The Importance of Centring Lived and Living Experience
As an organisation founded by a Young Carer, including lived and living experience has always been at the heart of our work. In 2009, our Founder and CEO, Madeleine Buchner OAM, used her living experience as a Young Carer to identify a gap in the support system for young people who cared for sick family members.
Let’s break down what it means to have lived or living experience as a Young Carer!
- “Young” refers to people aged 4 to 25
- “Carer” refers to people who provide ongoing support for a family member affected by disability, chronic or mental illness, addiction or conditions relating to aging
- “Living experience as a Young Carer” refers to Young Carers who currently provide care for a family member
- “Lived experience as a Young Carer” refers to Young Carers who previously provided care for a family member, or people above the age of 25 who provided care when they were in the ‘Young Carer’ age range (4 to 25 years old)
Growing up, Madeleine supported her brother, who has multiple chronic illnesses and her mother, who is a breast cancer survivor. This experience inspired Madeleine to fundraise within her local community to support Young Carers, eventually culminating in the business plan for Little Dreamers Australia. The passion and drive sparked by Madeleine’s personal experience continue to shape our approach to centring lived and living experiences today.
The importance of prioritising lived experience was highlighted in the 2019-2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Recommendation 28 of the Commission’s final report called for the full and effective participation of people with lived experience. In line with this, the Victorian Department of Health has committed to centring people with lived experience of mental illness and psychological distress – as well as their carers, family members and supporters – in Victoria’s new mental health and wellbeing system. As an organisation working to improve Young Carers’ quality of life across five key risk areas, including mental and physical health, the Commission’s recommendations reaffirmed Little Dreamers’ support for lived experience leadership.
Within our staff cohort, we are fortunate to have a depth of Young Carer lived experience, with 65% of our staff members bringing lived experience leadership into their roles. Lived experience is vital in enabling us to design and deliver tailored, nuanced programs. We also recognise that the Young Carer space is constantly changing, so it is essential to centre the voices of current Young Carers by embedding their insights into all aspects of our work.
Our ‘Young Carer: Advocate, Represent, Empower’ (YCARE) program, which launched in 2024, was foundational in our organisational approach to centring lived and living experiences through prioritising Young Carers’ voices. YCARE brought together 9 Victorian Young Carers between the ages of 15 to 18. YCARE participants shared their program preferences and provided input on our current program offerings. They also contributed to advocacy efforts at a federal level through their submissions to the National Carer Strategy Refresh. We are excited to launch Year 2 of the YCARE program in the coming months to build on the success of Year 1!
Expanding Young Carer Voice has been at the forefront of my work since I joined the Little Dreamers team as the Young Carer Voice Lead in August 2024. My role is dedicated to centring the voices of young people who have lived and living experiences as Young Carers. I have been proud to prioritise this through the creation of our very first Young Carer Advisory Committee (YCAC)! YCAC will serve as a platform for Young Carers to shape Little Dreamers’ programming and policies and to be involved in advocacy and research opportunities related to supporting Young Carers across Australia.
We are excited to share YCAC’s work with you when the Committee gets underway in July 2025. This is an exciting next step in our continued commitment to prioritising lived and living experiences!
Written by Jacqueline de Mamiel
