Creating Authentic, Effective Partnerships between Organizations and People with Lived Experiences: A Toolkit

This toolkit offers guidance for researchers, advocacy groups, non-profit organizations, government agencies and others interested in, or currently engaging in, meaningful community-engaged work. It presents BHHI’s guide to forming and sustaining meaningful, authentic, and effective partnerships between organizations and lived experts. This toolkit is the result of a two-year partnership between UCSF BHHI researchers and a group of 10 people with lived expertise from across California who comprised a Lived Expertise Advisory Board (LEAB). This partnership was formed to aid UCSF BHHI in creating, conducting, analyzing, and disseminating the results of the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness (CASPEH).

In this guide, BHHI researchers and LEAB members reflect on what they did, what worked, and what they wish they had done differently. The content aims to inform and advance research, programs, and policies, while invoking new ideas and strategies to further community engagement efforts. We hope that our experience working together provides a framework for researchers, non-profit and advocacy organizations, government agencies, and lived experts to collaborate toward a more just world for all.

Learn More about CASPEH Watch the Webinar