Wendy Hayes is a communications professional, lived experience advocate, and author working at the intersection of child welfare, adoption, and permanency. Wendy’s dedication to system reform is deeply personal, rooted in their own living experience with Ontario’s child welfare system, adoption, and serving as a kin caregiver to their younger sibling. Having navigated the complexities of system involvement firsthand, Wendy has spent years ensuring the voices of care-experienced youth directly shape provincial policy and practice.

Wendy has contributed to landmark Ontario initiatives, including the historic Youth Leaving Care Hearings, the My Real Lifebook report, the Provincial Child Welfare Family and Permanency Project, and the redesign of provincial transition supports (Ready, Set, Go). Today, Wendy works with Never Too Late (NTL), a non-profit organization that facilitates and supports safe, unconditional, and lifelong connections for young people aging out of care, and is the author of the poetry anthology The Heart That Silence Built.

Dr. Melanie M. Doucet, PhD, is an award-winning researcher, expert consultant, and Executive Director of the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates (NCYICA). Originally from New Brunswick, Dr. Doucet’s work is deeply rooted in her personal history as a former youth in care. After aging out of the child welfare system, she experienced firsthand the abrupt loss of supports and housing instability that so many care-experienced youth face while trying to pursue post-secondary education. A pivotal connection with a dedicated social worker introduced her to transition supports, enabling her to complete her degrees and ultimately earn a PhD in Social Work from McGill University.

Fuelled by her own lived experience, Dr. Doucet has spent over two decades advocating for system reform. She was one of the early leaders of the New Brunswick Youth in Care Network, presented at the provincial legislature's historic first Youth in Care hearings in 2012, and co-founded the Montreal Youth in Care Alumni Student Association (MYCASA) to support care-experienced post-secondary students. Her landmark doctoral research, Relationships Matter for Youth ‘Aging Out’ of Care, used arts-based and participatory approaches to center youth voices in policy and practice reform, earning national acclaim and awards including the Erminie Cohen Compassion Award.