Lived Experience Leadership Forum

• Leadership
• Lived Experience

Wednesday 14 October 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).

Next forum will be on Wednesday 14 October at 1pm, Cathy Low, Director of Partnerships at Thomas Pocklington Trust will facilitate discussion around: Balancing Authenticity, Vulnerability and Authority as a Leader. In this interactive session, we will explore one of the most common leadership challenges: how to remain authentic and human while providing confidence, direction and accountability. Through reflection and discussion, participants will share lived experiences and consider questions such as:

• What does authentic leadership look like in practice?
• How much vulnerability is helpful as a leader?
• How can leaders build trust while maintaining authority?
• What happens when one of these elements is missing?

The session is discussion-based and draws on the collective experience of the group rather than formal theory. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their own leadership experiences, learn from peers, and identify practical actions they can apply immediately in their leadership roles.

Please come prepared to share an example from your own leadership experience where balancing authenticity, vulnerability and authority was particularly challenging or impactful.

This will help us create a rich and meaningful conversation grounded in real-world leadership practice.

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