About OLE
The answers to our hardest social challenges already exist.
They live in the people who've been through the systems we're trying to fix — in the knowledge that comes from surviving, navigating, and ultimately transforming lived experience into expertise. Our Lived Experience exists to make that wisdom accessible.
We are building the clearinghouse of "un-Googleable" lived experts — connecting their practical wisdom to the organizations, funders, and communities working to address our nation's most pressing social challenges.
The problem we're solving
Traditional approaches leave out the people who know best.
Systems change work has a persistent blind spot: the people most affected by a problem are routinely excluded from designing the solutions. Organizations want to do better — but finding, vetting, and genuinely integrating lived expertise takes infrastructure most organizations don't have.
Meanwhile, social innovators with direct lived experience — in mental health, housing, criminal justice, family systems, addiction, and beyond — struggle to find pathways where their expertise is valued, compensated, and protected.
OLE sits at that intersection. We provide the connective tissue between lived experts and the organizations that need them.
For social innovators
We amplify your voice, connect you to organizations doing work in your focus area, and advocate for the compensation, support structures, and professional protections you deserve.
Learn more →For organizations
We match you with vetted lived experts, provide thought partnership on how to integrate their wisdom authentically, and help you build the internal culture to support them well.
Learn more →Focus areas
Our work in the world
Change tales.
OLE doesn't just connect — we invest. Here are some of the partnerships and projects that show what happens when lived experience is placed at the center.
Peer Support Specialists in Illinois correctional facilities
OLE partnered with the Southern Illinois University Office of Correctional Medicine — which serves 35,000 incarcerated individuals across Illinois — to research best practices for supporting Peer Support Specialists. Co-founders Shannon Scott and Victoria Sale led the research, interviewing 35 people with lived experience, 9 program administrators, 2 HR professionals, and 3 national thought leaders.
The resulting report introduced the concept of Adverse Professional Experiences (APEs) — a framework for understanding how organizational and systemic factors harm the effectiveness and wellbeing of lived experts in professional roles. The report produced actionable recommendations on supervision structures, benefits, compensation equity, and hiring practices.
Village Is Possible — healing-centered support for exploited youth
OLE (through fiscal sponsor Inquiring Systems, Inc.) invested in Village Is Possible (VIP), a California-based organization co-founded by Survivor Leaders to serve youth impacted by or at risk of commercial sexual exploitation. OLE's support funded VIP's full-time Sage Survivor Leader, Lauren Henderson, whose peer advocacy and mentorship produced documented positive outcomes for youth in the program.
VIP delivered Family Centered Treatment (the only FCT model in California focused on foster youth experiencing exploitation), monthly Village Vibes wellness gatherings, and the Youth Stabilization Pathway. In its most recent grant cycle, VIP served over 220 youth in partnership with the HYPE Center.
Our partners
Who we work with.
OLE partners with organizations, training bodies, and economic mobility initiatives that share our commitment to centering lived expertise.
ReImagine Omaha
Training curriculum partner advancing lived experience in systems change work.
reimagineomaha.org →Economic Recovery Corps
Talent partner connecting lived experts to economic recovery opportunities nationwide.
economicrecoverycorps.org →SIU Office of Correctional Medicine
Research partnership on Peer Support Specialist frameworks in carceral settings.
Read the report →Our founders
The people behind OLE.
Shannon Scott
Co-Founder & Co-Executive DirectorShannon is a master facilitator and the originator of the Adverse Professional Experiences (APEs) framework — a tool for protecting lived experts in professional settings. She brings deep expertise in peer support systems, large-scale facilitation, and community-driven change.
Victoria Sale
Co-Founder & Co-Executive DirectorVictoria's background is in complex care and healthcare systems. She co-authored the 2021 "Building the Value Case for Complex Care" toolkit with the Camden Coalition, and brings a rigorous understanding of how healthcare systems can better serve those at the intersection of medical, social, and behavioral complexity.
Sonya Soni
Co-FounderSonya is a Brooklyn-based writer-activist, prison abolitionist, and social movement strategist descended from freedom fighters from Punjab. She designs "Participatory Policymaking through Poetry" workshops for systems-impacted young people, using poetry as a template for policymakers to infuse humanity and radical imagination into policy design. A 2024–2025 Kweli Literary Fellow and Bandung artist resident, her work has spanned Partners In Health, Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, and PEN America's Prison & Justice Writing Program. She holds degrees from USC and Harvard University.
Get involved
This work is relational.
Whether you're a social innovator with lived expertise, an organization looking to build more authentic partnerships, or a funder who believes lived experience belongs at the center of systems change — we'd love to talk.