Our members are the people who use our services and get help from Crisis. They are called members because they are part of Crisis and at the centre of everything we do. They are the people we work with every single day and who inform, inspire and motivate us in our mission to end homelessness.
Our members have unique experience and understanding of homelessness and Crisis. Member involvement means more than simply using Crisis’s services, it means members working together with Crisis to improve what we do and to end homelessness for good. We are committed to involving members at every level of Crisis so that we can ensure all the services we provide are delivered in collaboration with the people who use them
We offer opportunities for our members to be involved across the whole organisation, from planning and delivering services to campaigns to strategic planning. Members involvement means that we can ensure that the services we provide are tailored to the needs of the people that use them.
Our members get involved with Crisis in lots of ways such as giving feedback to help shape and improve our services, joining us in campaigning for change and adding their knowledge to Crisis by volunteering or starting work with us.
Our members volunteer in a whole range of roles contributing their experience and knowledge to planning, delivering and reviewing our services. Members volunteer helping out in classes and supporting other members, taking part in project teams and planning and delivering events. We also have Member Interview Volunteers who help recruit new staff and Member Ambassadors who represent Crisis and promote our work to different audiences.
Our quarterly Experts by Experience Panels bring together members and other people who have experience of homelessness from across the UK to meet and discuss Crisis’s strategic direction, evaluate our services and offer suggestions for ways that we can improve. The Panels allow people with lived experience of homelessness to make a real and lasting contribution to decision-making in Crisis and to the wider homelessness debate.
Our trainee scheme has been developed to give Crisis members the opportunity to gain real workplace experience. The scheme offers members a paid, full-time placement in one of our teams for a fixed term of 12 months, focused on developing valuable skills that will help the trainee find work elsewhere at the end of the trainee placement. They work with a dedicated mentor who offers advice, support and guidance at every stage of the placement. As well as gaining hands-on experience, our trainees take part in high-quality training and work towards an accreditation designed to give them the skills they need to succeed in their chosen careers.
We also know that people with experience of homelessness can provide a unique insight into our services, and our trainees get the chance to influence our work in all sorts of ways.