This project lays the foundations for a novel evaluation framework that aims to meaningfully capture the transformational power of peer support work.
What is the value of people supporting people, and how can that be communicated to others? This question sits at the heart of a UTS research project to create a new evaluation framework that aims to capture the transformative power of peer support work.
Led by UTS Associate Professor Jo River and independent peer support work consultant Emma Paino, the framework will speak to and subvert traditional systems of evaluation — that is, it will enable peer support work to be evaluated in ways that are recognisable to service providers and policymakers while also presenting new methodologies that sit beyond traditional metrics.
Currently, peer work tends to get evaluated on particular metrics that are the concerns of the system. – Associate Professor Jo River
In fact, what peer work is doing and potentially achieving is something much more nuanced and interesting and potentially disruptive to that system.
Our goal is to create a framework which says, ‘Hey, you know, there are other ways of measuring things’.
Leveraging the power of human connection
Peer support work is a type of care based on the concept of lived experience. Peer support workers openly and purposefully bring to their work the knowledge and wisdom gained through lived experience of adversity to establish connection with others and support them in times of crisis or challenge.
This type of work offers help-seekers the opportunity to connect with others who understand what they’re going through. It’s already in use among veterans and first responder communities, as well as in the mental health sector, but it offers value to just about anyone facing any form of life adversity.
Peer work is really about being in community with people. – Emma Paino.
It’s rhythmic, relational, respectful and leads to really joyful interactions that bring a sense of consistency and structure to people in distress.
When we take all the formal structures away, people naturally gravitate towards people who’ve been through similar experiences. There’s a kind of solidarity and affinity and an understanding that underpins it.
Bringing community wisdom to the fore
Supported by funding from a Social Impact Grant, Associate Professor River, Ms Paino and their collaborators invited ten peer work leaders from health and community settings to contribute to this project through in-person collaborations.
Participants from diverse social and cultural backgrounds who held paid and unpaid peer work roles attended a series of training sessions designed to lay the foundations of a peer work evaluation framework.
These sessions comprised two workshops designed to facilitate conversations about the peer support role and opportunities to create an evaluation model that captures the value of the peer work role. These sessions were informed by the work of UTS Social Justice Professional Fellow Dr Gianni Zappalà and based on an existing model called the Meaningful Evaluation Framework.
Participants also took part in a Reflective Development Session to consider the possibilities of adapting the Meaningful Evaluation Framework to align with peer support work principles and practices.
This reflective session used a process known as a deliberative dialogue, which is a group process that integrates evidence, lived expertise and contextual knowledge to inform and respond to important issues or challenges in health and other sectors.
Discussions touched on everything from capturing the collective nature of peer work to mapping how peer work responds to community needs. The findings from these sessions were captured in a report that participants have co-authored.
It was an introductory space in which to say, ‘Hey peer workers, this exists, what do we think about it? – Emma Paino
The next step would be to create something more transformative that peer workers can really play with and sink their teeth into and adapt to meet the community’s needs.
Towards better evaluation of relational care
This work offers exciting potential for the community leaders who attended the workshop sessions, the global peer work profession and the people they support.
The next step will be to translate those findings into the development of the framework itself — an act that Associate Professor River believes could be quietly revolutionary for peer work practice.
“I see peer support as the future of health services,” they say.
Peer workers have this incredible quality of going into systems and transforming them in unexpected ways. And I think this is an opportunity to transform the way systems think about their own evaluation.
The problem
Peer support workers use the knowledge and wisdom gained through lived experience of adversity to support others. This type of care work is increasingly recognised as a vital aspect of supporting people experiencing life challenges. Novel evaluation approaches are required to increase the recognition and inclusion of peer workers in existing care and support systems.
The response
The research team invited ten peer work leaders from diverse backgrounds to participate in workshops and reflective development sessions to extend and develop a peer-specific meaningful evaluation framework. Discussions drew on the expertise of the peer work participants to capture and communicate the nuances of peer work in ways that align with peer support work principles and practices.
What helped accomplish this?
Strong relationships between the UTS research team, the UTS Centre for Social Justice, individual peer work leaders, and health and consumer networks and organisations within NSW have been crucial to the project’s success.
What has changed as a result?
This project lays the foundations for a peer-specific meaningful evaluation toolkit and working model that could lead to better means of evaluating and articulating the power of peer work. It has also fostered stronger relationships between the UTS research team and the peer work leaders whose lived and professional experience will be vital to the future of this research.
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