14 GROUNDCOVER NEWS INSP Handle with care: the risks involved with lived experience While the intentions behind this DAVID PENTLAND INSP Changing the Narrative Academy The following article is part of INSP’s Changing the Narrative series. It has been written as the result of the new journalism training academy, established in 2025 by INSP to provide people with direct experience of homelessness and poverty the opportunity to learn about journalism and the media, and to enhance their storytelling and written abilities. The training academy has two ambitions: to challenge media and public misconceptions about homelessness; and to tackle the lack of representation and diversity in newsrooms. The training academy was last held in September 2025 in INSP’s hometown of Glasgow, Scotland. Real life stories are flavor of the month. In fact, in recent times, the integration of “lived experience” into homelessness services has gained considerable traction, lauded for its potential to offer authentic insights and empower people with a homelessness story. movement are undeniably noble, a critical examination reveals a complex array of dangers and ethical dilemmas that, if unaddressed, can undermine the very services that they aim to improve. There are significant risks associated with an uncritical embrace of lived experience, including the potential for tokenism, the burden of emotional labor, the challenge of maintaining professional boundaries, the risk of generalizing individual narratives, and the imperative to balance lived experience with professional expertise. The people most at risk in this space are the people whose developmental years were overshadowed by trauma and adversity. They are often marched out onto the frontline, with little training or education and expected to fulfil a role in a space that was once reserved for degree-educated multidisciplinary workers. The near certainty of vicarious trauma and the impact on people (who only a few short years ago were the client) is massive. As they connect with other people’s trauma on multiple levels, the science says that they are releasing toxins into their own bodies that will dramatically shorten their lifespan. Holiday support needed Hello Groundcover readers. It is quickly reaching the holiday season and I desperately need help with gifts for my children. It's so amazing watching them grow and learn and they really deserve to have a great Christmas. The holidays are just a really hard time for me because I don't have extra money to get them special things. My main focus every month is just keeping a roof over their TABITHA ALMOND Groundcover vendor No. 360 head and utilities paid for. I just recently had to cut off our internet because we just don't have the extra money for it. I am currently in the process of trying to get SSI so hopefully I won't need the extra help next year for Christmas. But I greatly appreciate you reading this and if you're able to help here are a few different ways you can help out: Visa or Amazon gift cards sent to my email: tabbysean99@gmail.com Venmo account: @groundcovernews — My badge number is 360 just put “Merry Christmas #360” Cash App: $Streetpapers If none of those ways work for you, you can send me an email at tabbysean99@gmail.com and put Merry Christmas in the subject line please. Thank you everyone, have a great holiday season. Maintaining professional boundaries presents another significant challenge. People with lived experience, particularly in peer support or outreach roles, may find it difficult to navigate the complexities of professional relationships while simultaneously drawing on deeply personal narratives. The inherent vulnerability in sharing one’s own story can make it challenging to establish and maintain a professional distance, potentially leading to over-identification with service users, blurred lines in advice-giving, or an inability to enforce necessary rules and regulations. While empathy is crucial in homelessness services, shared experience without professional frameworks can lead to a lack of objectivity, making it difficult to make impartial decisions or set appropriate boundaries for service users, which could ultimately hinder their progress towards stability. The danger of focussing on individual narratives is a pervasive risk. While personal stories offer invaluable qualitative insights, they are by their very nature subjective and specific to an individual’s unique circumstances. The lived experience of one person, however compelling, cannot be MCSP from page 10 members of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti homeless community who come to Mercy House for a community breakfast. Other students could be seen washing dishes, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping hallways, cooking pancakes and eggs, and also putting together to-go plates which could be delivered to homeless shelters and poor people’s homes. It is noteworthy that the MCSP student volunteers perform their assignments gladly, with smiles on their faces, and a sense of gratitude for and solidarity with the homeless community of Mercy House. They also work in poor communities in Detroit. MCSP student Jasmeher Singh commented, "Through volunteering at Mercy House, students are able to learn more about the different reasons why people experience homelessness and the particular role Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan has in this issue. It's essential for students within MCSP to learn the idea of dignity and to carry it out in the world. Not having judgements based on what people's appearances are can be easy to say but hard to do for many." Any reasonable observer who sees the students at work would conclude that they are making a positive impact. They are humble in the tradition of such volunteers as the Crown Prince of UK (Prince William) who was caught by the British Press cleaning and doing menial job assignments as a student NOVEMBER 14, 2025 universally applied to the diverse and multifaceted homeless population. Factors such as gender, ethnicity, mental health status, addiction and the specific circumstances leading to homelessness create vastly different journeys and needs. Over-emphasising individual narratives without a broader understanding of sociological, economic and systemic factors can lead to misinformed policy decisions and service designs that fail to address the root causes of homelessness for a wider demographic. It risks creating a “one size fits all” approach based on anecdotal evidence rather than robust research and data. We must move beyond symbolic gestures, provide robust support systems, establish clear professional frameworks, embrace a nuanced understanding of diverse experiences, and, critically, ensure that lived experience works in concert with, rather than in place of, vital professional expertise. Only then can the invaluable contributions of people with lived experience genuinely enhance and transform homelessness services for the better. Courtesy of INSP.ngo volunteer in a remote part of Chile. Since 2016, this writer has had several conversations with the MCSP students and their program coordinator, William Alt. Groundcover has also worked with English Professor John Buckley and his students from English 126 Community-Engaged Writing. They partner with Groundcover News to think seriously about and engage with people experiencing homelessness. In our interactions with the students, their faculty and their coordinator, it is fair to conclude that there is a sense of mutual academic benefit and community engagement/service learning for both sides. Dr. Martin Luther King was 17 years old in 1947 when he wrote an article in his Moorhouse College Newspaper. The title was, “The Function of Education.” Related to the purpose of MCSP, Dr. King said that “the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically.” He also said that the goal of a true education is intelligence plus character, not just intellectual ability, as he cautioned, “efficiency without morals can be dangerous …” King continued, “We must remember that intelligence is not enough … The complete education gives one not only power of concentration but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.” The University of Michigan's MCSP is fulfilling Dr. King’s vision of a true education.
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