Whether or not your peer network is a success will have a lot to do with knowing where you want to be. Ask yourself, what specifically is the key outcome my peer network is trying to achieve? Where exactly do I want it to be?
The Vision of a peer organisation is where you want to be in the future.
For example, VALID ‘is committed to the vision of an Australian nation in which people with a disability are empowered to exercise their rights – as human beings and as citizens – in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’. The Vision of Families4Families peer support network is ‘by 2020 anyone impacted by acquired brain injury and their families will live their best lives supported by our nationally recognised, leading-edge peer support programs’. The Vision is a stated view of where the organisation hopes to be in the future.
The Mission of a peer organisation is how you want to get there.
Down Syndrome NSW works with and represents ‘people with Down syndrome to help them achieve their full potential in all life stages’. In the Families4Families peer support network, the Mission is to ‘assist people with acquired brain injury and their families to build resilience and live a good life’. This is due to the acquired nature of brain injury, and the need for its members to ‘bounce back’ from their change in abilities and learn to embrace new life opportunities and options. VALID ‘strives to realise its vision through a range of strategies that work to empower people with disabilities to become the leaders of their own lives’. As you can see, peer support missions are varied. Yet all are founded on a shared belief in the rights of people living with disability for full inclusion and maximum life options to enable their members to direct and star in their own lives. The Mission tells us how the peer organisation is going to arrive at their Vision, their desired destination.
The peer support program itself, delivered by the peer organisation, will usually be operating within this same Vision. It will be one of the programs offered by the organisation to achieve their Mission. In some peer organisations, it may be the only or primary program offered. In other peer organisations, peer support programs may be just a small part of their overall offerings to their disability community.
For example, in addition to VALID’s individual capacity building peer programs they offer group and community level programs to further their mission for inclusion, accessibility and awareness.
Questions to consider when deciding on your Mission:
- Why are we doing this?
- What do we want to do well?
- What is it that our peer support group members really want?
- What is it that we think is most important?
Taking the time to ask yourself these questions will give you clarity around where you want to be – your Vision – and how you’ll get there – the Mission.
