Boston, MA (July 30, 2026) — Lived Expertise Network for Systems Change (LENS), formerly Massachusetts CASA Association, today announced its evolution into an organization dedicated to transforming systems through lived expertise and advancing thewell-being of children, youth, families, and communities.

For nearly a decade, LENS leaders have worked alongside children, youth, families, advocates, and communities to strengthen child and family well-being. Through that work, they have recognized that meaningful change requires more than supporting individuals within existing systems. It requires transforming the narratives, policies, practices, and structures that shape
people’s lives.

Lived expertise is the knowledge, wisdom, and leadership gained through directly navigating systems and experiencing their impact firsthand. For too long, people with lived expertise have been viewed through narratives of risk, need, or deficit rather than recognized as experts with essential insight into how systems function and what must change. Lived expertise reveals how
systems operate in practice, where they fall short, the harm and inequities they can create, and the solutions needed to transform them.

The evolution into LENS represents a bold commitment to a long-held belief: people most impacted by systems must have meaningful influence and leadership in shaping their future. LENS was built on the belief that lived expertise was never the missing piece. The missing piece was whether systems were willing to recognize its power, trust its leadership, and create
meaningful pathways for it to shape change.

“Organizations must be willing to listen deeply, understand deeply, and respond when communities tell us what they are experiencing, what they need, and what must change,” said Charles Lerner, Executive Director of LENS and a former foster youth. “I know firsthand what it feels like to be a child impacted by systems and to not have someone recognize the harm or step
in when it mattered most. But I also know the wisdom, strength, and leadership that can come from those experiences. Years later, I found myself advocating for the rights and protections of children in foster care. This work has never been only about foster care. It is about strengthening families before they reach a crisis and creating systems rooted in dignity, compassion, and humanity so that more children can grow up safely with the people who love them. That’s the future we’re building at LENS.”

Why LENS, Why Now
Across communities, people with direct experience navigating complex systems have too often been asked to share their perspectives without meaningful opportunities to influence decisions, shape solutions, or lead transformation. Their experiences have been treated as information to collect, problems to manage, or risks to mitigate rather than expertise to value and
leadership to trust.

LENS exists to change that dynamic.

The need for a different approach is not abstract. Systems shape all of our lives, and across communities, people are experiencing systems that too often fall short. Families struggle to navigate health care systems that do not always center their needs, experiences, or voices. Students and parents encounter education systems that do not meet the needs of every child.
Communities experience the consequences of housing instability and economic insecurity, while public systems invest significant resources trying to address challenges that too often persist.

People with lived expertise often understand both the harm created by existing systems and what must change to create better solutions. The question is not whether communities have the knowledge, wisdom, and leadership needed to help create change. The question is whether systems are willing to listen, trust, and share power with the people who know them best. “The future of systems transformation requires moving beyond inviting people into the room,” said Lerner. “It requires creating pathways for people to have meaningful influence, authority, and power.”

How LENS Advances Systems Transformation
LENS advances systems transformation by creating pathways for lived expertise to shape how challenges are understood, solutions are developed, and change is driven.

Through six interconnected areas of work: Lived Expertise Leadership & Power Building, Public Education & Narrative Change, Systems Learning & Innovation, Workforce & Practice Transformation, Community Collaboration & Systems Alignment, and Policy & Systems Change, LENS works alongside communities, organizations, and systems to build collective power, challenge harmful narratives, strengthen practice, generate community-informed solutions, align efforts, and advance policies that improve the systems shaping people’s lives.

Together, these efforts translate lived expertise into collective influence, ensuring that people with firsthand experience are not only informing change but helping define, shape, and lead it. “What drew me to LENS was their courage to stand with families and to center the voices of those who have been pushed to the margins for generations,” said Tatiana Rodriguez, Founder and Executive Director of Family Matters 1st Inc. and a LENS lived expertise partner. “LENS recognizes that lived expertise isn’t a deficit; it’s truth. It’s the evidence of what families have survived, and it cannot be erased or gaslit. For too long, systems have spoken about families instead of listening to them. LENS is helping change that.”

LENS is building a future where lived expertise helps shape the systems that shape our lives. To learn more about LENS and opportunities to become involved, visit https://lexforchange.org/

About LENS
Lived Expertise Network for Systems Change (LENS) is a lived expertise-led organization advancing systems transformation by building collective power, elevating community wisdom, and creating pathways for people most impacted by systems to shape and lead change.

Through lived expertise leadership, narrative change, systems learning, community collaboration, policy and systems change, and innovation, LENS works alongside communities, organizations, and public systems to advance more equitable, prevention-centered, and human-centered approaches that promote dignity, justice, and well-being