Launch event for a new project Authentic Voice: Embedding Lived Experience in Scotland.

“Being part of something where I, as a survivor, can help a fellow survivor feels like a no-brainer to me…I used to say, “this is my life”. I now say: “that was my life”

SafeLives, Improvement Service and Resilience Learning Partnership have been awarded funding by the Scottish Government to work in partnership with survivors of domestic abuse and trauma on a new project called Authentic Voice: Embedding Lived Experience in Scotland. The project will:

  • Support women with experience of domestic abuse and other forms of complex trauma to use their experiences to help shape the pathways to support and service delivery;
  • Enable professionals working across a wide range of policy areas to embed survivor voice and lived experience into system and service design processes in a high quality, sustainable and trauma-informed way; and
  • Help decision-makers to see how meaningful change can be achieved, and compelled to act, through seeing living examples, having access to evidence & hearing diverse voices of people with lived experience.

The project will be supported and overseen by the SafeLives Authentic Voice Panel, a group of women with lived experience of domestic abuse, dedicated to ensuring that survivor voice is at the heart and start of services, policy, and strategy. This project is also supported by the National Trauma Training Programme.

We are now excited to launch the findings from our initial discovery exercise, where we have been gathering learning to understand how survivor voice and lived experience is used in organisations across Scotland. This launch event will also provide an overview of upcoming opportunities for engagement in future project activities, including our upcoming series of deep dive events for professionals looking to embed lived experience in local system and service design processes.

As this is a project created and shaped by survivors, we will be guided by what we hear from people with lived experience of domestic abuse and trauma, as well as specialist services working to support survivors across Scotland.

Please attend and share with your networks!