Voluntary
Women choose whether and how they participate.
Lived experience
Experience is knowledge. Voice is power. Participation creates change.
Lived experience has shaped AWEF from the beginning. We believe women who have personally navigated migration, refuge, asylum, inequality, discrimination, poverty, isolation and unfamiliar systems hold knowledge that is essential to creating services and decisions that work.
Voice is power
Women are not case studies.
They are experts in their own lives.
AWEF creates safe and respectful ways for women to use their knowledge to shape programmes, influence services, contribute to research and strengthen community leadership.
“Nothing about women without women.”AWEF’s lived-experience principle
Participation creates change
Participation with purpose.
We want women to be involved at the point where ideas are formed, priorities are set and decisions are made — not invited only after decisions have already been taken.
Eight ways to take part
- Listening sessions and lived-experience forums
- Programme co-design and service feedback
- Community consultations and advisory groups
- Participatory research and community evidence
- Contributed stories and consented case studies
- Mentoring, peer leadership and volunteering
- Engagement with public services and decision-makers
- Campaigns, policy discussions and community representation
Our principles for lived-experience participation
Safe, meaningful and led by women.
Dignified
Participation must respect privacy, culture, identity and personal boundaries.
Safe
Safeguarding, confidentiality and wellbeing are considered throughout.
Informed
Women understand how their information or contribution may be used.
Supported
Participation should not place unnecessary emotional, practical or financial burdens on women.
Meaningful
Women’s contributions should influence learning, design or decision-making wherever possible.
Acknowledged
Women’s time, expertise and leadership should be recognised appropriately.
From story to evidence
One story matters. Patterns matter too.
A single experience can highlight an urgent need. Similar experiences across different women may reveal a recurring barrier. AWEF seeks to learn from those patterns responsibly, without reducing women to statistics or exposing personal information unnecessarily.
- Experience
- Knowledge
- Voice
- Evidence
- Influence
- Change
Building lived-experience leadership
From receiving support to helping lead change.
AWEF wants women not only to participate in projects, but to grow as:
- Leaders
- Advocates
- Researchers
- Mentors
- Volunteers
- Speakers
- Community representatives
Our long-term aim is to strengthen pathways from receiving support to shaping support — and from being heard to helping lead change.
Take part
Your experience can help create change.
Choose how you would like to take part, from a listening session to mentoring, research or community leadership.
AWEF is not a regulated legal-advice provider. AWEF is not an emergency service: in an emergency call 999, and press 55 if you cannot speak.