Many homeless service and advocacy organizations, governments, and funders are committed to empowering leaders with lived experience of homelessness. But the roadmap for realizing this goal is not always clear. How and where to begin? What advice do clients have for organizations improving their commitment to this work? How can your organization move beyond checking the box and/or tokenizing community leaders? How can we meaningfully incorporate client leadership across all facets of an organization? What challenges come with building trauma-informed programs that maintain client choice and require extra resources? How can client leadership thrive in a hybrid or virtual work environment? How are can organizations understand and commit to this work in the context of their racial equity priorities? What are lessons learned from both organizations and individuals engaged in these partnerships? This session will feature an advocate with lived experience of homelessness, advocacy staff from a homeless services organization, and a DEI practitioner to discuss all these questions and more.
Speakers: Lara Pukatch: Director of Advocacy, Miriam’s Kitchen; Tony Burns
Session Materials:Â
