and 28th (few spaces remaining)
- June 2026 - 4th, 5th and 11th
Lived Experience Accredited Speaker programme
2 day accredited programme
Unit 1: Lived Experience Speaking
Assessment is through observed practice and a reflective workbook
The Lived Experience Speaker Programme helps individuals develop the skills, confidence, and structure needed to share their story safely and effectively. Skills which can be used in personal, social or professional settings. Over two focused training days, participants learn how to shape their personal story for different audiences, set healthy boundaries, and apply trauma‑informed communication. The programme includes opportunities for practice, peer feedback, and trainer guidance to strengthen both skill and confidence.
1‑Day Lived Experience Speaker workshop
1 day workshop
Certificate of attendance
An Introduction to safe and ethical lived-experience storytelling. Participants learn how to structure their story, set personal boundaries, engage audiences safely, and communicate with clarity within a trauma-informed framework.
Next workshop: 6th May 2026
1‑Day Lived Experience Facilitator workshop
1 day workshop
Certificate of attendance
An overview of facilitation essentials for lived-experience settings. Participants explore creating safe, inclusive spaces, managing group dynamics, setting boundaries, and supporting others who share their experiences.
Next workshop:
- 9th April 2026 (day time)
- 3rd June 2026 (evening)
Meet our Lived Experience Team
Stephanie Porter
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Stephanie Porter
Lived Experience Programme Lead
Hi, my name is Stephanie and I am the Lived Experience Programme Lead at AAL, bringing over 20 years of lived experience alongside professional expertise in training, facilitation, and recovery-focused practice.
My lived experience includes being an affected other to family members impacted by alcohol and sub
Lived Experience Programme Lead
Hi, my name is Stephanie and I am the Lived Experience Programme Lead at AAL, bringing over 20 years of lived experience alongside professional expertise in training, facilitation, and recovery-focused practice.
My lived experience includes being an affected other to family members impacted by alcohol and substance use, mental health challenges, family foster care as well as my own lived experience of gambling addiction.
Before completing the LEAFS course, I did not know how to keep myself safe when sharing my story. This learning underpins my commitment to supporting charities and organisations to develop safe, ethical, and sustainable lived experience practice for their staff and volunteers.
I believe everyone has a story, and everyone deserves the safety, choice, and support to share it well. Our courses are designed to help organisations build confident, supported teams and to ensure lived experience is shared with care and purpose.
Claire Donegan
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Stephanie Porter
Lived Experience Trainer
Claire Donegan is a CBH Therapist and Recovery Coach from Ireland. Having spent nearly a decade of her life in the grips of gambling addiction, Claire now uses her lived experience to help others.
”When I first decided that I wanted to use my lived experience to help others, I enrolled in the AAL Lived Experience A
Lived Experience Trainer
Claire Donegan is a CBH Therapist and Recovery Coach from Ireland. Having spent nearly a decade of her life in the grips of gambling addiction, Claire now uses her lived experience to help others.
”When I first decided that I wanted to use my lived experience to help others, I enrolled in the AAL Lived Experience Accredited Facilitator and Speaker Programme to learn how I could best use my voice to create a dialogue and deliver my story effectively. The skills I learned through the course have helped me to establish my career as a Lived Experience Advocate, and now I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to share that knowledge as an AAL Trainer.”
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Kevin Fitzpatrick
Lived Experience Trainer
Kevin is an experience lived experience trainer.
Bio coming soon.
Our clients
