In 1999, Shaping Our Lives established the Our Voice in Our Future (OVIOF) project in response to a request from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to facilitate user involvement in a new funding programme called The Future of Human Rights and Welfare. The programme set out to involve service users in the debate on the future of welfare, rights and entitlement in social care and disability. OVIOF was set up to start this process by identifying the key issues for service users. Through a process of surveying user-led groups, reviewing literature on user involvement and holding discussions with representatives of user organisations on the principles of user involvement and the shape of the project, Shaping Our Lives established a firm set of indicators of what service users see as the key principles that should underpin user involvement and consultation, which were used in the development of the full project.