Lived Experience
“We work alongside and with community advisory boards made up of people who themselves are the true experts, people with lived experience. We involve them in every step. They're helping us write the questionnaires, decide on the study design, figure out what questions to ask, interpret our findings and communicate them.”
– Margot Kushel, MD
The UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative is at the forefront of a movement to include people with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity in every aspect of our work. Those with lived expertise have unique perspectives to help shape groundbreaking policies and strategic decisions about homelessness.
Through our Lived Expertise Advisory Boards, people with lived experience help us:
- test survey questions,
- develop outreach strategies,
- interpret findings,
- design materials, and
- co-present study results.
Our advisory boards are vital in helping us understand when we may need to pivot a project or when something critical may be missing from our research.