Peer support organisations are founded on the desire to build the individual capacity of their peer members via their peer programs. Such programs are created on clear principles based on the rights of each person living with disability across Australia. Peer support programs were reviewed, and the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) report (May 2018) described good practice peer support as: flexible, user-led, focused on capacity building, semi-structured and community facilitated and linked. Given these foundations and good practice principles, peer support organisations need to consider what a successful peer support program means to them. Where is it that your peer programs want to be? Without a destination, we don’t know where we are heading.
In understanding the role of evidence gathering, the starting point is the same for each peer organisation. What is the purpose of running their unique peer support program? Once this is determined, the BSC will enable peer organisations to gather evidence about where they are relative to where they want to be based on their own unique purpose and concept of success. The BSC asks the peer organisation to consider how it is currently performing (Funders, Members), how it may improve its processes, motivate and educate employees, and enhance systems (Build) as well as its ability to learn and improve now and into the future (Learning).
We now move into Module 4 where we will consider what evidence we need to gather in order to understand where we are currently, and how far we have to our destination.
