About

Jess Boon is a mixed-race person with Dutch and Trinidadian roots, a former youth in care, and long time child welfare advocate. Jess has worked in East Vancouver with youth in or from foster care and has extensive experience in youth work. Jess has a Bachelor of Social Work from the UBC School of Social Work, a certificate in community counselling from Vancouver Community College and is working towards a Master’s in Social Work at UBC.

Ryan Wilson is a former youth in care from Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (Vancouver, BC). He is Métis with family from the Red River settlement. After living through “care” and homelessness as a result of gaps in the system, Ryan decided to become a youth worker. He wants to help youth — particularly Indigenous youth — with mental health and substance use struggles. Ryan also shares his lived experience of recovery in community settings.

Brielle is a white, cisgender woman, a mother and a journalist. She’s reported on the so-called child “welfare” system, facilitated workshops, managed a journalism fellowship for youth from “care,” and worked on an IndigiNews investigation into birth alerts that earned the national CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism. She teaches at BCIT, and she lives for playing on the beach and reading kids books in funny voices. 

Francesca is a reporter, journalism instructor and a board member on multiple collaborative journalism projects. She’s worked with national investigative news teams and locally-driven outlets to produce in-depth stories for video, online and podcasts. She currently reports with The Narwhal, an online, non-profit magazine focused on the natural world. As the first-ever recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Journalism Fellowship, she spent months reporting on climate disasters in British Columbia. Her reporting on natural disasters has looked at racism in emergency management, economic impacts of sea level rise and community-driven solutions. She is also an adjunct professor of journalism and has taught trauma-informed interviewing, media law and data journalism. Francesca is a first-generation settler of Filipino and Italian ancestry. She currently lives, reports and teaches on the the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and Stó:lō Nations.

Cheyanne is a social entrepreneur passionate about equity, developing inclusive and accessible anti-racist spaces and processes, and social innovation. Cheyanne has lived expertise in child welfare, youth criminal justice, homelessness, immigration, and other sectors. She is Ontario Children’s Advancement Coalition’s CEO, member of Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada’s Equity & Inclusion Council, Scarborough West Community Legal Clinic board director, and serves on the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario’s Race-Equity Working Group. Cheyanne is an Equitable Standards to Youth Transitions Evaluation Model Research Assistant, National Council of Youth in Care Advocates’ provincial representative, and Canadian Consortium on Child & Youth Trauma’s advisory member. 2016 she received 1 of 4 highest accolades awarded by her alma mater. 2017, United Way of Greater Toronto recognized Cheyanne as 1 of 3 Women who inspire for International Women’s Day.

Cheyenne is a proud member of the Muscowpetung First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada. She grew up in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and spent a lot of time in the child welfare system. These experiences with the child welfare system have made a lasting impression, which sparked a deep-rooted passion to help create change in the community. Nowadays, she is involved with several groups, such as the FREDA Centre for Research on Violence Against Women and Children, where she lends her voice to underrepresented issues. Cheyenne has hosted workshops on genealogy and presented at conferences on select topics, including at the Continuing Legal Education Society of BC, The Canadian Bar Association, The Trial Lawyers Association of BC, and the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Australia. She has managed the “4 the Generation Project” and was a member of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development from 2018 to 2020. Cheyenne has contributed to her community in various ways and is committed to continuing to do so.

Irwin served as Ontario’s Child Advocate from 2008- 2019 drawing on the strength of young people, working to fill the gap between what government, service providers and policy-makers intend, and the reality experienced by some of the most vulnerable children and youth in Ontario. Irwin is currently a “Fellow” with the Laidlaw Foundation of Ontario, the “Global Strategic Advisor” to Until The Last Child, and an “Advisor” to the Coroner of Ontario. Irwin is a proud but admittedly often tired Father to two early teen boys who command his love and doting attention.

Karyn is an award-winning journalist, a Neiman Fellow,  a visiting professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and occasionally a guest panelist on CBC’s Rosie Barton show. Formerly Karyn worked as the Managing Editor of CBC’s Investigative Unit, overseeing the team at The Fifth Estate and Marketplace. Karyn is best known for her work as a Parliament Hill reporter and as the Executive Director of News and Current Affairs at APTN where she ran the news department for seven years.  She is a citizen of the Pikwàkanagàn First Nation in Ontario and is of mixed Algonquin and Italian descent. When she is not engaged in acts of journalism, you’ll find her paddling a canoe, shooting photos and eating frybread.

Nebula (沈霁) is a first-generation settler/squatter on Coast Salish territories. They are proudly nonbinary, queer, and mixed-race. A former community organiser with Fostering Change, they have lived experience in the child welfare system, youth criminal justice system, and with homelessness. They have been involved with decolonization work, student organising, and health and disability justice work as an activist and educator.