National Survivor User Network (NSUN)

Who we are

NSUN is a charity and membership organisation. We are a network of grassroots, user-led community mental health groups and people who have lived experience of mental distress, ill-health or trauma. NSUN connects, supports, and amplifies the voices and work these members. As a user-led organisation ourselves, all of our staff and trustees have lived experience, and our work is rooted in our key value of solidarity.

We work to redistribute power and resource in mental health. We do this by:

- Building, amplifying and distributing the knowledge that is held by people with lived experience

- Creating collaborative spaces with members and partners to build momentum and sustainability for the work

- Building an alternative approach to mental health policy work

- Working with funders and acting as a microfunder to redistribute resources to grassroots user-led groups, as well as working to build capacity and sustainability in other, non-material ways

Our culture and values

Our values are solidarity, equality, integrity and diversity.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

NSUN is committed to equity and inclusion within our teams and within the work we do.

NSUN has a zero-tolerance approach to racism with an aim to be an anti-racist organisation. We are committed to ensuring we have a culture of trust, with safe spaces and systems, where our members, trustees or staff experiencing racism feel confident to come forward and know that they will be listened to and their concerns will be acted upon.

NSUN is an explicitly trans-inclusive organisation. We aim to co-create a work environment that is welcoming of trans, non-binary and intersex colleagues. We are committed to ongoing training on trans equality for staff, associates, and trustees, and we have recently finalised an internal Transitioning at Work Policy, setting out how NSUN will support staff through transition.

NSUN follows the social model of disability and as such recognises that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their “impairment” or “difference”. As an organisation, we want to work towards the principles of the disability justice movement.

You can find our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy on our website.