Panel Discussion: Supporting spokespeople with lived experience

How can charities support spokespeople with lived experience to shape media conversations safely, effectively and on their own terms? And how can that work build community, solidarity and lasting change? At a time of rising hostility and backlash, it’s vital to consider whose perspectives shape the work, who makes decisions and the importance of building networks of care and support that extend beyond individual media opportunities.

Join Media Trust for a one-hour online panel bringing together expertise from across the sector. Our speakers will share approaches to supporting spokespeople with lived experience, building relationships, sharing decision-making and creating opportunities for people to influence the stories told about their experiences and communities.

What we’ll explore

• Building community and solidarity: how sustained relationships and peer support can support people beyond individual media opportunities.
• Considering power and representation: whose voices shape organisational priorities and media strategy and how to avoid reinforcing the marginalisation this work seeks to challenge.
• Supporting people safely: how to prepare for media opportunities together, agree boundaries and provide support throughout.
• Working towards meaningful impact: agreeing with spokespeople what change you want to achieve, why their perspective matters and how their involvement fits into a long-term strategy.
• Challenging tokenism and one-off stories: moving beyond token requests for a personal story and working with media organisations to improve how they approach stories and engage with communities, including exploring different routes to influence change.

Event details

• Location: Online
• Date: Thursday 3rd December
• Time: 13:00–14:00
• Price: Free

Who should attend?

This session is for people working in small to medium charities who work with, or are considering working with, spokespeople with lived experience. It will be particularly relevant to communications, media and campaigns teams, and managers. You’ll hear examples from different organisations and approaches to help you reflect on what could work in your own charity.

Meet the panel

Nathalie McDermott (she/her) is the Founder and CEO of Heard, a UK charity that improves how stories about complex issues are told in media and popular culture. Heard combines framing research and lived experience to shape storytelling that builds understanding and agency through the shows that we love, without relying on trauma or doom. Nathalie previously worked as a journalist at the BBC and The Guardian, and her TEDx talk, Why stories of trauma don’t create change, makes the case for cultural strategies that move audiences beyond awareness towards action.

Nora Padilla (she/they) is a trans and queer activist, writer, and community organiser and Policy Manager at TransActual, the UK’s leading trans advocacy organisation, where her work focuses on trans people’s right to dignity and privacy in healthcare, employment, and data.