The Lived Experience Project

Everybody loves a good comeback story. ☕️Go on, spill the tea!

We teach justice-affected people the digital skills the world is actually paying for: websites, AI, content and social. Not in a classroom, but on real work.

Lived experience got the invitation. We just arrived a little late.

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People love lived experience. On a stage. In a documentary. In the bit of the awards speech where everyone goes quiet.

It's celebrated. It's just not yet embraced. Celebrated is a round of applause. Embraced is a contract, a login, a "yes" on the form. We think the applause is lovely. We'd just like the job too.

0%

None of this is a feeling. It's arithmetic.

66% of people leaving prison on sentences under twelve months are back inside within a year.

For everyone else, it's 28.8%.

Same country. More than double the rate. The problem was never whether people can change.

We're changing one number.

Not with charity. With skills the market pays for, and a door that opens the same width for everyone.

Source: MoJ Proven Reoffending Statistics, January to March 2024.

£18.1bn
what reoffending costs England and Wales every year
34.5%
of prison-leavers are in work six months after release
1 in 5
UK adults lack the essential digital skills most jobs now need

Sources: MoJ economic and social costs of reoffending; MoJ employment-on-release data; NCFE, No One Left Offline.

The whole ask

We're not asking for charity. Not a sympathy hire. Not a lower bar. We're asking for lived experience to lead. And for one kind of fairness: not equality of outcome, but equality of opportunity. Same door. Same width. Same for everyone.

Why it works

Skills get you the job. Purpose is what keeps you out.

You can have the job, the flat, every box society says to tick. If you don't know who you are or why you want any of it, you're floating, one bad week from where you started.

Behaviour changes when purpose does. So we don't only hand people skills. We help them understand where they've been, why, and what they actually want, then build a life worth protecting around it.

We don't teach in a classroom. We ship real work.
Learn the skillsthe skills→ Earn from real workfrom real work→ Own your futureyour future

A pipeline, not a course, and we build it in the order that proves it: understand the demand, train against it, then take the model through the gate.

01 · Network

LDN:KNEKT

First, map the ground: who needs this across London, what it's worth, and where the real problems are.

Starting here

Here's the deal: we build real digital solutions for organisations, heavily subsidised, and for eligible charities completely free, start-up packages that would cost a business tens of thousands. In return, our learners get real practice and we learn what London actually needs.

So bring us your gnarliest problem. We want to know what you're wrestling with, how you're using AI, and what a fix would be worth to you.

  • An eligible charity? You could get a full digital start-up package, free.
  • A business or organisation? Heavily subsidised solutions while we grow.
  • Want to be found? We're building a directory so people can discover and connect with you.
See if you qualify →
02 · Training

UP:SKILL

Then we train, against a real pipeline of work the network just uncovered. Real briefs, real clients.

The proof

Once we know who needs what, we run the course, and learners build the actual solutions those organisations asked for. A portfolio and references, not just a certificate. No dummy exercises.

To do it we need partners: real briefs to work on, and organisations whose tools and tech we can build on while we grow.

  • Got a project we could build? Bring it, and help prove the model.
  • Have tools or tech we could learn on? Lend it while we get funded.
  • Want the skills yourself? Register and we'll tell you how to join a cohort.
Partner with us →
03 · Programme

RE:ENTRY

Once the model's proven, we take it through the gate: a real year with the people it's hardest for.

The vision

With the model working, we run our own year-long programme with people coming out of prison, built before release and backed long after, so a sentence doesn't quietly become a life sentence.

And we turn it into a research project of its own. If you're a prison, a resettlement service, or a university that might want to work with us, or study the framework, we'd love to talk early. How we do it is shared directly, not posted online.

Start a conversation →
Who's behind this

Theone Coleman

Founder

Released in 2007 and rebuilt a life through skills and a flat refusal to be written off. This whole thing is built by someone who has lived what our learners are living. That is the credibility, not a line on a poster.

Sarah McCarthy

Behaviour change, trauma & shame

An accredited practitioner, neurologically and neurobiologically trained, whose method is used exclusively with TLEP. She is the reason "support" here means real, qualified help, not a motivational speech.

Bio and credentials shown with permission. Final wording to be confirmed.
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