Back in March 2024 we celebrated the impact of 5 years of the Peer Advisor Network (PAN), and now their evaluation is ready to view.
Take a look at the full PAN evaluation here, or have a read below for highlights.
The Peer Advisor Network was in action from 2019 all the way up to 2024. This project was funded through the National Lottery Community Fund
(NLCF) and delivered by us, St Giles.
The four key aims of PAN were:
- Creating new Peer Advisors to provide local organisations with a pool of potential skilled labour
with lived experience backgrounds. - Improving organisations’ connections with their local communities, particularly with people with
lived experience, so that they can thrive as volunteers and employees. - Establishing an evidence base and foundations for system change in the way that services are
delivered for the most socially excluded people. - Engaging and supporting more vulnerable people and creating greater impact within local
communities through the use of volunteers with lived experience.
Their Journeys
The training and support provided started a chain reaction – enabling people’s lived experience to be the catalyst for change, leaving a lasting impact that communities continue to build on. These journeys reflect the impact the St Giles Trust Peer Advisor Network has had on individuals and organisations across the UK.
The journey below for Daniel, is an interactive, click and listen ‘game’ allowing you to follow along with each step of Daniel’s journey before, during and after his support from PAN.
Daniel’s Journey (Interactive)
Key PAN Evaluation Impact:
- Turning around lives of disadvantage through the power of the Peer Advisor Network.
The training and support given through the Peer Advisor Network helps people in some of the most difficult and challenging circumstances to turn their lives around. Through becoming trained volunteers and paid workers they go on to make a real, sometimes life-saving difference for others, using the power of their lived experience and skill.“Steven wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for St Giles and Jamie. I’m so grateful for the support…..Having the training that Jamie did at St Giles changes people lives and then they go on to change other people’s lives like Steven’s…..It gives us hope.” – Julie, mum of Steven
- Spreading positive impact far and wide for people and communities.
Some Peer Advisors have gained the self-confidence to start up services in their own communities, opening up access to skilled support for vulnerable people from someone who’s been there – like Celeste’s service for women experiencing domestic abuse.“From St Giles it’s not just the NVQ, it’s the care and support they’ve given me. My kids talk openly about what I do and I think they’re proud.”- Celeste has now set up a community based service for women experiencing abuse.
Read more about the impact in the report’s ‘Five Things To Know’
The Numbers
Since its inception, the PAN Network:
- Worked with 576 Peer Advisors with lived experience of disadvantage who were trained in advice, guidance and support, with 98% moving into volunteering positions.
- 100% of those Peer Advisors reported greater self-confidence, resilience and ability to move into work.
- 237 trained volunteers moved into paid posts, with 68% of these in advice, guidance and support roles across the voluntary and statutory sectors.
- Over 10,000 vulnerable people benefitted from the support of a trained and skilled Peer Advisor with lived-experience.
- 166 voluntary and statutory partners hosted volunteers and/or employing Peer Advisor graduates and developed their inclusion of people with lived-experience in service design and delivery.
- 7 service sectors benefitted from trained volunteers and paid support workers with lived-experience – youth exploitation and criminal justice, addiction recovery, homelessness, domestic violence, food poverty.
- 23 Peer Advisors worked in 9 St Giles Pantries across England and Wales with around a quarter going on to work in paid roles. The Pantries have so far provided food help to over 2,000 households, with half of these also accessing additional in-depth support.
- Over 30 other projects and initiatives worth over £7m in additional investment created by and/or benefiting from the Peer Advisor Network.