How Lived Experience Can Complement Recruitment

Author: Jo Cutts, Recovery Community Coordinator, Expert Citizens

My name is Jo Cutts. I’ve been a member of Expert Citizens since 2014 after seeing a poster advertising for volunteers in the women’s refuge for domestic abuse survivors I was in at the time. I was at a point of my recovery that I felt like I wanted to give back and use my lived experience to help others and to make a difference. During that time I have been sitting on interview panels for various local and national organisations as the voice of lived experience.

In 2018, I gained employment with Expert Citizens as a project assistant for the Housing First project, where Expert Citizens provided the lived experience lead, peer mentors and evaluated the service. I am now part of the Changing Futures programme. I was asked to be part of the recruitment because of having experience of doing this in the past. I will be honest I was a bit sceptical at first as in the past I have felt I was a bit of a tick box and my opinion and voice weren’t heard in the final decision, and the questions and job application form short listing I wasn’t able to be part of, so, basically, I was just sat there asking questions.

However, my first meeting with two senior directors of Adult Social Care to go through application forms and short listing for the strategic manager’s role was completely different, I felt like my opinion was not only heard but valued. And it didn’t stop there, I was asked to contribute to what questions we should ask, and I was asked to come up with the theme for the presentation, I left this initial meeting feeling part of the team, empowered and proud. This approach continued in all the interviews I have been part of for Changing Futures, and for other departments within Adult Social Care. This way of working having people with lived experience at the very heart of changing futures has made me extremely excited for my new role as Women’s Recovery Community co-ordinator.