The Power of Perspective: Why We Hire Staff with Lived Experience
At A Place 4 Me, we are often asked, “What makes your programs different?” The answer is simple: the secret to our work is the people who power it through lived experience. Our Youth Navigation team includes staff who have experienced homelessness, housing instability, and/or foster care.
This means they bring not only professional skills but also a personal understanding of what it feels like to navigate systems, face barriers, and reach stability. The power of their perspective shapes every part of their ability to walk alongside youth and young adults on a shared journey to reach their aspirations.
What is Navigation?
The Navigation program is at the heart of our work. Navigators walk alongside young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, helping them create housing plans, connect with education and employment opportunities, and navigate complex systems like child welfare, housing, and healthcare. Unlike traditional case management, Navigation is rooted in relationship. It is about trust, respect, and meeting youth where they are—literally and figuratively.
Our team includes general Youth Navigators who support young people across Cuyahoga County, as well as a dedicated Foster Care Youth Navigator who has lived experience in the foster care system. Their perspectives and experiences matter deeply to the success of Navigation services. When a young person aging out of foster care sits down with someone who has faced those same hurdles, it changes the dynamic, the engagement, and the understanding. That lived experience breaks down barriers.
“As a Youth Navigator with lived experience, I feel privileged. Receiving services and being alongside others in crisis has given more insight into what programs, services, and support could be needed,” said Yondez Webb, Youth Navigator at A Place 4 Me.
When young people meet with a Navigator who has faced similar struggles and now holds a professional role supporting others, it matters. It shows what is possible. It proves that someone who once stood where they stand today can reach their aspirations.
Anastasia’s Path from Receiving to Providing Navigation Services
Before becoming a Youth Navigator, I struggled with multiple episodes of homelessness and housing instability.
Through my time trying to get resources, I noticed issues within the homelessness system and often felt misunderstood. I would think to myself, “They’re not going to help me. They have a warm place to go home to and don’t know what it’s like to be homeless.” I always felt like providers didn’t understand the urgency of meeting my basic needs — until I found A Place 4 Me.
When I first started working with A Place 4 Me in 2022, they connected me to shelter and assisted with meeting my needs. Over the next year, while utilizing the youth navigation services, I got stably housed and eventually interviewed for an open position. I knew I wanted to make a difference for youth and young adults who were navigating the system, especially those who felt like their needs were overlooked or that they were just “another person in need.” I wanted to be the change — the change we see here at A Place 4 Me.
Working with youth and young adults navigating homelessness or housing instability, as someone who has lived through it myself, creates a different kind of rapport. You can understand a young person’s needs better and relate to them in ways many providers cannot. Sharing parts of your journey can help a young adult feel less alone and know they have support to help guide them.
—Anastasia Blake, Youth Navigator
Why Lived Experience Matters
When young people see themselves reflected in the staff supporting them, trust grows. Our Navigators bring empathy, not judgment. They bring solutions, not just services. They know that stability is not just about housing. This work is about relationships, trust, opportunity, and dignity.
“As a navigator I’m able to speak to young adults about what they’re going through and understand exactly what stage of rebuilding they are in,” said Yondez Webb, Youth Navigator. “Some young adults may still be in crisis mode and may just need someone to talk to while their stress subsides. Some young adults may just need a one-time aid after a small lapse in payment.”
Our Navigation team shows us every day that youth are best supported by people who truly understand their journey. Lived experience does not just build empathy—it drives change, uncovers blind spots, and ensures that no young person feels alone.
“Thanks to my experience, gauging that spectrum of support has become as easy as speaking to a friend in need, and I personally know that those types of interactions can completely change your perspective on services as well as change the trajectory of a person’s homeless experience,” Yondez said. “And it is how we move closer, every day, to a community where no young person has to face homelessness alone.”