A new report, Building Leadership From Experience, is published today to support the advancement of our goal to ‘foster a thriving, diverse and united refugee rights movement led and shaped by people with lived experience, so that it delivers strong, effective campaigning to secure a just, humane and effective asylum system’.
The report was commissioned as part of a partnership between the Asylum Reform Initiative (ARI), the alliance of leading refugee charities that established Together With Refugees, and One Strong Voice, a network of campaigners with lived experience. Supported by global funders including Porticus, it aims to further the voice, leadership, strategy-shaping and campaign action by people with lived experience.
ARI and One Strong Voice are working on our response with the important first step of appointing a new senior leader with lived experience of the UK asylum system whose remit is to advance this work.
The report provides seven key actionable recommendations, including formal leadership training and pathways; trauma informed approaches and support; and the creation of inclusive and safe spaces for people with lived experience to discuss opportunities, challenges, and gaps.
Researched and commissioned by two consultants with lived experience of the UK immigration and asylum system, Building Leadership From Experience examines existing initiatives, definitions and understanding of lived experience leadership; barriers faced by people with lived experience; and how organisations can meaningfully embed this leadership in their structures. The findings and recommendations are based on their research into existing evidence relating to lived experience leadership in the UK refugee rights movement as well as consultations with people with lived experience and other stakeholders without lived experience through one-to-one interviews, focus group sessions and surveys.
The full report “Building Leadership from Experience” can be read here.