The Lived Experience Honorarium
Removing Barriers
Some community members face barriers that make participation in community events, engagements, and volunteer opportunities difficult. They can be held back by experiences of poverty, homelessness, isolation and marginalization. United Way Halifax is committed to hearing and amplifying the voices of those who are often left out of community impact work. We work collaboratively with the people who are closest to our funded agencies, allowing them to meaningfully shape the work we do. From advising us on community building strategies to shaping our funding decisions, people with lived experience often provide us with their knowledge and wisdom.
We know that we can’t work to alleviate poverty and homelessness without understanding the perspectives of people who are most impacted by those issues. We benefit greatly from working with people with lived experience, and it’s only fair to compensate them for their contributions. For many years, organizations like United Way have benefited from the unpaid work of lived experience consultants. However, we are changing that inequitable relationship in our organization through our lived experience honorarium policy.
The Lived Experience Honorarium
To ensure that community members are empowered to participate in our engagements, we offer a Lived Experience Honorarium. It helps cover expenses like transportation, childcare, and other necessary supports to enable their participation.
As poverty solutions experts and an impact organization that works to alleviate homelessness, we understand the challenges of living on a low income. That’s why the amount of our honorarium is based on a living wage. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ 2021 report on Living Wages in Nova Scotia identifies the living wage in Halifax as $22.05. The honorarium is informed by that report and represents the wage residents of Halifax need to live comfortably and meet their needs.
Who is eligible?
Lived experience consultants can receive the honorarium when providing their personal lived experience and knowledge through participation in:
- Funding panels
- Storytelling/guest speaking
- Advisory groups
- Project committees
- Events in which the individual is participating in a volunteer/consultant capacity
For the purposes of this policy, we identify the following groups as eligible for the honorarium:
- Indigenous peoples
- Racialized people
- 2SLGBTQIA+ people
- People with disabilities
- Newcomers to Canada
- People experiencing homelessness
- People living with mental health and addictions
What is covered?
The honorarium covers a range of expenses that participants may incur when offering their voice to a United Way engagement. These can include:
- Honorarium for the hours spent at the engagement
- Child/eldercare and transportation if necessary
- Interpretation
- Food or snacks when an engagement runs through a mealtime
Nothing about us, without us
Funding and shaping community programming without consulting the people who will access it is like tailoring a suit for someone without taking their measurements. Unfortunately, supports are often shaped by people who won’t need to access them and haven’t fully consulted the people who will. We’re firm believers in “nothing about us, without us”, and we think change should come from the bottom-up.
We’ve seen some great outcomes from taking this stance. One of our lived experience consultants, Sam, has had the opportunity to share her experience receiving support from our funded agencies first-hand, at events with major donors and stakeholders. Her voice resonates deeply with current and prospective donors, and she serves as an example of the positive outcomes created by offering the honorarium.
The lived experience honorarium gives me a voice and makes me feel like my perspective is valued. I need to keep making a living and have someone take care of my daughters while I help build a stronger community for them to grow up in. United Way Halifax paves the way for that.
We will continue our commitment to compensate people with lived experience, and we hope to reinforce that spirit throughout the charitable sector. Although not every organization is able to offer an honorarium based on a living wage, we hope to inspire those who can to develop their own policies. We can build stronger communities together when equity is at the forefront of our collaborations.
Interested in learning more about our Lived Experience Honorarium? Please get in touch, we’re happy to share details!
