Lived Experience Leadership Forum

• Leadership
• Lived Experience

Wednesday 12 August 2026
1:00 pm to 2:00pm
Zoom

We offer a supportive environment for Visionary members with lived experience of sight loss who have line-management responsibility, where you can join others to reflect on you leadership roles, share challenges and learn from one another.

The sessions will be a facilitated conversation, guided by a leader with lived experience rather than a lecture or presentation. The facilitators will support the discussion and ensure everyone has the opportunity to contribute.

This forum is facilitated by Andy Smith from MyVision Oxfordshire, Nia Greer from Vision Support and Raquel Garrido-Soriano from Visionary.

For: Visionary members and partners only with lived experience of sight loss who have line-management responsibility. Please note that only registered members and partners with lived experience of sight loss who have line-management responsibility will be able to attend; other registrations will be cancelled or removed. To find out more about membership, see our membership page at Join Us | Visionary or email Visionary (opens email).

10 June – Ian Morris, Head of Services at OpenSight – Just happy to have a  job. With less than 1 in 4 people living with sight loss in work the first emotion some people with lived experience feel is relief when they find an employer and a role they feel comfortable in. As leaders with lived experience somehow we have managed to climb the greasy pole, this session explores: What worked for us? What do we feel held us back? How can we encourage others with lived experience to dream bigger? How can we build confidence and aspirations in someone who doubts themselves? Ian has worked in senior leadership roles for 20 years in the private and charity sector, in this session he will share some of his experiences and things that have worked for him. The power of shared experience is that one of us will have found a way that works and you are invited to come with your own experiences, highs and lows and together to explore how we can support the next generation of lived experience leaders whilst continuing to grow and develop ourselves.

13 August – Ben Rendle, ECLO Service Manager London, Eye Care Support Service at RNIB – Finding balance: parenting, leadership and building a meaningful career. This will be a relaxed, discussion based session looking at the realities of balancing parenting alongside building a career within the sight loss sector, beyond it, and while managing a team. It’s not about having it all figured out, but about sharing honest experiences, challenges and what we’ve learned along the way. We’ll touch on things like changing priorities, managing energy, handling pressure, and how being a parent can shape how we lead and support others. There’ll be plenty of space for people to share their own experiences and reflect on what balance looks like for them. The aim is to have an open, supportive conversation where people can connect, learn from each other, and leave with a few useful reflections to take forward.

Frequency: Bi-monthly, on the second Wednesday of the every other month (February, April, June, August, October and December), 1 PM to 2 PM.