Living Experience is Expertise !
Increase Your Impact through Authentic Engagement with Living Experts
A living expert is anyone who has experience navigating the system AND who has taken their experience even deeper by learning about policy, systemic issues, and peer advocacy. We believe that the knowledge gained from direct involvement with the system is expertise.
Grounded in living experience, evidence-informed practices, and systems-level insight, the Center has developed four training sessions to equip professionals with practical tools to strengthen relationships, elevate living expert voices, and support
permanency efforts.
Trainings
Partnering with Living Experts in Practice
This training focuses on six core policies developed and implemented by the Center to effectively integrate living experience into programs, policy, and practice. Participants will learn how to ethically engage, support, and partner with living experts using structured, best-practice.
From Voice to Impact: Building Effective Youth Advisory Structures
Focused on designing and sustaining youth advisory structures (such as foster youth clubs and advisory structures) that move beyond tokenism, participants will learn how to engage youth as true partners in decision-making, program design, and system improvement.
Best Practice Lab: Designing Solutions Through Authentic Engagement
Move beyond learning into active design and implementation. Participants work collaboratively to apply authentic engagement principles to their own organizational challenges and build or refine internal policies, practices, and strategies tailored to their unique context. This highly customizable lab is built to support organizations in developing solutions that align with their structure, population, and goals.
Authentic Conversations: Supporting Youth in Adoption Discussions
Learn to engage youth in meaningful, developmentally appropriate conversations about adoption. Participants learn how to center youth voice, build trust, and navigate complex emotions while supporting permanency outcomes.
Choose your own format:
- Customized training based on organizational needs
- In-person or virtual options
- Multi-session training series
- Half-day or full-day workshops
- 60–90 minute individual trainings
Choose who attends:
- Adoption and permanency and staff
- Leadership teams and program directors
- Foster care providers and case managers
- Staff building youth or parent advisory boards
- Frontline staff working with living experts
