When a key organising member is no longer part of the network, consider the following:
Honour the person’s contribution
Things to think about:
- Honouring the contribution of the person who has left. And make sure you include them if possible in some kind of ‘thank you’ or celebration of their contribution.
- Capturing the knowledge the person holds, and the methods they used in holding a key position in the network. You could ask them to tell the story of the network from their perspective, ask them to talk about how they went about making their contribution, important lessons they have learned and so on. You could also ask them to mentor someone else
- Asking them to share any material, documents, contacts, photos etc they may have that the group could use, or are part of the network’s archive
Change is a good thing
It is important that you, and the group, views the loss as an opportunity, not a devastating blow, for the network. What is possible now the person has left that wasn’t possible before? Think together about this. Some ideas:
- The person may have always filled a role that another group member can now step into – building their capacity and confidence
- A new key person from outside the group may now be available to step in
- Changes to communication, facilitation style, or group guidelines and activities may now be possible – people might even enjoy these changes!
- Review the tasks and activities the person undertook – are they all needed? Perhaps some of this work isn’t necessary. There may be an opportunity to do less for the same results
- Review the tasks and activities the person undertook and see if they can be completed in another way. Can technology help? The person may have always caught up with people in person – would an email work just as well? Take the opportunity to streamline some of the tasks and activities of the network
Useful links and resources:
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.
