Practice Library

Building authentic and impactful relationships with people with lived experience (PWLE) is the heart of the work. The key is to build lasting relationships rooted in trust and shared purpose, while listening and learning from those with lived expertise and insights. This is where voices long excluded are invited in, and where real change begins. To build authentic and impactful relationships with PWLE, your approach to engagement must be purposeful, person-centered, and inclusive.

This consists of:

1. Creating Engagement Opportunities
2. Recruitment and Onboarding
3. Supporting Participation
4. Training & Capacity Building
5. Transparent Communication

Building organizational infrastructure for engaging people with lived experience (PWLE) means working within your organization to create processes, practices, and policies that support partnerships with PWLE. This ensures that engagement efforts are integrated, properly supported and resourced, and position your organization to drive real and tangible changes. Building organizational infrastructure for engaging PWLE involves:

1. Engaging Executive Leaders
2. Hiring and Training Dedicated Staff
3. Integrating PWLE into Governance and Operations
4. Establishing Feedback Loops that Support Action

Creating strategies and goals for engaging people with lived experience (PWLE) starts with being clear about what matters in your work together. Before any initiative begins, it’s important to  anchor the work in your organization’s purpose and long-term vision for partnering with PWLE, and each engagement effort should have its own short- term goals and objectives that you revisit and refine as you learn, grow, and deepen the work. Most importantly, PWLE should help shape strategies and goals from the start.

Creating strategies and goals for engaging PWLE involves:

1. Articulating a Clear Statement of Purpose
2. Setting Specific Goals and Objectives
3. Ensuring Representation

Measuring and evaluating your work with PWLE means taking the time to assess both the process and the outcomes. Strong programs are built on clear measurement. Tracking results, whether they show success, gaps, or something in between, is essential to demonstrating the value of engaging PWLE and making your work stronger and more sustainable. Like every other part of the program, your measurement approach can grow more structured and insightful as the work matures. Measuring and evaluating your work with PWLE involves:

1. Process Measurement and Improvement
2. Understanding Impact and Outcomes
3. Measurement Tools and Processes