Every Child, Inc.’s Post

Imagine waking up each day to face a storm inside your mind—anxiety so intense it demands medication just to glimpse a semblance of normalcy. Or depression that lingers like a relentless fog. Imagine showing up for work despite being homeless, crushed under the weight of unsustainable living costs. Think about being responsible for other families’ children while struggling to afford care for your own, trapped in a heart-wrenching cycle of sacrifice. This is a reality for far too many boots on the ground within the child welfare system. I have never encountered a more beleaguered or battered workforce than the one working within the child welfare system. It's the very system meant to provide support that inflicts profound emotional wounds not only on children and families but on its workforce. This bureaucratic labyrinth, paradoxically mirrors the very adversities it seeks to alleviate. It is not just a crisis of suffering—it is a poignant reflection of systemic failure that calls for urgent introspection and action. #fostercareawareness #CPS #childwelfare #justhelp

Over the past many years, we have seen a movement within our family serving systems – from substance abuse to child welfare – to include the people impacted most by those systems in the planning and decision-making processes. Organizations like Think of Us have been founded by and for people that have been impacted by the child welfare system. Bregetta Wilson, MS, LPC, our guest from season 1, leads a team of Parent Leaders at our Wisconsin Department of Children and Families that has advised changes to our state’s child welfare policies and procedures. At Children's Wisconsin’s, we have a Parent Advocate, Esmeralda Martinez, whose lived experience informs her role and the support she provides to parents that are living a similar experience to her own. So how might we advance these movements to meet the promise of “Nothing about us, without us”? How might we learn from people with lived experience about what overloads families in the first place, so that we might support them before child welfare and family separation is needed? How might we create the power balance that Liz Weaver discusses in episode 2 where those with lived experience have the influence to make meaningful changes to the decisions and systems that impact them the most? And lastly, how might we support our lived experience partners so that we don’t overload them or cause harm? Esmeralda Martinez joins the podcast to answer these questions through her experience and expertise. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eyfmaR6T and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Wellpoint Care Network, Meta House, Rogers Behavioral Health #livedexperience #parentadvocate #peersupport #trust #substanceabuse #domesticviolence #neglect #overloadedfamilies #childwelfare

Interdisciplinary collaboration = impactful solutions. Anna Koehle, EdD stresses the importance of crafting solutions that harness perspectives from diverse disciplines such as education, child welfare, and mental health to create effective programs and improve the lives of children and families. #ChildAbusePreventionMonth

What do child welfare leaders think about providing economic and concrete supports to families? And are they in a position to do so to prevent those families’ involvement in the child welfare system? Come learn what we learned from a national survey of those leaders.

The US Child Welfare System is Unsafe and Needs Reform-Prevention, Family Preservation, & Removal Protocols Know the Facts: The US Child Welfare System Forcible child separation, generational trauma, abuse, negligence, corruption, lies, and death. The #1 reason a child is forcibly removed from their family is poverty. The truth about the ‘System’ and those who have failed to act to protect our nation’s most vulnerable populations for decades. How Do We Fix the US Child Welfare System Federal reforms must be enacted immediately to keep all children and families safe and thriving. Studies show the #1 deterrent to child neglect, abuse and trafficking is to provide low-income families with support. (SO LET'S DO THAT!) The US Child Welfare System must employ a ‘Prevention First Platform’. Training, policies, procedures, and protocols need to be updated throughout the US Department of HHS, DHS, and social services to implement a cultural and behavioral shift to prioritize family preservation services.

For #KinshipCareMonth, we are highlighting a detailed factsheet sharing stories and advice from caregivers and birth parents who have experienced #kinshipcare on the importance of maintaining boundaries, managing family dynamics, building trust, positive parenting and communication, and securing support. A better understanding of how to maintain boundaries and respond to the birth parents' needs and concerns can help kinship caregivers improve reunification odds and long-term outcomes. 👉 Download the resource here: https://lnkd.in/g9wNNQf9 #mapoli #StandUpForChildren Child Welfare Information Gateway

Why should START continue to grow? Actually, START state leadership, child welfare workers and supervisors, family mentors, and treatment providers have LOTS of reasons: ·      START opens doors for people in #recovery. ·      START helps support families in their #growth. ·      START brings #childwelfare staff, family mentors, treatment providers, and court system professionals together to work in #partnership. ·      START is a catalyst for changing existing child welfare culture. Thanks, #Kentucky #START, for sharing your expertise with us during your statewide retreat! #bettertogether #strengtheningpartnershipsimprovingfamilyoutcomes 

Interested in learning more about our therapeutic modality that was designed to prevent kids from entering the foster care system? Attachment and Bio-behavioral Catch-Up (ABC) was designed by Dr Mary Dozier almost 25 years ago at the University of Delaware. Long-term research conducted on children who received this short-term, in-home intervention showed their cortisol levels were still low 20 years later! Interested in learning more? Reach out to me and we can talk further. #prevention #earlyintervention

Earlier this year, Jermaine Reed hosted the Color of Child Welfare conference, which included a keynote by Dorothy Roberts, author of Torn Apart. Ms. Roberts wrote an article last year titled, “Why End Mandated Reporting”, where she writes: “Poor and low-income families are more likely to come in contact with professionals who are mandated to report child maltreatment. Receiving social services, relying on welfare benefits, living in public housing or shelters, and using public clinics all subject parents to an extra layer of surveillance by government workers who are quick to report when they suspect maltreatment or a family’s needs for services.” This system has led to the troubling reality where 53% of Black children and 1 in 3 of all children in the United States are subject to a child maltreatment investigation. How does our current system of mandated reporting discourage families from seeking the help that they need due to fear of ending up in the child welfare system? How does it create moral dilemmas for the helpers – teachers, social workers, doctors and nurses – who feel compelled to report a family under the weight of the potential consequences if they don’t? How might we transform mandated reporting into community collaboration that lifts overloaded families over their challenges? Jermaine Reed from Fresh Start Family Services joins the podcast to share his expertise and explore these questions. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/eyfmaR6T and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. Joy DeGruy, National Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) #diversityequityinclusion #bias #mandated #overloaded #neglect #inclusion #workforce #discrimination

This report from our research partner RTI International describes the child welfare system (CWS) involvement of children and families participating in the third cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW III) baseline data collection. The report addresses the following research questions: • What are the characteristics of children and families in contact with the CWS beginning in 2017? • To what extent are children entering the CWS via pathways other than a maltreatment investigation or assessment? What are their characteristics? • What are the main reasons for child welfare involvement? • What services needs were identified by caseworkers, and of those, which services were received by children and their caregivers? • What levels of contact and satisfaction with caseworkers were reported by children and their caregivers? • What were the children’s experiences of placement changes reported by caseworkers? https://buff.ly/3X8c06e #Data #ChildWelfare