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Our approach to lived experience involvement

How we centre the voices, stories and needs of people with lived experience of homeless temporary accommodation

How we centre the voices, stories and needs of people with lived experience of homeless temporary accommodation

Who we work with

At Justlife, when we say “Lived Experience of Homelessness”, we mean anyone who has a first hand experience of homelessness or the homelessness system. This includes but is not limited to:

  • Clients of our services
  • Attendees of our projects
  • People we meet in influencing work
  • Research participants
  • Steering group members
  • Our staff and volunteers
  • Campaigners we collaborate with
  • Families, friends, advocates and supporters of those experiencing homelessness

Lived experience (LE) collaboration and leadership runs through every aspect of Justlife - here is an overview of how that looks in our work.

Client-centred lived experience work

Our aim in all our client centred work is that clients are equal partners while with us. Our Health Engagement and Specialist Support Workers use person centred and psychologically informed ways of working with our clients to co-create tailored support plans. Our Social Connections Projects provide the next step for people moving away from homelessness through befriending, social events and peer support spaces. A number of clients of this service have gone on to become volunteers in it, and both clients and volunteers are regularly consulted on the ongoing design of the project to ensure it is as useful to the people accessing it as possible.

Collaborative lived experience projects

Common Ambition is a co-produced project led by our lived experience steering group focusing on homeless healthcare systems improvement in Brighton and Hove. Our Peer Research project undertakes research designed by our teams of peers who have expertise as researchers as well as insider experience of the TA system. Both these projects have developed new ways of working and a range of resources available for you to use.

TA network and policy influencing

The insights and contributions of those with lived experience shape our policy influencing work and campaigns for change. Nationally, as co-secretariat of the APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation, we have led a call for evidence and a national consultation which collected firsthand testimonies to design effective calls for national policy change. Locally, our Temporary Accommodation Action Group (TAAG) network includes those with lived experience, and there are LE steering groups in London, Brighton and Bristol.

Research and evidence building

In-house research focuses on gathering stories in a trauma-informed and qualitative way to highlight the impact of TA on everyday people. Through this approach we’ve uncovered a need for better provision for disabled and neurodivergent people staying in TA, for gender informed care and better LGBTQ+ provision. We’ve also learned about the impact and scale of out of area placements.

All our published research is available on our research page, and in shorter form in our blogs. Please feel free to use and reference these resources in your own work.

We also host an open research forum in Brighton and Hove for anyone with an interest in research, which has regular lived experience attendees (this includes people supported by us or involved in our projects, as well as people attending as individuals).

Justlife as an organisation informed by and accessible to people with Lived Experience

Justlife has a Lived Experience Lead who pulls together all the LE threads in our organisation to help us become more strategic and intentional in our lived experience-led work. We are focused on how we become more accessible and anti-discriminatory across our work, with an ED&I working group and a member of staff to drive this forward. Additionally, we are working with a Service Designer to create new, more efficient systems across the organisation.

As a result, we have embarked on a number of changes to our internal systems, policies and procedures to make our working practices and environment more psychologically informed and wellbeing orientated.

We’ve also begun to provide clearer guidance for those working in lived experience led ways, while still giving space for each project to have it’s own autonomy and creativity. As a result of these approaches:

  • All staff working on LE projects have access to an in-house LE community of practice where they can come together for support, idea sharing and development.
  • We are developing a lived experience advisory board who will help steer the overall direction of Justlife and provide accountability in the areas of accessibility, person centred practices, lived experience voice and transparency. This is set to launch in 2025.

Lead contacts

If you want to find out more or get involved, whether you’re a person with lived experience of temporary accommodation, a sector professional or a researcher, we’d love to hear from you.

If you are interested in our overarching strategic approach and organisation wide ongoing work in this area please get in touch with our Lived Experience Lead, Alex.

Peer Research: gail@justlife.org.uk
Common Ambition: nicky.pyper@nhs.net
TA network London: Georgia@justlife.org.uk
TA network Pan Sussex and Bristol: Mark@justlife.org.uk
APPG and national policy: Morgan@justlife.org.uk
Brighton & Hove research forum fran@justlife.org.uk
Lived Experience Lead: alex@justlife.org.uk

Sign up to receive monthly TA network updates (including research participation opportunities) here.