It is important to consider the intended lifespan of your group. If it is a short-term group for a particular purpose, you will be able to arrange and spend your resources in a burst. If it has a long-term purpose, then you may need to be careful in how you manage resources over a longer period – particularly the resource of yourself and your supporters.
How your Value Proposition can determine your group’s lifespan
Your value proposition will be valuable in considering the lifespan – if it is a campaign for example, will the campaign be time limited or will it be an ongoing campaign? But if it is about building capacity for self-direction, it may continue longer.
- Think about who the network is for?
- Will peers get what they need quickly?
- Will the people in the network, particularly the leaders, have the stamina for, and interest in, a long-term group?
- What will be the impact if the group can only run for a short time?
What should the network’s lifespan be?
Once you have answers to the questions above, you will have a good idea of the appropriate lifespan of the network. However, it is important that you don’t make this decision on your own.
Ask the people who are part of or interested in being part of the network – what do they want and anticipate for the lifespan of the group? This could be before or at the first meeting. It could even form part of the group agreements that you will work together to create when you first meet.
Finally, be prepared to change your mind! If others don’t agree with your thinking, take the time to discover why, and consider whether in this instance, they are right. And, if the group decides one thing, and then things change, (for example because you achieved what you intended much earlier than expected, or the group is saying that the network isn’t needed any more, or needs to be much longer term), then work with the group to change agreements (and perhaps review your value proposition, marketing and recruitment too).
Useful web links:
The Centre of Excellence for Peer Support (mental health) has some great resources for peer support networks: http://www.peersupportvic.org/index.php/2014-12-15-22-42-49/2014-12-16-02-22-27/Resources/
Co-authored by Queenslanders with Disability (QDN)
The information on this page is also available as a downloadable Quick Guide, by clicking below. There are PDF and word versions.
