Voices that lead: how Lived Experience is shaping Routes' future

Across 2024, we embarked on an exciting new journey - creating a Lived Experience Leadership Group! We’ve always been passionate about making sure the people we work with are at the heart of what we do. Over the years, we’ve tried all sorts of methods: inviting people to join job interview panels, co-designing projects, running focus groups, and recruiting team members and board members with lived experience. Whilst these efforts have been fantastic (50% of our team currently have lived experience), we also acknowledged something was missing; we lacked consistent, senior-level leadership from experts by experience. So, we decided to try something new to fix that.

About the pilot

One hurdle we’ve faced in the past when trying to include more lived experience in our governance, is that becoming a board member can feel daunting. The legal responsibilities can be a big turn-off, and for asylum seekers, being a registered director of a Community Interest Company isn’t even an option. We designed this group to be a space where six brilliant alumnae from our mentoring programme can share their expertise without the weight of legal responsibilities. They sit alongside our board and team to offer strategic insights, foster co-production, and provide consultancy-like advice that keeps us moving forward.

One common complaint about groups like this is that advice can sometimes go nowhere, leaving members feeling like their voices aren’t valued. We are determined not to let that happen and so have built in two-way accountability. Every piece of advice from the group must be addressed in the next meeting. This keeps the conversation flowing and ensures members know exactly how their input is shaping the organisation—and they’re empowered to push back if they don’t think we’re doing enough.

We’re also putting our money where our mouth is—literally. Group members are paid for their time, and those who are asylum seekers receive vouchers. We think this is important to show how much we value their insights.

This whole initiative has been made possible thanks to Refugee Action’s EBE Project Planning course, which gave us both the tools and a small grant to kickstart the group. We’re so grateful for the work they’re doing around shifting power in the sector, you can read more about that here. 

What We’ve Achieved So Far

It was great to see such a positive response from our community when we announced the group. We received 28 applications, interviewed 11 fantastic candidates, and ended up with six wonderful individuals. For this first round, we recruited specifically from our programme alumnae, but we’re excited to open it up to others in the future.

So far, we’ve had three meetings: one onboarding session and two group meetings. The group is currently chaired by Yeri (who sits on the Routes board) alongside a rotating co-chair from the group itself. Our hope is that one of the members will step into the chair role in the future, when they feel confident to do so. The group also created their own “group agreement” to hold each other accountable.

After the first meeting, Yeri checked in with everyone individually about how the group was working for them, and we’ve already learned so much. Embedding lived experience leadership into governance structures definitely takes a lot of time and effort to do well, but it’s already proving to be worth it. These early days have been full of energy, insights, and the kind of collaboration that makes us excited for what’s next.

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead, we’re feeling really enthusiastic about the potential that this group has to become more embedded into Routes’ leadership and a more integrated part of our governance. We have two more meetings scheduled, and then a reflection session where the group will help us to define their role moving forwards. 

Creating meaningful opportunities for lived experience experts to lead takes time, effort, and commitment—and we’re here for it. We can’t wait to see how this group evolves and continues to shape Routes’ future. Stay tuned for updates — we hope that in sharing our learning here we can support other organisations to try similar projects and ultimately become a sector that is learning from, listening to, and led by those with lived experience.

This project is part of our wider leadership and governance strategy aiming to ensure lived experience is at the heart of Routes in a sustainable and supported way that gives everyone the chance to thrive in their roles.