What Makes Lived Experience Platforms Work?
Learning from What Already Works — In Gambling Harm and Beyond
The Power of Lived Experience: Why It Matters
Lived experience (LE) offers unique, expert insights that extend far beyond formal education or professional credentials. Those who have navigated gambling harm firsthand possess invaluable knowledge grounded in real-world challenges, emotional complexities, and personal recovery journeys.
GambleAware and other leading organisations place LE at the heart of harm reduction strategies, recognising people with direct experience as key stakeholders and co-creators rather than passive recipients of support. These platforms transform policy and practice by ensuring interventions are rooted in authentic needs and tested solutions.
Expert Insights
Real-world knowledge that complements professional expertise
Co-Creation
Active partnership in designing solutions and services
Authentic Impact
Interventions grounded in genuine challenges and tested approaches
Policy That Enables: Creating the Right Framework
Effective lived experience platforms require clear, supportive policies that prioritise inclusion, respect, and independence from industry influence. Without robust governance frameworks, platforms risk losing the trust and authenticity that makes them powerful.
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Independence and Governance
GambleAware's LE networks operate with robust governance ensuring no gambling industry interference, safeguarding trust and authenticity whilst maintaining transparency.
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Diverse Participation Routes
UK city-region gambling harm reduction efforts demonstrate that policy must provide diverse, stigma-free routes for LE involvement with genuine decision-making power.
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Tailored Approaches
Military-specific gambling harm policies highlight the critical need for occupational-specific frameworks addressing unique stigma and confidentiality concerns.
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Clear Safeguards
Policies must explicitly protect participants from retraumatisation, exploitation, and tokenistic consultation whilst ensuring meaningful influence.
Feeling Safe, Heard, and Valued: The Human Core
Psychological Safety First
Participants thrive when platforms foster genuine psychological safety, respect, and active listening. Creating environments where vulnerability is met with compassion rather than judgement forms the foundation of effective engagement.
LE contributors consistently report better engagement outcomes when their voices demonstrably influence real decisions, moving far beyond tokenistic consultation exercises that diminish trust and commitment.
Emotional Support
Managing the complex feelings that arise from sharing personal harm stories requires dedicated resources, trained facilitators, and accessible peer support networks.
Genuine Influence
The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation's co-authored research emphasises valuing diverse LE voices to build trust, empowerment, and authentic system change.
Respect and Recognition
Acknowledging the expertise and emotional labour of LE contributors through appropriate remuneration and formal recognition sustains dignity and commitment.
Sustaining Engagement Over Time: Beyond One-Off Input
Long-term involvement requires more than initial enthusiasm—it demands structured support, diverse opportunities, and recognition of varying capacities. One-off consultations rarely create lasting impact or build the trusted relationships necessary for meaningful change.
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Democratic Networks
GambleAware's Gambling Lived Experience Network (GLEN) and ALERTS group demonstrate how inclusive, member-led governance sustains participation.
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Skill Development
Opportunities for training, leadership roles, and remuneration encourage ongoing participation whilst reducing burnout and financial barriers.
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Flexible Engagement
Multiple participation modes—online forums, in-person meetings, short-term projects—accommodate varied personal circumstances and evolving capacities.
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Collective Approaches
Balancing individual stories with community cohesion enhances resilience, reduces isolation, and amplifies collective impact on policy.
Recognition Matters
- Fair remuneration for time and expertise
- Formal acknowledgement in publications
- Leadership pathways and roles
Support Structures
- Peer support networks
- Professional supervision
- Mental health resources
Diverse Opportunities
- Policy consultation
- Research co-production
- Training delivery
Barriers That Challenge Lived Experience Platforms
Understanding obstacles is essential for designing platforms that truly work. Despite best intentions, numerous barriers can undermine participation, trust, and the transformative potential of lived experience contributions.
Stigma and Fear
Stigma remains a formidable barrier, especially within high-risk groups like military personnel who fear career repercussions, professional sanctions, or social judgement when disclosing gambling harm.
Access and Awareness
Lack of clear signposting and transparent pathways to involvement leaves many potential contributors unaware of opportunities or hesitant to engage without clear guidance.
Emotional Toll
The risk of retraumatisation when repeatedly sharing difficult experiences requires careful management, emotional support structures, and participant autonomy over engagement depth.
Conflicts of Interest
Industry influence and commercial conflicts can fundamentally undermine trust if not transparently identified, managed, and prevented through robust governance frameworks.
Lessons from Gambling Harm: Real-World Examples
Examining successful implementations reveals practical strategies that work across contexts. These examples demonstrate how theory translates into meaningful, sustainable practice.
GambleAware's Networks
Structured networks with clear governance, transparent remuneration policies, and member-led decision-making build sustainable, trusted engagement over years.
City-Region Interventions
UK initiatives demonstrate the importance of diverse LE representation whilst skilfully navigating complex emotional landscapes and multi-stakeholder policy environments.
Military Research
Specialist studies reveal how occupational culture profoundly shapes help-seeking behaviours, underscoring the critical need for culturally tailored support mechanisms.
Co-Produced Research
Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation's qualitative studies highlight the transformative value of peer-led initiatives and genuinely collaborative research methodologies.
Beyond Gambling: Cross-Sector Insights
Lived experience platforms in mental health, criminal justice, and public health share fundamental success factors: psychological safety, authentic respect, genuine empowerment, and unequivocal policy backing. Learning across sectors enriches approaches and expands impact.
Mental Health
Peer support and service user involvement demonstrate how LE transforms care delivery and reduces institutional power imbalances.
Criminal Justice
The Howard League's work on crime and gambling harms illustrates how LE input directly improves support services and policy recommendations.
Digital and Youth
Youth-focused initiatives stress accessible, age-appropriate engagement methods and preventative education grounded in peer experiences.
Shared Success Factors
- Clear safeguarding protocols
- Transparent governance structures
- Meaningful remuneration policies
- Diverse participation pathways
- Ongoing emotional support
Cross-Sector Benefits
Collaboration between sectors enables sharing of best practices, reduces duplication of effort, and creates comprehensive support ecosystems that address intersecting harms more effectively.
Visualising Impact: From Stories to System Change
Before: Isolation
Individuals isolated by stigma, lacking support networks, facing systemic barriers to accessing help or influencing policy decisions.
Engagement: Connection
LE platforms create welcoming communities where experiences are validated, shared safely, and channelled towards collective action.
Influence: Change
Networks influence policy development, improve service design, and reduce harm through evidence-based, experience-informed interventions.
After: Transformation
Sustained system change driven by empowered communities, improved outcomes, and policies that genuinely reflect lived realities.
250+
GLEN Members
Active participants shaping UK gambling harm reduction policy
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Policy Changes
Direct influence on national gambling regulations and frameworks
89%
Trust Rating
Participants reporting feeling genuinely heard and valued
"Joining GLEN transformed my recovery journey from isolation to empowerment. My experience now shapes policy that protects others."
Building the Future of Lived Experience Platforms
Effective lived experience platforms are built on unwavering foundations of trust, respect, and genuine power-sharing, supported by clear, independent policies that prioritise participant wellbeing above institutional convenience.
Sustained engagement requires comprehensive emotional support, diverse participation routes that accommodate varying capacities, and authentic recognition of the complex, non-linear journeys of LE contributors who balance recovery with advocacy.
Trust and Respect
Psychological safety, transparent governance, and industry independence form non-negotiable foundations.
Power-Sharing
Moving beyond consultation to genuine co-production where LE contributors hold decision-making authority.
Sustained Support
Ongoing emotional resources, peer networks, and flexible engagement models prevent burnout and sustain commitment.
Learning from gambling harm reduction and beyond, we can design LE platforms that not only listen but lead transformative change. By centring the voices of those with lived experience, we create policies and practices that are more effective, compassionate, and genuinely responsive to community needs.
Join the movement: Empower lived experience to transform policy and practice for safer, more inclusive communities where every voice matters and every story drives meaningful change.