From 2022 to 2025, the Institute for Community Studies worked in partnership with the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE), Sheffield Hallam University, Citi-Redi and Queen Mary’s University of London to deliver the National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) programme. NCIA was a Research England-funded programme, which sought to help UK universities to better deliver benefits to their local places and people.
A principle that quickly became clear in this work is that community voices must be central if universities are to truly embed inclusive and meaningful civic practice. To help embed this, the Institute for Community Studies and NCCPE came together to form a Community Advisory Panel (CAP). The CAP was made up of six community partners who worked together to shape the direction, experiences and outputs of CiviCon25, a conference organised by Sheffield Hallam University to share learnings and recommendations emerging from the NCIA programme.
The CAP was established to:
- Centre diverse community perspectives in civic university work
- Reflect on values-based partnership working, and explore how experiences and differences shape our interactions
- Generate recommendations for CiviCon25 and future civic university practice
From the outset, the CAP was not just advisory in name, it became a space for shared leadership, creative collaboration, and critical reflection. One member reflects that because of this approach: “CiviCon25 wasn’t just another conference, it felt like a community in motion, alive with exchange, reflection, and purpose. I left Sheffield full of gratitude, new ideas, and a renewed belief in the power of partnerships that truly listen, adapt, and create together”
How we co-created the CiviCon25 Community Advisory Panel process
The Community Advisory Panel was designed to build on trusted relationships and shared understanding developed through existing partnerships with community organisations experienced in working with academic institutions on civic projects.
Recognising the importance of working with care and integrity from the outset, we adopted a targeted recruitment approach that prioritised meeting community needs and ensuring meaningful representation. Invitations were therefore extended to individuals who demonstrated a genuine commitment to the inclusive nature of civic university partnerships, who represented a diversity of community perspectives and organisations, and who brought valuable experience of collaborative work with academic institutions.
Building on the trusted relationships that the NCCPE has developed with individuals involved in the NCIA Action Learning Groups, other community organisations and personal connections to place-based community partners in Sheffield (where the NCIA conference would be held) we invited six individuals from these groups to join the CiviCon25 Community Advisory Panel, ensuring that the Panel’s composition reflected both breadth of experience and depth of engagement with civic partnerships.
Over three CAP meetings, members and facilitators engaged in deep dialogue, creative planning, and collaborative design. The process included:
- Generating a list of recommendations for the conference
- Producing a core values framework for community-university partnerships
- Co-authoring provocations to guide CiviCon contributors
- Reviewing the CiviCon programme and shaping CAP-led sessions
- Sharing reflections and lived experiences
As well as being foundational in shaping CiviCon25, CAP members played a central role in delivering sessions and shaping the wider experience of attendees during the conference itself.
Throughout the two-day conference in October 2025, CAP members and facilitators held an exhibit space where attendees were invited to explore the values of civic partnership work. This provided a reflective space and helped to bring community perspectives to the forefront.
The CAP also facilitated Working towards an inclusive Civic University, a participatory session that invited attendees to think about values-based partnerships. Through guided visioning, storytelling, and a lively fishbowl discussion, the group explored what it means to hold ourselves — and our institutions — accountable to shared civic values.
One member commented: “The fishbowl method was one of my favourite moments. People leaned in, listened deeply, and joined the conversation with honesty and care. At one point, someone smiled and said, ‘This is what collaboration feels like.’ That line stayed with me.”
With thoughtful attention to power dynamics and accessibility, CAP members used creative approaches that welcomed diverse voices and experiences, especially those often less-heard in academic settings.
A live illustration capturing insights from CiviCon25, including the CAP led session Working towards an inclusive Civic University Credit: Camille Aubry, Live Illustrator and Cartoonist
CAP members and facilitators at CiviCon25
Attendees taking part in a fishbowl discussion during the CAP led session Working towards an inclusive Civic University
Objects of Impact exhibit space led by the CAP over the two days of the conference
Principles for values-based partnerships generated by attendees of the CAP session Working towards an inclusive Civic University
A CAP member producing a creative output at the Objects of Impact exhibit space
Reflections on co-creation, collaboration and inclusive civic practice
CAP members and facilitators valued working alongside a diverse range of individuals who each brought unique knowledge, experience and insight. With community practitioners often jumping from project to project, the CAP also gave members a rare opportunity to share and reflect on their work with peers. Being part of the panel offered a chance to bring about something new, by collaboratively shaping and, sometimes challenging, civic university spaces.
Openness, transparency and care were central to the CAP’s way of working, which helped to build trusting and authentic relationships. As facilitators, the Institute for Community Studies and NCCPE were proactive in taking the CAP contributions forward to meaningfully shape the design and delivery of the conference. One member commented: “Genuine, and authentic facilitation. I feel as though the team really cares about our contributions, and they have been proactive in making it tangible by weaving into the creation of the conference.”
Panel members shared how much it means to them when their contributions are genuinely valued—whether that’s through fair payment for their time or the recognition that comes from co-authoring research. These aren’t just practical matters; they’re about dignity and respect. What CAP members contributed throughout this process was not only their lived experience, but a deep understanding of community needs, ways of working within and across voluntary and community sectors, and collective knowledge from supporting, leading and working on projects and research partnerships with universities. Therefore ensuring that partners from across the community sector are financially compensated and credited as co-authors should be standard practice as it sends a powerful message: your time matters and your knowledge is essential. It’s about honouring this powerful combination of experience and expertise, that isn’t a resource to be extracted but truly shared and celebrated. A member said: “Pay has been a huge motivator to overcome feeling like it’s “more work” or lack of confidence in this sector”
Building on their success, the CAP would like to continue working together to embed community voice, and help to effect systemic change in the wider civic university movement.
Key learnings for building an inclusive civic university
From the CAP experience, several key learnings emerged to inform future civic university strategies:
- Values must be lived, not just named, through practice, relationships, and accountability. In relation to this the CAP designed a set of value statements which may be viewed here. These support a call for leadership and practice change across the academic sector to shift how universities work with communities and the community sector, and to value diversity and reciprocity, knowledge equity, youth and intergenerational leadership, care and commitment, accessibility and inclusion, and power redistribution.
- Civic university partnerships must ensure equitably and sustainably financing of community partners, so that the contribution and commitment made by communities does not come at a cost to individuals or organisations but builds more capacity for all partners to continue to work together.
- Creative methods can unlock deeper engagement, allowing people to express what matters in diverse ways.
- Power must be shared intentionally, through co-development, open dialogue, and structural change.
- Inclusive civic work requires ongoing reflection. Not just at events, but embedded in everyday practice.
The CAP model offers a blueprint for meaningful community involvement, and a reminder that civic engagement is most powerful when it is co-created, values-led, and relationally grounded.
As one member put it: “This panel has shown me that my lived experience and views are the only things which are needed and being valued here.”
The Community Advisory Panel members are Hannah Sloggett, Co-Director at Nudge Community Builders, Ayad Al-Ani, Director of London Central Academy, Laura Corfield, Director at Shift Bristol, Julia Costa Carneiro, Research Lead at Knowle West Media Centre, Waqas Hameed, Health and Wellbeing Manager at Darnall Wellbeing, and Fola Afolabi, Founder of the Youth Involvement and Engagement Lab. Facilitators are Dr. Al Mathers, Associate at The Young Foundation, Lily Owens-Crossman, Senior Researcher at The Young Foundation, and Zoe Williamson, Head of Services at the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
Read more about the NCIA programme and the CAP members here