Shared Power, Shared Recovery - The Promise of Lived Experience Peer Leadership
In June 2024, thirty peer and allied leaders from across twelve countries* gathered in Heiloo, the Netherlands, for the Global Leadership Exchange (GLE) Peer Leadership Match. Together, we co-created a shared vision for how lived experience can lead transformation in mental health, Disability and substance use systems, communities, and movements.
The result of this collaboration is our new paper: Shared Power, Shared Recovery: The Promise of Lived-Experience-Peer Leadership. It brings together international perspectives, guiding principles, and practical examples of how lived experience and peer leadership shows up in communities, in strategy and policy, in service design and delivery, and in research and evaluation. Most importantly, it captures the collective voice of peers working across contexts and cultures, and sets out what is needed for peer leadership to thrive.
This work is not an endpoint but a culmination and a beginning: a record of what we built together in Heiloo, and a call to continue shaping the next chapter of lived-experience leadership worldwide.
* Countries represented: Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, The US, and Wales
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From Heiloo to a Global Thought Piece
Our two days together in Heiloo were more than a meeting, they were a moment of connection, reflection and collective vision-building. Leaders and emerging leaders came from across the world to share practice, exchange ideas, and explore what lived experience and peer leadership looks like across diverse cultures and systems.
We centred our conversations around three core questions:
What is Lived Experience and Peer Leadership for?
How do we do it?
What do we need to do it?
In answering these questions, several themes emerged: the importance of servant leadership, network weaving, and collective leadership. We recognised that leadership is not about one person at the top, but about convening, building communities of leadership, and grounding our work in values of inclusion, belonging and service.
We also acknowledged the depth of cultural knowledge and practice that has too often been marginalised by biomedical and Western paradigms. As peers, we bring expertise in community care, complementing clinical expertise and filling a gap that systems urgently need.
What was striking was the level of consensus across such a diverse group: our narratives mirrored one another, and together we were able to articulate shared values and principles. From this, the Heiloo Declaration was born; our first tangible outcome, a living document that continues to evolve.
Since Heiloo, we have built on that foundation. Our paper represents the next step: pulling together our collective ideas, clarifying the role and practice of Lived-Experience-Peer Leadership, and offering a shared reference point for peers and allies globally.
We warmly invite you to join us at the next Global Leadership Exchange Conference, which will take place in Ottawa, Canada, in June 2026. Together, we will build on this foundation, share new learning, and continue to grow a global movement of peer leadership.