The National Social Mission Department Lived Experience and Participation Resource
Lived experience and participation The Social Mission Department is committed to listening to the voices of people with lived experience and working alongside them. We seek to work collaboratively with those who use our services and to find new and innovative ways for participants and all stakeholders, including employees and volunteers, to participate. We acknowledge that, as an organisation, our practice and advocacy is stronger when guided by those with lived experience. We do this through formal mechanisms and by creating opportunities to take part in, and contribute to, our service design and delivery. Our goal is to help people overcome the hardship they are experiencing as a result of injustice or disadvantage. We look beyond personal difficulties to examine the systems and structures that lead to and hold people in hardship, and those that can help people step out of hardship.
Defining “participation” and “co-design” Participation is a value that is expressed when participants: • Are meaningfully involved in decision making processes • Services and projects are developed and delivered “with” and “by” participants rather than “for” or “about” them Participation can range from informing, educating and consulting with participants to co-production and community led movements. The latter is where all stakeholders work in an equal and reciprocal relationship and decisions, solutions and activities are participant-led. Co-design is an inclusive, person-centred process that involves participants in generating ideas, testing them and making decisions about how these ideas could shape projects, relationships, and the nature of services offered.
The national principles The Social Mission Department understands that: • The lived experience of people it engages, and their active participation in its operation, is invaluable in achieving and maintaining safe and high-quality delivery of services, programs and activities • Safety and wellbeing, personal capacity and skills of participants and the workforce can be enhanced and developed through participation The Salvation Army Social Mission Department: • Acknowledges the expertise, contribution and lived experience of people who connect with The Salvation Army • Acknowledges that the voice of lived experience is central to service design and the right of participants to have input into how services and programs operate • Provides a safe and transparent resource to empower the voice of participants to be heard and inform all levels of service delivery, design and evaluation from first point of engagement • Evaluates, assesses and embeds mechanisms for participation to ensure lived experience is at the forefront of service design • Values the voice of lived experience through remuneration and ensuring adequate support to allow the desired level of participation 12
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