Designing a future true to its values: strategic planning with a global peer support organisation

Helping a movement plan its next chapter

Intentional Peer Support (IPS) is an internationally recognised organisation that builds transformative relationships between peers, shifting power in mental health systems from top-down to side-by-side, and working from a justice and human rights position to end coercion and give people dignity and choice. Founded by Shery Mead and grown over many years into a global movement, it reaches around the world, with a network of more than 10,000 alumni and trainers across many countries. Looking to its future, Intentional Peer Support wanted to set a clear direction for the years ahead, and to build an organisation whose very structure lived the values it teaches. They came to Habitus to help.

Challenges

Intentional Peer Support knew what it believed and had built something people around the world valued, and the question it faced was how to carry that forward: how to grow and reach more communities without losing the relationships and integrity at the heart of its model, how to share power and ownership in a way that matched its values rather than contradicting them, and how to set a direction clear enough to guide decisions while staying open and nimble. It wanted to get to the heart of its why, understand its strengths and the opportunities ahead, and turn all of that into a tangible plan the community could own and act on.

What we did

We worked alongside IPS over two years, moving from the why to a concrete, owned plan, holding true to the founding vision while keeping the organisation’s community at the centre throughout.

Year one: getting to the why and setting the direction. We began by helping the organisation get clear on its purpose and surface its strengths and the opportunities ahead, bringing this together in a strengths and opportunities report. From there we co-created a strategic and transition planning document that set out where the organisation had come from, where it was going, and a strategic direction for the years ahead. At its heart was a cooperative model, a way of sharing ownership and power across the community so the organisation could live its values in its very structure, with a development group drawn from the community, a clear process, and a timeline to guide the journey.

Year two: making it tangible. We returned to turn direction into detail, working through the harder practical questions with the organisation and its community: how to hold quality and fidelity while making space for innovation and local adaptation, how to grow and scale without losing what made the model work, what kind of leadership the organisation needed and who could hold it, and what the community most needed from the organisation going forward. We brought this together in a summary insights report, with clear next steps the organisation could act on.

Throughout, we worked the way Intentional Peer Support works, convening the conversations, holding space for challenge, and keeping the community in the lead, so the plan was genuinely theirs.

How we made a difference

IPS came away with a clear strategic direction, a model for sharing ownership and power that reflects its values, and a practical, community-owned plan for getting there. The cooperative approach gave the organisation a trusted way to bring committed community members forward to help lead, while making sure those who did not take on a formal role still had meaningful ways to contribute and shape the work. What began as a question about the future became a direction the community could lead.

Results

• A strengths and opportunities report and a clear strategic direction for the years ahead

• A cooperative model designed to share ownership and power across the community, so the organisation lives its values in its structure

• A development group and advisory structure, with a process and timeline to guide the journey

• A trusted route for community members to step into shared leadership, with meaningful ways for others to contribute

• A summary insights report turning direction into tangible next steps on leadership, growth, quality, and what the community needs

Lisa Archibald, Director: "Both Lisa and Callum are very relational and so easy to engage with, it does not feel like work because they make it so enjoyable. They take time to get to know who we are and what we need as an organisation, so their suggestions are meaningful. They are incredibly well organised, with real attention to detail, and the documents they sent showed how well they understood what we needed."

Habitus has extensive experience helping organisations shape their strategy and their future in ways that stay true to lived experience and shared power. For more information on how Habitus can support your organisation or network to develop lived experience and peer leadership, contact us.