The Peer Education Support Program PESP

1
The Peer Education Support Program (PESP)?

• Building better linkages across and between
  services through consumer participation.
• The Peer Education Support Program
• OUR JOURNEY

Annie Paliwal (HAS/PESP), Cassandra Bawden and
Tim Stapleton (PESP) 2008
2
Context

• The Victorian Homelessness Strategy (VHS)?
• The Homelessness Assistance Service Standards
  (HASS)?
• Section 1 Upholding and Promoting Rights
• Standard 1.1 Rights based approach
• Standard 1.2 Consumer Participation
• HASS were developed during 2003-2004 with sector
  and consumer input. They were revised in 2006 and
  now consist of five practice sections, covering
  consumer rights, access, service delivery and
  case management, service delivery to specific
  groups and working with the community.Homelessne
  ss funded services as above are required to
  become accredited against these standards by the
  end of December 2009

3
Organisational Context

• The Council to Homeless Persons (CHP)?
• The Homelessness Advocacy Service (HAS)?
• Individual advocacy
• effective complaint management
• training, education
• consumer participation through the Peer
  Education Support Program (PESP)?

4

• PESP reflects a cultural shift in the
  homelessness service system towards the
  meaningful involvement of people who have or are,
  experiencing homelessness. Beyond participation
  by consumers, now confirmed as best practice in
  service delivery, lies the partnership model
  embodied at the Homelessness Advocacy Service
  where people who are affected by homelessness
  (PESP) have the opportunity to affect change
  through collaboration, education, partnerships
  and linkages to create real improvements in
  service delivery and community perceptions.

5

• Being a member of the PESP team has improved the
  lives of my children and me immeasurably.
  Cassandra
• The chance to have a real voice that can
  enhance the cause of the homeless cannot be
  underestimated. Tim
• The training and opportunities I have had
  through PESP has helped increase my confidence,
  self esteem and self respect and have opened my
  eyes to what I can achieve. Lauren
• I have a satisfaction due to a feeling of
  giving something back to the community. Kathy

6

• From an agency perspective, the
  ..HAS/PESP collaboration has been highly
  successful. The project has invaluably benefited
  from the PESP teams level of enthusiasm and
  willingness to engage constructively and
  professionally. Survey results confirm client
  satisfaction in having an independent peer based
  consultation engendering a sense of trust and
  impartiality.

7
CHP/HAS/PESP partnerships

• Sacred Heart Mission Client Reference Group
• Equal Service Guidelines
• Anti discrimination guidelines on the basis of
  homelessness
• Myths and Memories DVD
• Business DVD
• Equal Service stickers
• Joint project between the Department of Justice,
  the Council to Homeless Persons, the Public
  Interest
• Law Clearing House and the Law Institute of
  Victoria

8
Myths and Memories

• True stories told by people who have
• experienced homelessness aimed to
• debunk negative community stereotypes of
  homeless people
• share pathways out of homeless
• explore the complexities of the experience of
  homelessness
• promote fairness, compassion and social inclusion

9
Tim, Cass and Tanya Plibersek, MPMinister for
Housing Minister for the Status of Women at the
Homelessness Sector Green Paper consultation,
Sydney 2008
10
CHP/HAS/PESP partnerships

• Consumer Charter of Rights
• and Responsibilities
• Sacred Heart Mission
• Program Review
• HomeGround Consumer
• Participation Kit
• City of Melbourne
• Homelessness Research

11
The future of social housing in Australia?
12
Resources Contact details

• Website www.chp.org.au
• Email annie_at_chp.org.au
• Phone [phone]
• Freecall 1800 066 256