Lived Experience Advisers: Engineering Change

We are a diverse and dynamic group of Oldham residents who all have lived experienced of poverty, systemic trauma or social injustice. We are passionate about using our experiences and our skills to enable positive change in our communities and in seeing systems & services transformed. We also want to support other people to share their own stories – to feel heard, valued and empowered to see positive action in their local areas.

• Equity: we work with fairness, justice and respect of all people
• Collaboration: we work as equal partners with a partnership approach
• Passion: we do what we do because we care
• Inclusivity: we are inclusive in all our approaches and in our decision making
• Pioneering: we go into unchartered territory to have difficult conversations
• Advocacy: we collect community voices and we amplify them
• Honesty: we hear lived experience and we speak truth to power
• Innovation: we see things from a different perspective and we innovate change
• Removing barriers: we act on what people say they need to move forwards freely
• Empathy: we are kind in our approaches, valuing each persons individual experience
• Active listening: we make sure real people are being heard

We amplify voices:

• Through community outreach:

1. By visiting community groups or group leaders connecting us with people who want to share their stories
2. By speaking to people directly through outreach opportunities or community reporting
3. For some of us – sharing our own stories; in person, at events or through network opportunities

• By running our engineering change workshops: we invite people with specific lived experience of a certain topic to our workshops where we will gather data and insight for further action.