Centering Community Voices through Lived Experience Panels

We engage a diverse range of expertise in our work at CECA, including community members. “Community members” include people who use or would like to use contraception, and those who help them get it, with a particular focus on people who experience barriers to getting the care they want and have experienced mistreatment in past and present.

What are Lived Experience Panels (LEPs)?

LEPs are semi-structured discussions with community members. For CECA, LEPs are a vital way to gather perspectives and ideas from the real experts in contraceptive care – the people seeking that care.

We design, coordinate, and convene LEPs in close collaboration with partner organizations, who are community-based or healthcare organizations with a commitment to equity and meaningful community engagement. Past LEP partners include Advocates for Youth, Beacon Reproductive Health Network, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and SisterLove. Partner organizations provide input into the design and conduct of LEPs and help recruit individuals to participate.

LEPs are a way of infusing the voices of community members with lived experience as a critical source of expertise, alongside technical experts and academic literature. These insights help CECA develop appropriate and workable solutions to the most pressing issues in contraceptive access. We convene LEPs to:

  • Generate insightful, honest, and rich insights from community members on relevant topics, centered around their own knowledge, experiences, preferences, needs, and values, and those of the communities around them.

  • Create a forum for community members to grapple with existing research, discuss the extent to which the evidence reflects lived experiences, and shape future research, policy, and other forms of change.

  • Ensure specific project findings and recommendations are aligned with community needs and values.

Why does CECA convene LEPs?

Sample Insights from LEP Participants

“I think sexual and reproductive healthcare should be talked about more and it should be easier to find care. It should not be taboo. We need change to make it more easily accessible.”

“Sexual and reproductive healthcare is the same as any other health care to me. Just like if you have diabetes, you expect that to be treated. It should be a right to have any kind of healthcare.”

“This conversation makes me realize how important access to reproductive healthcare is, not just for people who can have children but for people’s overall health and the health of communities.”

How have CECA LEPs helped change research, policy, and practice?

  • Clinical Guidelines

    by learning more about how patients experience sexual and reproductive health care and aligning federal clinical guidelines with this perspective.

  • Sterilization Consent

    by improving understanding of how patients and families interface with the federal sterilization policy and processes and suggesting improvements aligned with their needs.

  • Young Peoples' Access to Birth Control

    by understanding how youth experience policy changes that affect their access to contraception and their recommendations for improving access.

  • Research Priorities and Gaps

    by helping to improve research about sexual and reproductive healthcare in terms of who needs care, where and how it is provided, and what difference access can make in people’s lives.