Beyond the Streets launches a new resource on Lived Experience. 

We are delighted to share with you an exciting new resource, Lived Experience: learning from others, published 16th November 2022. Produced in partnership with Lived Experience Matters, this new resource brings together knowledge, insight, experience and expertise from across the lived experience movement.  

Based on conversations with individuals from 15 different organisations, the resource seeks to provide an understanding of the range of approaches to lived experience that individuals and organisations take across a variety of different sectors. It explores the benefits and impact of lived experience; ways of valuing and supporting people with lived experience; the challenges in this work and how to overcome them; along with additional resources you might find helpful.  

We wanted the content of this resource to be rich and varied. We wanted to hear from people who are doing work locally as well as regionally, nationally and internationally. We wanted to hear from organisations that have been established to advocate for change within policy and practice, as well as those that provide direct support to people through a range of different services. We wanted to hear from people who themselves have lived experience that they bring into their work, as well as those that do not. We wanted to hear from those who have been doing this work a long time, as well as those who are new to it, and those who provide consultancy services to others. The range of organisations that we held one-to-one interviews with are spotlighted within the resource. 

Whilst we have undertaken this work to help us understand how we can better do things within our own organisation and within our affiliate network, we also hope that this resource helps people to connect with each other, both within and beyond the sectors that they are working within. 

So whether you are somebody who has been doing this work for a long time, or you are new to it; whether you are somebody who identifies with a particular kind of lived experience that the resource talks to directly, or you are somebody who doesn’t; whether you are working or volunteering in an organisation that is already doing this work or is planning to do it; no matter who you are, we hope that you find it a helpful resource that you can either read in one go or dip in and out of. 

With thanks to the Samworth Foundation for funding this work.