This week’s episode sheds light on the persistent challenges and significant opportunities in engaging people with lived experience in child welfare system transformation. While there is a lot of interest and focus on lived expertise, the truth is that working with the community is critical, but agencies often lack the skills and experience to do this well. It’s easy for leaders to fall back on old ways of thinking, outdated power dynamics, and entrenched incentives. Elliott and Tecoria talk to Jennifer Holman, Oregon Department of Human Services’ Family Preservation Manager, and Jeanine Morales, a Senior Advisor and lived expert at Foster America. They share their journey and the challenges along the way of altering traditional government approaches to focus on community-driven solutions.

While they outline how ODHS is working towards being better at integrating voices of lived experience to create meaningful change, they are honest that they don’t have the answers. What they want to leave listeners with is what you do when you don’t have the answers. For example, be patient, be honest, and prioritize relationships.

Community In-Site has a dedicated website where you can listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources that Jennifer and Jeanine would like to share with you.

• Oregon Department of Human Services : Services for Children, Youth and Families : Child and Youth Services : State of Oregon
• OPT-In for Families
• Home - Foster America

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this episode, hosts Tecoria and Elliott connect with Zenayda Bonilla, a mother who overcame the challenge of feeling silenced by the child welfare system. Zenayda shares her journey of navigating motherhood in a new country and culture, and how she found support through the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn. The Center for Family Life is one of the recipients of the Youth, Family, and Community Partnership Grants, awarded to nonprofits engaging Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities within the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative.

The Center has a unique approach to investing in people like Zenayda through community-driven models that harness the skills they already have and help their families thrive. Zenayda shares how their model of starting and supporting cooperative businesses helped her gain the skills, confidence, and support to become an employee, owner, and leader with Gold Steps Elder Care Cooperative. Listeners will learn how cooperatives are an innovative approach to meeting families' need for stable income, meaningful employment, and quality time with their children — things that traditional child protective services often fail to provide.

Community In-Site has a dedicated website where you can listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources that Zenayda would like to share with you.

• Please visit the Center for Family Life website - Center for Family Life
• Golden Steps
• United Community Consulting LLC

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

Keith Bostick is the President of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare and a long-term clinician, administrator, and director in the child welfare space. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of Broward County Human Services in the state of Florida. Along with the Haywood Burns Institute, Keith provides technical assistance to the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative to help advance the principle of addressing racial equity and disproportionality.

In this episode, hosts Tecoria and Elliot join Keith as he delves into the hard truth that not all families are treated fairly in communities. Keith shares his unflinching perspective on the structural racism that underpins many child welfare practices, leading to disproportionate impacts on Black and Brown children. He explains how, until we view these systems through a race equity lens, meaningful change will remain out of reach. Keith assesses where the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative is in terms of the race equity principle and how sites can make progress. He also shares critical insights about who holds authority and how inclusivity, especially involving those with lived experiences, can lead to change.

Community In-Site has a dedicated website where you can listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources that Keith would like to share with you.

Black Administrators in Child Welfare - Black Administrators in Child Welfare

Burns Institute - Burns Institute – Burns Institute

Navigating Racism in the Child Welfare System - Navigating Racism in the Child Welfare System: The Impact on Black Children, Families, and Practitioners

Child Safety Forward: A Reflection Guide to Shape Provider Conversations about Infant Sleep - Final CSF Conversation Guide on Sleep Practices.pdf

Race Equity Strategy Areas 2.0 - RESA 2.0 Booklet final.pdf

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com