Participant involvement and empowerment
- Empowering the voice of participants
At Lumena, we value our beneficiaries' own experiences before, during and after their time in the project.
The participant perspective is included in all stages where the own story is central.
The project's position is that all participants have expertise that is invaluable to the projects but also to society at large.
Participatory engagement - an invaluable expertise
The project has set up a 'development group' focussing on participant involvement and empowerment, made up of project staff with participants also contributing their expertise.
Purpose of the programme
- Empowering our participants. Through knowledge and the right to understand and assimilate information, participants are given the right to influence their own lives.
- Visualising our participants' expertise, learning from it and exchanging experiences.
The Participatory Empowerment Development Group works to empower participants to influence decisions and actions within Lumena.
The aim is to create participation and inclusion, so that participants can influence their own development and gain tools for a more independent life.
The objective
The aim is for participants not only to benefit from support, but also to have a say in how it is organised. By including participants' experiences and views, we empower them and develop the organisation.
Some initiatives that have been developed are:
- Invitation of participants to local and regional steering groups
- Workshops and brainstorming sessions to highlight participants' perspectives
- Forums such as podcasts, focus groups and opinion mailboxes
- Remuneration of participants in the Steering Forum for a level playing field
Interviews
We offer all participants the opportunity to be interviewed and to talk freely about their life before, during and after the project. You can also write your own story and have it published.
Here too, we value the expertise and complement, for example, research and the participant surveys carried out in the project.
Participants' stories are published on the website and in social media, where they are asked about the path to work and study, but also the path to a meaningful everyday life and self-sufficiency.
The plan going forward is to compile the stories into a book that will be disseminated to policy makers and stakeholders.
Watch the film on Participatory Democratic Meetings with Lumena Conecto
In the spring of 2024, the project management and the organisations involved attended a training course on participatory meeting methods.
Participatory approaches aims to include and engage participants in the development work and thus also increase their influence in how support measures are designed. Participant influence is an important part of Lumena Conecto's work to support people to work or study.
Raise your voice!
- Give participants an opportunity to raise their voices in a forum where they reach the right people.
- Create a dialogue where decision-makers gain new perspectives that can make their work more accurate.
- Put our model for participant inclusion into practice.
- Discuss both what we can influence here and now and how we can work together to drive change when systems fail.
What do you get?
- New insights and stories directly from participants that touch and engage.
- Concrete ideas on how participatory perspectives can strengthen and develop your work.
- A unique opportunity for co-creation between participants and decision-makers to build solutions together.
Participant interviews
- Lumena - Filmer med och av deltagare
Stories from the real world
Contact for participatory approaches
Ms Ingrid Sörman - process manager Lumena
E-mail: ingrid.sorman@sfris.se
Johanna Thagemark process manager Lumena
E-mail: johanna.thagemark@huddinge.se
Ambassadors
One way of utilising our participants' knowledge is to recruit what we call ambassadors in the project. This means that they are involved and represent the participant perspective and influence various activities such as results dialogues and meetings with the regional steering group.
We believe that, based on their own experiences, they support the project in what we can improve, what works and how authorities, municipalities and health care can improve coordinated support, among other things. This in turn can lead to quality assurance and how to make changes to working practices and governance chains.
The participant receives fee for their work, equivalent to the fees paid to members of the Management Board.
Contact for ambassadors and interviews
Martina Kopra - process support Lumena
E-mail: martina.kopra@haninge.se
Telephone: 0704-16 00 37
I can be reached on Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 09.00 and 11.00
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