Sharing and Building power: authentic voices
The topic under discussion was:
Authentic voices: looking in more depth at how to create inclusive platforms and encourage unheard voices.
Jude Habib from Sound Delivery, which has a spokesperson network of people with lived experience, explained how they mentor people with lived experience and cultivate journalists in order to create opportunities. She introduced two people in their network who spoke about their experiences, Brenda Birungi, the Creative Director of Poets Unchained, who had founded National Prison Radio while she was in prison, and Amanda Hailes, who is part of a Hull Based colllective called Untold Story which has written a book by the same name that tells the story of women working in prostitution in Hull, using their own words and images.
They both stressed the importance of Sound Delivery’s network and support in helping them to speak to a wider audience. ‘It was an eye-opener to find other people like me and not to be embarrassed', Brenda said, adding ‘We don’t shut up anymore because we realise there are so many people in that position. I’m now proud of where I’ve come from’.
‘Our voices need to be heard before anything can change’, said Amanda, explaining that experiences can get trapped in ‘layer after layer of truama’ caused by multiple disadvantage and by speaking up people like her were trying to get others to understand. With Sound Delivery’s help, she had learnt to ‘stand proud’. She had learnt that you need to ‘keep going, keep going, because you are the expert - an expert in surviving’.
Brenda emphasised that the support provided by bodies like Sound Delivery needed to be from ‘beginning to end’, which was what Jude Habib and Sound Delivery do. Brenda said that through the network she was not just being given platforms herself but was ‘passing the mike to the person behind me.’
The critical thing when working with charities, Amanda stressed, was for people with lived experience to be treated as ‘part of the team’ and be really incorporated into their work, rather than just being seen a tick box exercise and paying lip service. She had experienced both approaches and there were a world apart. Brenda said it was very important to go to formal places the Houses of Parliament and Broadcasting House and speak in person. They needed not just to have the opportunity to tell their stories, but direct access to the people who have power to make the changes.
Here are some of the other points made in discussion in the group:
We need to build greater awareness of the power of authentic voices and make much greater use of that power.
The purpose of enabling authentic voices to access platforms and be heard is ultimately to share power and enable them to become leaders, not you.
We must genuinely empower authentic voices, but people in bodies working with people with lived experience can also feel protective and deeply responsible and this may be an inhibiting force. Safeguarding can sometimes turn into gatekeeping. It’s important to work through this and ensure that people have the training and support they require, to make decisions with the people themselves rather than taking them for them, and make sure that everyone is comfortable with the degree of risk sometimes involved. One person recalled a person with lived experience being told: ‘We’ll tell your story for you at our booklaunch’. It was probably intended to be protective but it was not right.
This is emotional work in which human support is critical. Many are new to this and would benefit from more sharing of learning. There are a lot of practical things to consider - for example the use of real names or not.
People with lived experience should be paid properly, as consultants.
Sue Tibballs from the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, who is the ‘thought leader’ for the Sharing and Building Power cell, reflected that empowering authentic voices was a really important and radical step which was ‘shaking the foundations of how charity works’, requiring charities ‘to get out of the way’ and build genuine solidarity with people with lived experience. Caroline Slocock, co-convenor of a Better Way, concluded by saying that the group had heard not just about the power of authentic voices but also about the power of their leadership role and their potential to be role models to others.