Introduction and background

Employees with Lived Experience (LEx) can be deeply affected by their work in social impact organisations. Particularly when they are working to change systems that have harmed them in the past.

The strengths and value of their contribution to driving systemic, structural, and institutional change is immeasurable. Their first hand insight and connection to the cause enables us to move at a much faster rate, whilst giving us the opportunity to understand more deeply and serve more authentically. But the weight of the work can be extremely heavy.

As employers, we have a duty of care and legal responsibilities for the health and wellbeing of all of our employees. As a values and mission-led organisations, we want the employee experience for all staff to be ethically sound and trauma responsive.

But as small organisations with limited HR resources, a greater amount of our core resource can be needed to fund the development and support needed for our teams. We have found that standard HR processes do not always take into account the complexities around lived experience within the workplace. This can cause tension around our finances, ethics, and our organisational values and culture.

About the learning journey

Anne-Marie Douglas, Founder and CEO of Peer Power Youth approached Esmée Fairbairn Foundation about this. After discussions, Esmée offered Funding Plus support to convene a group of organisations with a shared purpose:

Exchange knowledge and resources
Reimagine and challenge existing practices and
Foster meaningful peer support

All with the ultimate goal of driving lasting improvement across the sector.

Between 2023 and 2024, we embarked on a learning journey together. Workshops were designed and co-delivered by Anne-Marie Douglas from Peer Power Youth and Emily Sun and their team from Place Matters.

A final ‘Funder Convening Event’ was held in September 2024, hosted by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The group decided to create this resource to share their learning with funders and the sector. It has some ‘Calls to Action’ which we hope will spark debate, increase knowledge and ethical practice and ultimately improve inclusive lived experience employment practice for the benefit of all.

Learning group participants

24 leaders from cross-sector social-impact organisations joined the ‘Peer Learning Group’ with expertise in: LGBTQ+, Disability, Arts, Racial justice, Young People, Mental Health, Women’s justice, Refugee and Migrant justice.

The cross-sector social-impact organisations included:

The group was actually over-subscribed before being narrowed down based on:

Size: Small to medium organisations with 7 to 50 employees and a revenue of £200k to £2m
Amount of resource for HR/People
Current employment practice for lived experience staff

Feedback from learning group participants

The group reported the cross-sector learning and support through action learning sets were particularly valuable. So much so, members of the Peer group continue to meet independently as a result of the project.

Here’s what some of them had to say about the Journey.

My awareness of the issue has increased which is going to inform the way I lead.

This has greatly reduced my feelings of isolation and sometimes hopelessness.

[Being with people] outside of my network was invaluable as they brought a new perspective and I could be really open.

I valued the many supportive comments about being my authentic self, and not being apologetic for my learned experience.

I’m taking away a determination to build in more time and costs into funding budgets to support lived experience.

I found the support, solidarity and shared understanding across sectors facing similar challenges and experiences the most valuable.