Peer Leadership Incubator
Hidden Structure by John F. Gerrard
Join your own “hidden” network of peer support leaders across the world!
If you want to go quickly, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
—African proverb
Many of us peer leaders have the ideas or answers on how to improve the peer workforce, create better systems, drive forward impactful services that meet the people we walk alongside. What is often missing is the time, the network and some of the practical skills needed to think through, plan and develop our ideas into action.
By creating a dedicated space online for peer leaders to learn or harness the skills needed to drive change and move into action, we believe that the voice of peers and lived experience can flourish.
Think of our incubator a learning community or a peer support group for peer leaders; somewhere you will learn and grow, whilst being supported by the skills and expertise others in the group bring.
DEADLINE: Wednesday, August 28th 2024
What is the Peer Leadership Incubator?
Our incubator provides peer support leaders an opportunity to move their project ideas for moving the peer support movement forward. You will be provided with a network of experienced peer support leaders and mentors from strategic, operationalisation, and research backgrounds to support your project come to life. You will gain a critical awareness of key issues and challenges facing peer supporters and peer leaders across the globe. You will also gain practical skills, enabling you to design and pitch your idea to potential funders and/or organisational decision makers.
Who is the Incubator for?
Practicing peer supporters or peer researchers who have an idea they want to drive forward - this doesn’t have to be a fully formed idea just yet!
Peer support leaders who want to gain the skills (or hone in on their existing skills) to take their idea and put it into action.
Anyone who is currently in a peer leadership role or wants to increase their influence.
What will you learn on the Incubator?
Gain confidence to lead a project, engage others in developing solutions to your own local and the wider global challenges in peer leadership.
Understand how to put together a project plan, proposal, and pitch.
Develop a network of peer leaders to support your peer leadership initiative.
Practical tips for how to prepare challenging conversations.
Learn how to increase your influence.
How to develop a business case / proposal.
How to give and receive feedback.
What is the format of the Incubator?
90 minute online sessions.
A mixture of discussion-based and interactive exercises.
What is the time commitment?
The Peer Leadership Incubator is 9 months long. There are monthly online meetings held beginning in October and continuing through until June. We ask that you commit to attending 7 out of the 9 sessions. Each session lasts 90 minutes and there is an expectation that you continue to work on your project outside of the sessions. How much time you dedicate is up to you and will have an impact the success of your project. Our suggestion for the amount of out-of-session time you should spend on your project is between 2 - 3hrs on average depending on the stage of your idea.
Who is leading the Incubator?
The incubator is being led by peers with years of experience in accelerating and incubating ideas to action, with vast expertise in the global context of peer support from a grassroots and community organising and advocacy lens all the way up to formal clinically delivered peer support in various health and care settings and systems. To learn more about our Incubator facilitators click here.
How much does it cost?
The incubator is free. Habitus Collective provides over £25,000 of in-kind time to deliver the programme on behalf of the participants.
Who will be in the Incubator with me?
We aim to have no more than 12 people in the group. We are committed to have a range of peers with varied backgrounds ranging from different locations across the world, sectors, years of experience, job titles, and a range of peers who come from a more formal or clinical perspective mixed with peers from grassroots, community and less formal perspectives. We believe that this mix will help provide the group with a wide range of perspectives to consider when developing and actioning their project ideas.
Will I get a certificate or CPD credits?
We have built upon the learning from our first incubator in 2023 as such we continue to learn and develop alongside you. As such the course is not yet available for CPD credits or formal certification, however we will continue to monitor this as we go and everyone who participates will receive a certificate of completion from the IPLN. We anticipate that CPD may be available for our 2025 incubator session.
If I am connected to an organisation, do they have to support me?
Whilst support from your organisation is always a benefit and sets you up for greater success, it is not a requirement to have organisational backing in order to attend the incubator. Depending on your time zone, you may be participating during working hours and so a support from your organisation from a practical sense may be required.
What kind of idea or project are you looking for?
That’s up to you! We help you take your idea and bring it to life and put it into action. Ideas can range from involving peer researchers more broadly in social or academic research or creating pathways for them to be in greater decision making roles, to developing standards or pathways for peer leadership within your own organisation, or developing peer support designed specifically for your underrepresented community. But it can be none of these! This is an opportunity for you to bring your own idea, no matter what stage you’re at, and get support to drive it forward.
I’m not a peer, but I have lived experience. Can I still join?
Unfortunately our incubator is just for people working in peer roles. This includes peer supporters, peer leads, peer researchers etc. There is a requirement to have worked/be working in a peer role in order to attend the incubator.
How do I sign up?
You can submit a short application to participate by clicking on the button below. Please note that whilst we hope to accept everyone who would like to participate, it is not a guarantee that everyone who applies will secure a space. Deadline for applications is midnight on August 28th, 2024.
“It’s just been a great experience, and an accountability partner around my project. It’s actually also been incredibly helpful and helped with resilience. Sometimes it’s hard to keep knocking on a door that doesn’t want to open for you. So it’s been an opportunity to come back on a regular basis, and just kind of revisit where you’re at with it. I’ve had some challenges and success could have looked differently for me, and I’ve learned some of that now through the incubator.
The training and learning along the way I found really helpful for me and I might not be exactly where I want to be at the end of the project but the tools and the things I’ve learned I’m sure will help me get there. So I would highly encourage anyone to join. It’s just been such a super skilled group that I’ve really benefitted from.”
“It’s the structured training and tools that we’ve had that has been very helpful for me. And the networking has been wonderful and hearing other people’s ideas of what they want to do and what they want to and have achieved has been really interesting. For me, I’m based in the UK and got to talk to people in America as part of my project and learn from them. So in all it has been really very good.”
“There’s lots of things I want to do, but I had no idea where to start, it’s really help me understand how to slow down, take the learning I’ve gotten from here and apply it in my role.”
Are there any testimonials from previous participants?
Absolutely! See below for a few quotes from our participants from the 2023 incubator: