Following up from todays Ending Homelessness Group - Joondalup Wanneroo Stirling meeting

Being a Lived Experience Ambassador across a lot of the Community Services Sector sometimes highlights the duplication and possible dead ends different groups, political organisations and Government departments are leading.

Just like the proposed City of Perth Mayors were asked to commit to a charter, it would be fantastic to see the whole of the Community Services Sector also commit to a charter of ending homelessness.

That Charter must include a mandate for Lived Experience to be part of ALL discussions and strategies across the board, even if it is in a passive or observatory role.

Leela mentioned the Lived Experience Framework today that WACOSS has developed and that is an excellent place to start in the inclusion of Lived Experience at all levels of discussions and negotiations.

Shelter WA is in the final stages of releasing a Lived Experience Toolkit to support the framework provided by WACOSS and I mentioned that there could soon be an independent council of lived experience in WA soon.

There are also many international resources to refer to in regards to engaging with Lived Experience and I will use DropIn to start to create a library for our member's to reference. 

I will start this off with a very good video link on Engaging with Lived Experience by HUD Dept of Housing and Urban Development in the US https://youtu.be/8iZyUVRw0yU

None of what I am proposing is to diminish what has and continues to be achieved by members of JWEHG, but just to keep us relevant and on track with what is happening with the rest of the sector in the homelessness space.

As mentioned today, it is time to have an annual review of the Regional Homelessness Strategy and update the Action Plan.