About Us

Our vision

A world where all children, young people and their families thrive in caring, equitable systems, supported by responsible journalism.

Our mission

We collaborate with lived experts of the child “welfare” system and journalists to support and produce community-driven, trauma-informed stories that drive social change.

The problem

People who have lived through “care” are frustrated by journalists parachuting into their community without attention to reciprocity and trauma-informed practices. They want nuanced reporting that holds people in power to account and highlights how people in/from care are driving change.

But many newsrooms lack the capacity to do investigative or collaborative work. A disproportionately white media has failed to serve Indigenous, Black and racialized families, breeding distrust. Journalists lack the resources and mentorship needed to report on this system in a good way.

Our response

Supporting journalists

We offer training, support and funding to journalists covering child welfare.

Join us →

Honouring lived expertise

We pay people with experience in the child “welfare” system to plan workshops, create resources, and work on stories.

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Reporting collaboratively

We partner with different newsrooms to produce community-driven investigations.

Learn more →

Who we are

Leadership

We’re an ambitious team driven by the belief that good, trauma-informed journalism can influence public policy and help realize more just, equitable systems.

Brielle Morgan

Project Manager

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.

Cheyanne Ratnam

Assistant Project Manager

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.

Francesca Fionda

Data Lead

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.

Tracy Sherlock

Editorial Lead

Tracy is a freelance journalist and journalism instructor and settler of European descent. She has written for the New York Times, the Vancouver Sun and other publications. She’s received the Jack Webster Award, B.C.’s top journalism prize for a series of stories she wrote about what happens to young people who turn 19 and age out of the “child welfare” system. She also received a citation of merit for the Michener Award, a national journalism award for public service journalism.

Advisory

Our advisory includes Indigenous and racialized people with lived expertise on the so-called child welfare system, as well as seasoned journalists. The advisory guides our work and supports the leadership team.

Anna McKenzie

Anna is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Treaty 5 territory with Scots Métis roots in Cumberland House, Saskatchewan. She currently resides on the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, where her children are members. Anna’s journey as a facilitator began when she was a Youth Worker leading programming for Indigenous Youth preparing to age out of care. Her later work in journalism and as a policy writer has centered around Indigenous child and family well-being, child welfare policy, and supporting Indigenous Governing Bodies to draw down their inherent jurisdiction under Bill C-92.
Anna has Chaired and facilitated with First Nations led organizations, Boards, Indigenous Governing Bodies such as Chief and Councils, blended governance models, and hereditary leadership. She believes in the inherent right of Indigenous People to be self-determineddeterminated, and facilitates spaces in alignment with this principle.
Anna holds a B.A in First Nations and Indigenous Studies from the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia. She is a mother, daughter and a forever advocate for the next generation.

Cheyenne Stonechild

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.

Dylan Cohen

Dylan is a former youth in care of Ashkenazi and Red River Metis descent, an organizer and urban planner. His work includes leading provincial child welfare campaigns on aging out in BC and MB. He’s worked with journalists on dozens of stories and with Spotlight since its inception. In 2023, he completed a Master in City Planning at MIT and lives in New York City on stolen Lenape territory.

Irwin Elman

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.

Kathryn Gretsinger

Kathryn is an associate professor of teaching at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at UBC, and a long-time public broadcaster at CBC with a record of award-winning work at both the local and national level. Kathryn is also a Killam Teaching Prize winner and was named one of North America’s top innovative journalism educators in 2018. There is a strong social justice undercurrent to Kathryn’s work. Her commitment to teaching, reporting, and fostering dialogue about community justice issues, Indigenous relations, and mental health appear in the courses she teaches and in collaborations. She is currently working with Canada’s public broadcaster on implementing an Indigenous News and Content strategy; On interdisciplinary academic research and teaching projects at UBC and continuing her work with the School’s mental health and wellness community of practice.

Dr. Melanie Doucet

Melanie has been working to improve the lives of youth in care for over 20 years. She is a former youth in care, holds a PhD in Social Work, is an Adjunct Professor at the McGill University School of Social Work and a Project Lead at the Child Welfare League of Canada (CWLC). Her doctoral research, titled Relationships Matter for Youth ‘Aging Out’ of Care, provided a platform for youth from care to develop child welfare research, policy and practice recommendations based on their lived experience expertise. She continues to work as part of the youth in care advocacy community on child protection policy reform initiatives, and is currently leading the Equitable Transitions to Adulthood and a Just Pandemic Recovery for Youth in Care project alongside the National Council of Youth in Care Advocates.

Nebula Shen

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.

Fellows

We prioritize Indigenous, Black and racialized people with lived experience in “care” for fellowships. Fellows help to organize, design and deliver community workshops. They also build resources.

Gage Sabattis

Gage Sabattis is a Mi’kmaq community planner and mental health advocate from Eskasoni, Nova Scotia. With over seven years of experience in community development, youth empowerment, and mental wellness, Gage works to enhance well-being in Indigenous communities through strategic planning, crisis management, and culturally sensitive initiatives. Currently serving as Planning Coordinator for the Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq, Gage also advocates for youth mental health and works to break stigma around mental wellness, fostering resilience and life promotion.

Jaden Dakota Sinclair

Jaden Dakota Sinclair is a former youth-in-care with more than a decade of lived experience in the ‘child welfare’ system. He is from Pukatawagan / Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and currently resides in Winnipeg. Jaden has dedicated his time towards serving marginalized and vulnerable populations as an advocate for inclusion, equity and accessibility, through work as a Family Advocate, Support Worker and Community Safety Host. He often shares his lived experience and perspective with organizations that share a similar vision towards nurturing the future leaders of the land and our great-grandchildren.

Jamey Toney-Gagne

Jamey is a Mi’kmaq undergraduate student in her 4th-year majoring in Chemistry at Cape Breton University. Jamey has a passion for advocacy work, creating and facilitating educational workshops and material on Indigenous, environmental, LGBTQ+, and women’s issues. They worked at the CBU Students’ Union for 3-years, sit on the Chemistry Society executive, are an active member of other student societies, tutors both in-community and on campus, and has been conducting environmental chemistry research for 3-years.

Jess Boon

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.

Nebula Shen

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.

Ryan Wilson

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.

Sasheen Regalado

Sasheen is Mi’kmaq and she’s currently an undergraduate student at Saint Mary’s University, where she is majoring in Social Justice and Community Studies. Her previous work includes researching agricultural practices and exploring how Indigenous methodologies can enhance sustainability and strengthen connections among farmers. Sasheen is actively involved in campus societies, including the Social Justice Community Society and the Indigenous Society, where she collaborates with fellow students to improve the university’s inclusivity and support for Indigenous students.

Sensitivity editors

People who have lived through the “child welfare” system are paid to review stories by journalists in the collaborative before they’re published. Editors draw on their lived experience, as well as professional practice, formal and informal education, and other forms of community-based, identity-based, and subject-matter expertise to provide valuable feedback.

Ashleigh Giffen

Autunm Sampson

Jemmy Felix

Jenny Desgagne

Justin Pothier

Malanie Dani

Nina Taghaddosi

Rachelle Metatawabin

Sandra Pronteau

Shay Grundberg

Simran Sidhu

Tyra Spence

History

“Media has a role in changing that stigma that gets placed on our children … It’s an opportunity to change how my children view themselves.” — Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw social worker and mother

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called on journalists to improve the way we report on issues impacting Indigenous communities. And Canadian Journalists of Colour and the Canadian Association of Black Journalists have called on journalists to “formally consult with racialized communities about news coverage on an ongoing basis.”

During a workshop series organized by The Discourse in 2017, a panel of advocates with lived experience in government “care” talked about their (mostly negative) experiences with journalists. Indigenous social workers at Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services shared stories about how media coverage of the system impacts them and the families they work with. They talked about how they’d like to see journalists show up differently.

We launched Spotlight: Child Welfare in 2018 in response to these calls for better storytelling.