Access to influence isn’t equal. People with wealth can fund campaigns, employ communications professionals and build relationships with influential journalists and decision-makers. Large organisations have established communications teams and direct routes into government. Media owners and editors have considerable power to decide which issues matter, whose stories are published and who is treated as an expert.
Those closest to the issues often have none of these things. Their stories may be welcomed, but their authority is not.
Lived experience is expertise
I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with the distinction between the “expert” and the person with lived experience.
Someone who has navigated homelessness, the criminal justice system, disability, racism, insecure immigration status or severe financial hardship possesses knowledge that can’t be learned from a report.
Yet people with lived experience are often invited to contribute only after somebody else has decided the agenda. Lived experience is expertise. But expertise only becomes influential when people have the support, opportunities and platforms to use it.
At Sounddelivery Media, we work with grassroots leaders who are already creating change in their communities. They are founders, campaigners, advocates and specialists. They are not simply “case studies” waiting to be discovered.
Our role is not to give people a voice. They already have one.
What we do is support people so that their knowledge is recognised, their leadership is strengthened and their voices can reach the places where narratives, policies and decisions are shaped.
Because visibility is not the same as power.
A diverse panel, community consultation or media quote may seem inclusive, but the key questions remain: Who set the agenda and controlled the final edit? Who was paid and made the decisions? Did the community’s input influence the outcome?
Meaningful participation is not simply being invited into the room. It’s having the opportunity to influence what happens there.
We need to invest differently
If we want different voices to influence public debate, we must invest in the people and organisations capable of making that change possible.
Too often, people with lived experience are approached when a crisis becomes newsworthy or an organisation urgently needs a community representative.
What if we invested in people long before we needed something from them?
Leadership and influence aren’t built through one-off opportunities. Confidence takes time. Strong relationships with journalists and decision-makers don’t appear overnight. Trust can’t be rushed.
At Sounddelivery Media, we spend time supporting people to build their skills, confidence and networks. We provide trusted relationships, peer support and continued advice, not just a single training session followed by an expectation that they will manage alone.
We also recognise the barriers to taking part. People may need travel costs covered, accessible technology, childcare, wellbeing support or other adjustments. These are part of what makes meaningful participation possible.
This work needs committed partners.
Too much funding is short term, narrowly restricted or focused on producing visible outputs quickly. Shifting power, developing leaders and changing public narratives take time.
Funders have an opportunity to invest in the long-term infrastructure that enables communities to build influence. That includes core funding, leadership development, community-controlled media, accessible participation, peer networks and support for the organisations that connect lived-experience leaders with journalists and decision-makers.
It also means trusting community leaders to define what success should look like.
From being heard to having influence
A healthy democracy requires more than the right to speak. People must have a realistic opportunity to be heard, influence decisions and hold institutions to account.
The leaders we work alongside don’t lack ambition, expertise or solutions. What is often missing is equal access to resources, platforms and power.
That is why Sounddelivery Media exists.
We want to work with funders and partners who understand that strengthening democracy requires sustained investment in the people who have been kept furthest from power.
The question for all of us – particularly those who control funding, platforms and institutions – is whether we are prepared to listen, invest and share power.
Because the true measure of democratic participation is not how many different people are invited to speak.
It’s whether speaking can change what happens next.
If you are a funder or potential partner interested in strengthening lived-experience leadership, shifting public narratives and widening participation in democratic debate, I would welcome a conversation about working with Sounddelivery Media.