Lived Experience at the Heart of Our Work

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The Power of Lived Experience at The Evaluator

At The Evaluator, we believe lived experience is one of our most valuable tools. It gives us insight, empathy, and perspective that helps us design and deliver evaluations that are human-centred, meaningful, and grounded in the realities of the communities we work with.

Our team brings together a powerful mix of personal and professional experience across health, social care, mental health, trauma, disability, addiction, bereavement, neurodiversity, parenting, poverty, and recovery. We know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of systems, not just evaluating them from a distance.

Some of our team members have lived with disabilities and long-term health conditions. Others have grown up in social housing, experienced the loss of a parent in childhood, or navigated life as single parents. We understand what it feels like to fall through the cracks, and the difference it makes when someone listens, advocates, and supports you with care.

We have team members who are neurodivergent, and parents of neurodivergent children—people who have become accidental experts in navigating education, health and care systems. We’ve supported loved ones through mental health crises and addiction, and worked on the frontline in roles such as counsellors, dementia support managers, pharmacy technicians, key workers and case navigators.

One team member brings their experience as a veteran, drawing on insight gained through military service to help us understand discipline, resilience, and the mental health impacts of high-pressure roles. Another brings lived experience of racism—not just overt discrimination, but the everyday subtle forms of exclusion and bias that can wear away at confidence and belonging. These experiences shape our awareness and sensitivity to how systems include or exclude, and how vital it is to create space for every voice.

We’ve also spent years working in the arts and community sector, designing and delivering creative wellbeing projects for people facing barriers to participation—including adults with mental health challenges, carers, older people, and those living with trauma or isolation. We’ve delivered shared reading groups, expressive storytelling workshops, and arts interventions that offer connection, reflection and hope.

Our lived experience is also backed up with extensive voluntary and therapeutic work. Several of us have worked with organisations such as Samaritans and Brake, supporting people through suicide risk, bereavement, and road traffic trauma. We’ve trained in grief models, trauma-informed practice, CBT, EMDR, dementia care, and peer support. We’ve run training, recruited volunteers, and held space for difficult stories. We also know the healing power of humour, creativity, nature, and community.

This wealth of lived experience is central to how we evaluate. It helps us listen better, design more inclusive questions, and spot insights others might miss. It brings compassion to our analysis and integrity to our recommendations.

At The Evaluator, lived experience is not a checklist—it’s a core part of who we are. It shapes how we work, what we value, and the kind of change we want to help create.

Meet the Team – Victoria

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Meet Victoria – Our People-Person with a Listening Ear and a Sharp Eye for Insight

Say hello to Victoria Huntriss, one of our incredible Evaluation Project Officers – and the heart of our people-focused work here at The Evaluator. With a background in counselling, clinical supervision, and community development, Victoria brings something really special to the team: the ability to make people feel truly heard.

Victoria is a qualified counsellor with extensive experience in person-centred and cognitive behavioural therapy, and she’s supported individuals through everything from bereavement and trauma to substance misuse and mental health challenges. She’s spent years working across community settings and charities, and she’s an expert in creating safe, trusting spaces where people feel comfortable enough to open up – even about the tough stuff.

It’s this skillset that makes her such a valuable part of our evaluation team. When we’re looking to gather rich, honest, meaningful insights from project participants, staff or carers, Victoria is often the person out front – listening, noticing, and gently drawing out stories that can shape real change. She’s also brilliant at turning that qualitative feedback into something practical – helping projects understand what’s working, what’s missing, and what could be done better.

Victoria’s not just a great listener – she’s also a trained leader and project developer who’s managed everything from university wellbeing programmes to trauma-focused community services. She’s currently studying EMDR to deepen her trauma-informed practice, and she’s a passionate advocate for neurodivergent and autistic individuals. Her commitment to equity, inclusion, and emotional wellbeing runs through everything she does – and we’re lucky to have her bringing those values into every evaluation.

At The Evaluator, we always say we combine numbers and nuance. Victoria is our nuance expert. And if she’s working on your project, you can be sure the human stories behind the stats won’t just be captured – they’ll be respected, reflected and celebrated.