PHOENIX (STN) – In the final ‘McQuaid Mission’ of Season 3 of ‘It Happens at STN,’ leaders from Keys to Change and the ASU Action Nexus addressed an often overlooked asset in shaping effective solutions to homelessness: lived experience.
The panel, featuring Charles Schmiedeke, regional outreach manager for Keys to Change; Amy Schwabenlender, CEO; and Shaylee Chavez, ASU Action Nexus project manager, emphasized that listening to those with firsthand experience isn’t just valuable, it’s essential.
Schmiedeke spoke powerfully about why having staff members with lived experience on outreach teams transforms the work.
Lived experience drives strategy for Keys to Change:
“When someone who’s been through homelessness like myself shows up to offer support, there’s an immediate sense of understanding and credibility that can’t be faked,” he explained. That level of trust encourages clients to share more openly, allowing programs to be better tailored to their real needs and experiences.
From her perspective at ASU’s Action Nexus, Chavez highlighted how her team is working to integrate client voices into system-level decisions.
“When you make a decision, as a company or organization, you’re impacting someone’s life,” she said. “So include them in the conversation.” Chavez went on to share a recent success where client feedback led to an important scheduling change at a shelter, ensuring no one had to choose between getting a meal and securing a bed.
Schwabenlender rounded out the conversation by calling on leaders to be vulnerable and open to feedback, even when it challenges the status quo.
“We have to be willing to hear it and understand how to manage it,” she said. “Innovation isn’t always invention. It’s often iteration and improving what already exists.”
