Bridget Gorham's Contact Details

Bridget Gorham's Company Details

Power With

N/A, N/A, GB • Not Available Employees
City Government/Municipal Government

Power With was founded as a direct response to the disempowerment and dehumanisation that can be faced by people experiencing homelessness if not treated as equal partners when accessing services. We exist to put those with lived experiences of homelessness at the heart of service design and delivery.We provide training, consultancy and independent facilitation of participatory processes, to support local authority and charity staff to value and integrate lived experience of homelessness into service design and delivery. We are a community of people with learnt and lived experiences of homelessness, as well as academic and practical knowledge of participation. We share skills, experience, and knowledge, working together to create a more equitable society, without homelessness. We believe that social inequities are caused by power imbalances in society, and that awareness and redistribution of power are essential for social transformation. Central to our work is how we approach power dynamics, in the homelessness system and beyond. We are inspired by Lisa VeneKlasen and Valeries Miller's definition of ‘power with' in A New Weave of Power (2002, page 55) who describe this concept as follows:"‘Power with' has to do with finding common ground among different interests and building collective strength. Based on mutual support, solidarity and collaboration, ‘power with' multiplies individual talents and knowledge. ‘Power with' can help build bridges across different interests to transform or reduce social conflict and promote equitable relations." Power With encapsulates the type of relationships and spaces we want to create and be part of.