The involvement of people with lived experience is broadly recognised as beneficial, and possibly essential, to effective service and policy planning. However, in the field of homelessness service delivery, this has not been thoroughly researched. To build a greater understanding of participation activities and identify opportunities for lived experience contributions in addressing homelessness, this study investigates the representations of consumer participation by a homelessness service network in Victoria over 10 years (2011–2020). This study found that the homelessness services appear to have actively aspired to meaningful service user participation however tensions for policy and practice remain. These include whether lived experience contributions are valued as “experience” or “expertise”; whether participation is available for those with “living” (current) or “lived” (past) experience; and whether feedback can translate into influence, affecting services and policy change.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚消费者参与无家可归者服务：目的是什么？

人们普遍认为，有生活经验的人的参与对于有效的服务和政策规划是有益的，而且可能是必不可少的。然而，在无家可归者服务提供领域，这还没有得到彻底的研究。为了更好地了解参与活动并确定在解决无家可归问题方面贡献生活经验的机会，本研究调查了维多利亚州无家可归者服务网络 10 年来（2011-2020 年）消费者参与的表现。这项研究发现，无家可归者服务似乎积极渴望有意义的服务用户参与，但政策和实践方面的紧张局势仍然存在。其中包括生活经验贡献是否被视为“经验”或“专业知识”；那些有“生活”（当前）或“生活”（过去）经验的人是否可以参与；反馈是否可以转化为影响力，影响服务和政策变化。