Evaluation of Participation and Peers in Vienna’s Homeless Assistance Programs

Project Duration: 02/09/2024 - 31/08/2026

Initial situation: The strategy paper "Wiener Wohnungslosenhilfe 2022" (Vienna Homelessness Services 2022) states that trained peer workers should strengthen the teams in the centres. There are already peer positions in around 50 centres. These create an additional low-threshold and confidence-building service for homeless people who benefit from the peers' expertise. Peers receive additional training, which also strengthens their participation and self-efficacy.

Objectives and evaluation design: The evaluation analyses the impact of peer work at client level and identifies potential for the further development of Vienna's homelessness services. The experiences of users and the perspectives of peers and staff are recorded in order to further develop peer work as a participatory approach. The aim is to gain a phenomenologically dense and differentiated understanding of the topic.
The evaluation is realised through a multi-method, qualitative-participatory design.

Methods: The research design relies on close co-operation with the participants and uses a combination of document analysis, interviews, participatory workshops, focus groups and analysis workshops. These methods capture the perspectives of both customers and peers and identify experiential knowledge condensed into experience clusters.

Results: The aim is to gain a differentiated understanding of peer work and to formulate recommendations for further development for Vienna's homelessness services. In addition, it will be analysed how the knowledge of peers and clients can be used on a structural level.

• Survey of clients'expectations and experiences with peer work
• Identification of possible differences in the service areas of WWH
• Identification of barriers to access and participation in participatory processes
• Survey of experiences of working in multi-professional teams
• Recording measures to strengthen opportunities for participation
• Formulation of recommendations for the further participatory development of Vienna's homelessness services