Our Journey to Launching Differently

This is an excerpt from our 2023 - 2024 Annual Report.

Never Too Late (NTL) started out as an idea – that everyone deserves permanency at any age. That idea came from working with and alongside Lived Experts of the child welfare system, all of whom have their child welfare services terminated at a particular age.

The legacy of Lived Experts advocating for systemic change is a long one, and Never Too Late (NTL) would not exist as it is today without important social change work done historically and ongoing by Lived Experts of child welfare systems. We are so grateful for their labour, and committed to continuing to walk alongside their leadership in this space.

We needed a place to water the seeds of this idea – and we found it at the Adoption Council of Ontario (ACO). From 2018 to 2023 Never Too Late (NTL) operated as a program of the ACO. This gave us the structure, connections and ability to take risks that we needed at a time when we were still figuring out if this was going to work.

We forged relationships with Lived Experts, professionals, and families that had connected with their young person around the age of 16 or later. All of them embraced uncertainty and took incredible risk getting involved with us as a new program. Together we navigated the complexity of how to best support those in relationships formed through permanency journeys.

What we learned fast and have not forgotten is the importance of support! Offering Community Groups where people can find support from Never Too Late (NTL) coaches and in peer-relationships continues to be a cornerstone of our work.

We learned a lot between 2018 and 2023 and as we began to gain clarity in the direction of our work and outgrow the designation of “program” we felt it was time to become an independent organization. We are grateful to all those who supported us and our mission at the Adoption Council of Ontario, and for giving us a place to get ready to launch!

We began operating as an independent charitable organization in April 2023; we were able to do this because of the strength of our community and all those who supported us and took risks with us since we began in 2018. Together we all share the building blocks that have made Never Too Late (NTL) a successful and enduring community of people.

Launching gave us time to reflect on the legacies we are continuing and look to the future with hope of what we can create together. In doing this we are reminded of a quote from a Lived Expert in our community:

“Permanency requires continuity. When we are asked to relinquish the lives and relationships we had before, we lose ourselves. We create new relationships in fear that this part of ourselves is interfering with new connections. Loss is already the prelude to this story. Adoption should be about generations and families coming together to create something new. Not erasing anything that suggests the adoptee “not of” their new permanency relationships.”

Thank you to all of those who have trusted us with their journeys and their stories. We look forward to continuing the work that began in our hearts and our lives long before we called ourselves Never Too Late (NTL) and our hope is that in creating Never Too Late (NTL) we can provide the “place” and the structures for the work to be supported and sustained.