10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Concept of Empowerment- Slovenian Experience Petra Videmšek Faculty of Social Work

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Content… Development of the concept – what we can learn about the concept What we done to put the concept into the practice- Empowerment will be present as tool to empower expert by experience through education and research

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Development of the concept Empowerment ideas seeped into the professional literature during the 1960s and 1970s by activists, particularly those with a bent toward radical social change (Alinsky (1969), Freire (1973) and Lukes (1974).

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Empowerment in social work The concept has been introduced in the social work literature by Barbara Solomon in 1976, in her book Black Empowerment: Social work in Oppressed Communities (Solomon, 1976). Empowerment has been guiding principles for service users to access to resources in a manner that enhances their self esteem as well as their problem solving capacity's (Solomon, 1976: 347).

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Critic of the concept Today, the term empowerment has been used intensely to refer to a wide range of very different processes and practice The vast literature on empowerment shows that there are a variety of perspectives, explanations and contradictions between views. lack of users definition

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 How we put empowerment into practice? Empowerment can be achieve through - Education - Research

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Education… Knowledge itself is powerful and experiences offering an alternative perspective, what was happened to people with experience Expert by experience has its originally, everyday knowledge or as put by Harry von Haster (2007) "bottom up" knowledge that is based on personal experience and is recognize and being valuable. To make concept of empowerment alive, we need to show and present this knowledge. One example to present this knowledge is through expert by experience research that is often cold as users lead research.

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Our process …

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Research… Users research is one of the most effective tool for empowering and…was develop as a method of creating new knowledge, hitherto hidden and often describe as invalid by professionals" (Ramon 2000: 16).

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 How it starts… pilot users research in the field of mental health began to take shape at the end of 2006 first by experience with participation in the EX-IN Education seminar "Empowerment in theory and practice", that was held at Faculty of social work from 8.12 till secondly by deep interest of the 6 participants by author desire to create academic advancement on her PhD work

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 How we done it Education program Formulating the research questions and developing interview schedule Arranging their own interviews Undertaken interviews Analysis the data and writing up findings Dissemination of experience

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 Experience… Taking part as a researcher can give expert by experience different position and can increase the power over the way, their experiences are define Valorisation (valued roles)

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 What we have learned… Involvement expert by experience in the education and research provides not only opportunities for personal development but also open space for alternative analysis of group home expert by experience are people not only with ability but also with special experience, that was for long time hidden by others

10 th Gamian Europe convention, Tuhelj, November 2007 For the end… Empowerment should be seen as a process and not as an outcome. It is a way of living and approaching life that seeks to engender important human qualities and meet human needs Users participation making use of their considerable experience (being consumer of service, having knowledge that was hidden by professionals)