Launching our Lived Expert Library in Honour of May 14, Children and Youth in Care Day
Written by Charlene April, Lived Expert Coordinator
The Lived Expert Library is a digital collection of creative work—poetry, artwork, stories, photography, essays, and more—crafted by individuals with lived experience in systems like child welfare, homelessness, adoption, kinship care, and beyond. It is a space where our creativity takes center stage, and where our identities are not limited to the challenges we've faced, but expanded to include all that we are and all that we’re becoming.
Too often, when people talk about “lived experience,” the focus is narrowly placed on trauma, survival, and systemic failure. While those truths matter, they are only part of the story. The Lived Expert Library is about reclaiming the narrative—shifting from being studied, surveyed, or spoken for, to being celebrated as storytellers, artists, thinkers, and innovators.
This project recognizes that while our experiences shape us, they do not define us. The value we bring to the world is not just in what we’ve endured, but in how we create, how we connect, and how we contribute. Our work is not here to educate others about us—it’s here to express who we are in our own voices, on our own terms.
Each piece in the library is an act of self-definition. It might be a painting full of quiet hope, a poem that wrestles with grief, a short story filled with humor, or a bold visual statement. What binds them together is not just the creators’ connection to lived experience, but their right to be seen and celebrated beyond it.
In building this library, we are pushing back against tokenism. We are saying: we are not here only to consult, to validate programs, or to represent trauma. We are here to create, to shine, and to be part of something lasting and beautiful.
The Lived Expert Library is a tribute to tenacity, yes—but more importantly, it’s a tribute to talent, to vision, and to the many layers of lived experts that are so often overlooked. It’s a reminder that we are more than what we've survived—we are what we’ve made from it.
In honour of Children and Youth in Care Day, please visit the Lived Expert Library and browse the submissions.
If you are a Lived Expert, it is not too late to make a submission. The first 20 qualifying submissions will be added and be eligible for $35 honoraria.
Support the Lived Expert Community
Despite the significant risk young people take when they enter permanency relationships, they are often under-supported in navigating them. As part of building up the Lived Expert community, we hope to learn more about what it means to prepare and support Lived Experts on these journeys.
In honour of Children and Youth in Care Day, all donations received during May will be committed to the Lived Expert Community at Never Too Late (NTL). Your gift will go towards creating low-barrier opportunities for Lived Experts to:
connect with one another
be integrated into and lead education for caregivers and service providers
share their experiences and stories in safe ways
create and produce creative projects together
explore the unique challenges of permanency/impermanency journeys