We See You

What is the initiative?

We See You is a University of Portsmouth initiative bringing together research, education, professional practice and lived experience to strengthen understanding of Armed Forces, veteran, Blue Light and service-connected communities.

Military and emergency service environments can shape how people learn, work, relate to others and understand their place in the world. These experiences can also influence the lives of partners, children and wider families, both during and beyond service.

We See You explores how these experiences are recognised within education, employment and community settings, and how greater understanding can lead to more informed, inclusive and supportive practice.

Our approach is grounded in a simple principle: See → Recognise → Respond.

Through professional learning, facilitated conversations, research and civic partnerships, we create opportunities to explore identity, belonging, adaptation, transition and psychological flexibility.

Our aim is not to assume that everyone connected to service shares the same experience, but to encourage curiosity, recognise strengths and experiences, and help individuals and organisations respond more thoughtfully.

Our commitments

Get involved

Our sessions

We See You offers interactive learning sessions designed to help educators, professionals and organisations develop a deeper understanding of Armed Forces, veteran, Blue Light and service-connected experiences.

Our sessions bring together academic research, lived experience and facilitated discussion to explore how service environments can shape identity, behaviour, learning and belonging, and what happens when people move between different environments, roles and expectations.

Rather than assuming that everyone has the same experience, we encourage participants to reflect on their own assumptions, consider perspectives they may not have encountered before, and explore how greater recognition can inform their everyday practice.

Sessions draw on research into professional identity and transition, including the developing approach of Recognition-Informed Practice, which explores how educational institutions can better recognise and respond to the knowledge, experiences and strengths people bring with them. This is complemented by approaches informed by Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) and psychological flexibility, exploring the role of values, adaptation, relationships and belonging.

Our sessions are participatory and reflective, creating opportunities for discussion, shared learning and practical application.

The aim is not to make participants experts in military or emergency service life, but to develop the awareness, curiosity and confidence to see, recognise and respond more thoughtfully.

Who we work with

At 55 minutes each, sessions are designed to be delivered with three different contexts in mind.

Initial teacher education and the student population

Who's it for?

Student teachers and university students
Service children and young adults from military families
Serving personnel and veterans entering higher education, including teacher training

What do we focus on?

We help trainee teachers understand the experiences of service children, drawing on research and resources from organisations such as the SCiP Alliance. We also explore how growing up in a military family may influence young adults entering higher education, alongside recognising the knowledge, skills and experiences of serving personnel and veterans transitioning into university and teacher training.

University colleagues

Who's it for?

Academic staff
Professional service colleagues
Leaders and managers

What do we focus on?

Through research, lived experience and facilitated discussion, we help University colleagues recognise how service-related experiences can influence identity, learning and belonging. Drawing on Recognition-Informed Practice and tools from Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), we encourage reflection on assumptions, values and learned behaviours, and how this understanding can inform more inclusive teaching, student support and leadership.

Civic continuing professional development

Who's it for?

Schools and colleges
Public services
Civic and community organisations

What do we focus on?

We work with schools, public services, charities and community organisations to strengthen understanding of Armed Forces, veteran, Blue Light and service-connected communities. Through professional learning, facilitated conversations and partnerships, we bring together research, lived experience and professional perspectives to encourage greater recognition, inclusive practice and collaboration across the wider community.

Our commitments

Giving service-communities a voice across the city is an important part of our work. We are fortunate to work with other organisations that recognise and support these communities.

Military service children

Portsmouth is a naval city and as such, we strive to offer extra support to military service children and their families. If you have served, or are currently serving in a branch of the British Armed Forces, you and your family are likely to be eligible for additional support while studying.

Armed Forces Covenant

We've signed the the Armed Forces Covenant - a pledge to honour the Armed Forces and support the Armed Forces Community.

Civic University

Explore how we're collaborating with local partners to widen opportunities, strengthen the economy and support our local communities.

Copyright: Helen Yates Photography.
CRM team and web team use only.

Find out more

Sessions on offer

The central purpose of these sessions is to increase awareness and understanding of how service-related experiences can shape identity, behaviour, relationships and wellbeing over time. The sessions also explore how universities, workplaces and civic organisations can respond with greater recognition, inclusion and understanding of service-connected communities.

Programme structure

The session consists of two interconnected sessions. The first section explores sociocultural transition and identity. The second focuses on awareness, adaptation and psychological flexibility.

Each session is 55 minutes and can be booked separately although the most benefit would come from both sessions back-to-book.

Session one: Transition and identity

This section explores how individuals move between institutional contexts such as the Armed Forces, emergency services and civilian professions. The discussion focuses on how identity is formed within structured environments and how this identity may need to be renegotiated during transition.

Key themes include:

Transition
Movement between institutional environments and civilian contexts where expectations, communication and hierarchy differ

Recognition
Acknowledging the professional knowledge, skills and experiences developed through service

Renegotiation
Understanding that transition does not involve replacing one identity with another. Individuals reinterpret previous experiences within a new professional field

This section connects with research on military to civilian transition and the ways in which prior experience is recognised within educational and professional environments.

Session Two: Awareness, Adaptation and Psychological Flexibility

This session explores how military and emergency service environments shape learned behaviours, values and ways of responding. Drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), we use reflective exercises and discussion to explore how awareness and psychological flexibility can support individuals and families as circumstances change.

Key themes include:

Learned behaviours
Understanding how patterns of alertness, attention and response developed in operational environments may influence behaviour beyond service.
Awareness and noticing
Recognising thoughts, feelings and habitual responses, and creating space to consider different ways of responding.
Values and psychological flexibility
Exploring how personal and organisational values influence behaviour, and how individuals can adapt and recalibrate as roles, relationships and expectations change.

The session complements the exploration of identity and Recognition-Informed Practice in Session One by encouraging participants to consider how learned behaviours, values and experiences can be better understood and recognised during periods of change.