Meeting Our Community Where They Are At
This is an excerpt from our 2024-2025 Annual Report.
When Never Too Late (NTL) first started as a program in 2018 we were focused on delivering our offerings in-person. We hosted several Training for Humans during this time. We fondly reflect on not having the same venue every week, forcing participants to adapt to weekly changes in environment. While this was challenging, it was an apt metaphor for the many moves and changes that happen in a Living Expert’s life.
With the onset of the pandemic and alongside hundreds of organizations, we were then driven towards delivering our offerings in an online format. There were bonuses and drawbacks to both online and in-person formats. Online allowed us to have a broader reach, since there was no need to commute. In-person allowed participants to build deeper connections with one another through informal conversations.
Soon we were shifting from acclimating to online offerings to defaulting to them. Since then, all of our trainings, educational offerings, and community groups have been offered online. This has allowed us to extend our support of the community beyond Ontario – with community members joining us from other provinces when the circumstances called for it.
This past year, we hosted 3 in-person social events which were well attended. Our takeaway was that we all missed having these opportunities to connect with one another in person. We also anticipate that in-person opportunities for our communities to come together will be part of making and facilitating safe, unconditional, and lifelong connections between Humans and Living Experts.
Among a variety of offerings being explored and formalized for our Living Expert community, we found that Living Experts have responded strongly to personal text-based outreach and one-to-one get togethers in the community with Living Expert Coordinator, Charlene April. Many of these one-to-ones did not have a specific goal or agenda but were focused on deepening relationships. This is work that literally, takes time. Many Living Experts are used to being engaged by organizations based on an organizational agenda, such as fundraising. There are not many organizations that have the support and resources needed to engage for the sake of relationship-building.
All together, these experiences are showing us the importance of creating opportunities to connect in person.
To prioritize relationship building first, and organizational objectives second. In the coming year, we will be focused on how to create more of these opportunities as we respond and adapt to what benefits our communities most. To understand the impact of these efforts, we are also developing data collection and governance plans that will help guide our decision-making and demonstrate the impact of our work.
Permanency work takes an investment of time; both literally in the number of hours spent on building relationships as well as patience in the pursuit of finding connections, which can take years.
Never Too Late (NTL) deeply acknowledges that finding permanency is not as simple as it being a “success story” but wrought with vulnerability and risk for Living Experts most of all. Conversations around “unpacking the no” with Service Providers demonstrate to us the importance of understanding why Living Experts are hesitant to go on this journey. Reasons may include: an understanding of “family” as a source of hurt and disappointment, a focus on independence that is encouraged by the child protection system and underlying shame or feeling undeserving of care and stability. Indeed, many Living Experts are forced to first address practical survival needs such as paying rent, getting a job, being able to afford groceries and caretaking for dependants in their lives.
We will continue to have core offerings available in an online format. In the coming year, we will also focus on creating more opportunities for social events that bring our communities together. We may also begin to explore in-person and/or hybrid offerings of our trainings for Humans and Service Providers.
We continue to learn and grow alongside our community and are committed to exploring what a unique permanency model looks like. Our hope is that one day, much of this work can be utilized in other organizations and in community building work. Permanency is people-centered work. We continue to be inspired and guided by Living Expert, Gaelin Elmore, who said:
“Instead of always telling them the goal is to be independent, we must shift our focus to interdependence—the skill of needing people. Because it is people not programs, relationships not resources, connections not recommendations, that change lives.
At some point you can age out of a program; at some point, you can run out of a resource; and at some point, a recommendation is nothing but words.”
- Living Expert, Gaelin Elmore
Read more about our work and impact in our 2024 - 2025 Annual Report.