Lived Experience

In 1997, several influential evaluators who represented the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and W.K. Kellogg Foundation's leadership got together to discuss how the evaluation profession can create a pipeline of evaluators who will be more equipped to respond to diverse contexts and communities. An initiative was conceived, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, advised by an AEA committee, and implemented by Community Science (at that time, it was called the Association…

Recently, my colleague asked, "what is all this with 'lived experience' lately?" I was unsure how to answer because this term had already become a buzzword in my mind. I thought I knew what it meant, but then I couldn't quite define it when asked so directly. Here are a few of the definitions I found when I went looking: Lived experience, as defined by Talking Health Tech, is a…