peers who volunteer
THE VIEWS OF PEOPLE WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE
Grounded in lived experience
All the contents of the best practice guide are grounded in the lived experience of the more than 250 peer volunteers who participated in our survey and the members of the co-production team.
In the best practice guide, we do not set out to recommend a definitive approach to every issue. This is because one size doesn’t fit all – the roles of volunteers vary between organisations, organisational practice is different depending on the size of the organisation, its culture and sector etc.
Instead, we seek to highlight the key issues and bring them to life by sharing the lived experience of peers who have volunteered (both those who responded to the survey and members of co-production team).
Below you can see short video interviews with people with lived experience talking about the positive – and negative – issues they have come across in their time as peer volunteers.
You can also download the best practice guide here.
The views of people with lived experience
In this video clip, two of our co-production team model how peer volunteering should bring benefits to both the peer volunteer and the organisation they are volunteering for.
Bernie Carr, one of our co-production team, talks about the importance of control and choice that volunteers should have over the work they do. In general, volunteers have more say over what work they do than employees. This applies to peer volunteers too…
David Breakspear from the project co-production team talks about the importance of organisations helping volunteers develop the skills they need for the specific volunteering role they are undertaking.
Jacob Hill, founder of Offploy which helps people with criminal convictions find work, talks about the value of peer mentors. He says that peer mentoring is invaluable to his organisation but must end up with the opportunity of finding paid work. He calls on us to expand our understanding of lived experience and urges public and private sector organisations to value and recruit people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system.
Mark Pryke, National Service User Involvement Lead for Change Grow Live, talks about how his lived experiences have helped inform services for the UK’s largest drug and alcohol treatment provider.
An interview by River Rose of our co-production team with Andrew Morris who talks about the value of his lived experience as a member of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman’s team of investigators.
River Rose from the project co-production team talks about the need that many people with lived experience have to please the organisations they work for as volunteers or paid staff. She cautions providers to be careful not to inadvertently exploit this characteristic and advises peer volunteers to balance their volunteering with looking after their own needs, particularly when early in their recovery journeys.
Heather talks about how the social enterprise Offploy gave her the opportunity to use her talents, skills and lived experience in a meaningful job. She describes how lived experience underpins everything Offploy does and the job satisfaction she gets from empowering others to build careers.