Lived Experience Leadership
Lived Experience Leadership engages the voices of individuals who have direct experiences with sexual exploitation and trafficking. This is central to the development of Clan Mothers Healing Village.
While the concept of Lived Experience leadership is not well known, it has long been valued and practiced by Indigenous peoples. In fact, it has guided Indigenous culture, ways of being, and learning for centuries.
As our co-founder, Elder Mae Louise Campbell explains “it is humanly impossible to feel another’s interior being if you have not lived through their experience. That’s our Indigenous way. That’s what makes us uniquely different. Our Spirit remembers everything through our historical lived-experience, and in turn, we become lived-experience leaders and healers”.
Lived Experience Leadership spans everything from:
- perspective to understanding
- wisdom and knowledge to avoiding tokenism and essentialism
- respect, empathy, and inclusivity
- honesty, courage, and power
- support, love, and self-reflection
- accountability to responsibility
Lived experience leaders are “change-makers, innovators, and leaders who have used their lived experience to inform, shape, and lead their social purpose and their work (often in combination with their learned and practice experience), to directly benefit the communities they share those experiences with”.
In fact, many of the lived experience leaders that contribute to Clan Mothers Healing Village projects, work in the counter sexual exploitation and sex trafficking sectors. Their work focuses on the need for meaningful participation in decision making and policy formation.
Nothing about us without us.
