We exist because lived experience is expertise. And expertise deserves infrastructure.

Peer roles have grown rapidly across health and community services. Capability development has not kept up. Most peer workers are trained in generic content built for clinical staff, then asked to do work that is fundamentally different.

There has been no shared, cross sector capability framework for the lived experience workforce in Australia. Without one, every organisation reinvents the wheel. Every peer worker is held to a different standard. Recognition does not travel between roles, between sectors, or between states.

Peer Practice Lab was founded to build that infrastructure. The first artefact is the Peer Practice Capability Framework, released in April 2026 after a national consultation with peer workers, supervisors, organisation leaders, and sector bodies.

Our founding principle is plain. Lived experience is expertise. The framework was built by peer workers. The training is too. Lived experience authorship is documented in everything we publish.

Our intention is equally plain. Affordable. Accessible. Stackable. Practical. Cross sector. Cost should never be the barrier between a peer worker and the development they need.

Built through a national consultation with peer workers, supervisors, organisation leaders, and sector bodies across Australia. Lived experience authorship is visible. Contributors are named in the framework’s authorship section.