Where Every Journey to Stability Begins.
At PEOPLE, we empower and employ people in Kelowna and surrounding Central Okanagan areas with lived and living experience to step into new roles for themselves. In helping them do that, we improve their lives and the community. By valuing and destigmatizing individuals, we can make a meaningful and lasting difference in the community in which we all live and work.
Together, We Build
Stronger Futures.
PEOPLE Lived Experience Society was founded with the idea that we are missing important pieces of the puzzle to solve issues of homelessness and substance use disorders. PEOPLE is a collaborative effort bridging this gap by recognizing the value of lived experience and peer support and the value of community in achieving social change. We employ, train, and support people with lived experience to work on the ground in front-line roles helping others currently experiencing those challenges to find the resources they need that are available in the community.
Xast Wilx Tn
(A Place to Get Better)
Beneath the whispering hills of Syilx land,
Where the pines still remember who you are,
A home stands—not of concrete and code,
But of stories, fire, and fractured stars.
Xast Wilx Tn—not a shelter, but a circle,
Where time slows to listen for truth.
Where pain is not punished, but witnessed,
And silence speaks louder than proof.
Walls that have heard relapse and resurrection,
Dreams reborn from cigarette smoke,
Chairs that carry the weight of confession,
Tables where no one’s spirit broke.
This is not the end of the road,
It’s the bend where your soul takes a breath.
Where the addict, the exile, the fatherless son
Come back from the grip of near-death.
The Seven Teachings echo through hallways,
Like old drums beneath the tile,
Love, Courage, Humility, and Truth—
Held in every coffee-stained smile.
We-break bread, we break silence,
We break down and begin again.
Each scar, a syllable of medicine—
Each tear, an offering to the wind.
This is where the ghosts come gently,
Not to haunt—but to be healed.
Where the ancestors sit on our shoulders,
And shame is finally unsealed.
In Xast Wilx Tn, you are not your history.
You are not your crime, your name.
You are the seed the land still believes in,
And the fire that cannot be tamed.
Peer Testimonials
These testimonials are from people who have worked with our program. Their names have been withheld for privacy.
FROM STRUGGLE TO
STRENGTH
PEOPLE Lived Experience Society uses traditional, non-traditional, and indigenous mentorship programs to help people heal, to help people learn new skills, and to set people up for success in the workplace and in their personal lives.
We connect with local employers, local resources, the municipality, and our group of trained employees to build these new bridges of success and knock down barriers and stigmas.
