Fighting poverty with an experience worker pays off

To provide tools for this and to put the use of expertise by experience in South Limburg more firmly on the Map , the Welzijnsgroep Parkstad Limburg, the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Burgerkracht Limburg, Sterk uit Armoede and Stadsregio Parkstad Limburg joined forces. They invited about 50 people from all over South Limburg, a mix of administrators, (potential) experience workers, strategists and policy staff from social organizations and governments, to enter into a conversation about the power of experience work. After an enthusiastic opening speech by aldermen Bühler (municipality of Sittard-Geleen) and Roland (municipality of Kerkrade), the participants experienced the power of experience work themselves through the experience story of Alex Schepel of Sterk uit Armoede. "Experience workers bring not only knowledge, but also trust and credibility," said Alderman Roland.

Experience workers close gaps and build bridges

The technical description of an experience worker is that this is (is) a professional who uses his or her personal and collective experiences, with poverty and social exclusion, to support others facing similar challenges. This experience is combined with professional knowledge and skills to build a bridge between clients (residents) and social workers. A worker by experience offers empathy, recognition and practical support from a unique perspective and takes this living environment into policy, for example. Together with organization and resident, solutions are sought, mutual understanding and shared accountability. Alex himself expressed his motivation to become a worker by experience much more concisely: "Doing something good for the future of others with all the shit from my own past!"

Policies are often made by higher educated people who lack the "practical experience" to get the right direction. Through the (equal) commitment of the workers by experience, people talk with them instead of about them. The focus is on what someone needs in order to be able to get out of this situation or to prevent it from happening again on the basis of trust and the human dimension. 

"Experience workers know better than anyone else the impact of laws and regulations and the way they are implemented on the target group," says Alderman Bühler. Policy officer Anouk Harle of the Municipality of Sittard-Geleen adds, "They are therefore a very important and valuable resource together with the knowledge and experience of our professionals. This is precisely what our 'Samen kundig' pilot project is all about. Through the deployment and power of the experience worker, we are increasingly connecting with the living environment of residents who are dealing with poverty, (money) worries and debts. The greatest added value of the deployment of experience knowledge and expertise is to serve as a bridge between the system world of organizations and the living world of residents."

Participants agreed that experiential expertise deserves a full place in organizations. Simply collecting knowledge of experience (sharing stories) is insufficient. Instead, the expertise should be embedded in the way of working and policy making. Ankie Pihler, director of the Welzijnsgroep Parkstad Limburg, puts it as follows: "You actually carry Health deployment of experience expertise, by including it in shaping services alongside professional knowledge and expertise. Experience experts broaden the view of policy staff by often making underlying problems or deeper causes transparent."

Continued

This group is convinced that by joining forces we can put experience work in South Limburg even better on the Map , which is indispensable for an effective policy and approach to poverty and social exclusion. A follow-up meeting for the experience workers, and subsequently for the broader group, will be organized to this end.