Vol. 7 June 2021
Institute News
The latest news, successes stories, and updates
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You Can Still Register for the #10thousandlives
Movement!
It's been 10 months since we launched the #10thousandlives movement and we've made incredible progress! It's been an absolute joy to work with so many passionate individuals and groups, training, consulting, and advocating on all things family search and engagement. Thank you to all of the new partners we've made!
As of May 2021:
- 699 professionals have participated in the movement.
- 3178 lives have been impacted.
- 320 hours of free service have been provided.
- 874 other professionals have been impacted by the work.
Don't take our word for it. Here's a couple quotes from some of our participants on their experiences with the #10thousandlives Movement:
"Being able to network with other professional across the country is invaluable. It not only shows where the pitfalls are in my own agency's process, but where like minded individuals can brainstorm strategies that are tailored to their specific needs. Since being a part of the #10thousandlives Movement, as a worker, I have been able to find family faster whether it is for placement or connection."
"These educational opportunities are golden. I learn so much from each one. It is awesome to hear tips from other agencies!"
The Work Continues
Click the image below to apply for our #10thousandlives Movement as we move closer to our goal of working with 1,000 professionals and impacting the lives of 10,000 children and families.
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Our Family Search and Engagement Learning Collaborative was a Success!
Beginning on April 4th, 2021, our four part Learning Collaborative series saw 96 professionals join us from around the world to take deep dives into various dynamics of Family Search and Engagment.
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We collaborated on strategies for search and engagement during the pandemic, for youth and families in general, and shared innovative techniques for finding relatives for children in foster care. Breakout sessions during the collaboratives led to comradery and networking opportunities for child welfare professionals who were otherwise separated by great distances.
There were many "aha" moments when exploring cultural awareness, perceived power dynamics, and how to work with resistant relatives. For each session, we compiled the discussions into useful documents with tools, tips, and strategies that you can put into practice right away! Check out the wonderful resources we've put together from these sessions, as well as a number of other resources, by navigating your way to our Engagement Techniques and Scripts!
Here's a sample of just 5 of theses great takeaways:
- When engaging family members, remember that everyone has something to contribute. Don't dismiss the input of any family member based on background or family dynamics.
- Remember there can be a perceived imbalanced power dynamic by family members at all stages in a child welfare case. Take steps to eliminate this power dynamic through relationship building.
- When sending a letter to a family member at an unverified address, request an "address correction service" at the post office. They will provide a forwarding address if one is listed.
- When engaging older youth, make sure they are fully aware of their rights within the child welfare system. Many times they may be confused and unsure of what questions to even ask.
- When engaging with family members virtually, know your audience. Make sure that you know who all is potentially part of the conversation. Don't start discussing sensitive topics with a family member via Zoom without verifying that the person is comfortable with anyone else in the room hearing.
Be on the lookout for news about future Learning Collaboratives!
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Spotlight - Amanda Behnk, 30 Days to Family® Manager
Meet Amanda Behnk, the brand new 30 Days to Family® Manager at Cornerstones of Care in Kansas City, Kansas! After serving as a 30 Days to Family® Specialist at Cornerstones for over a year, Amanda transitioned into the management position in early May of 2021 and has absolutely hit the ground running.
We took the opportunity this month to ask Amanda a few questions about her experience with the 30 Days to Family® program itself, and what she is excited about entering her new role.
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How do you describe 30 Days to Family® to someone who knows nothing about it?
30 Days to Family® is a program that utilizes exhaustive efforts to locate placement and supports for children who come into state care without an approved relative placement. Unlike other family finding programs, 30 Days to Family® works urgently with only two families at a time, and identifies relatives well into the 4th generation. This allows the Specialist to dedicate an incredible amount of focused effort, digging deeper into relative search and engagement than any other child welfare professional has the capacity to do. A genogram is ultimately developed that often exceeds more than 150 individuals.
Identified relatives are engaged from the earliest possible moment in a child's time in care, believing that every night in foster care is a night in crisis. Relatives that want to provide placement are assessed, approved, and the child is moved to family as quickly as possible. Many times a child is able to spend only a few nights in a stranger's foster home, sometimes not even one!
30 Days to Family® Specialists extend this sense of urgency to all other program activities, acting with the same level of focus as they would if they were serving members of their own family. Not stopping when a relative is identified to care for the child, the Specialist will continue to search and engage family members for backup care options, and as many natural supports for the child and parents as possible. Families can and will support each other! We just have to give them the opportunity!
30 Days to Family® Specialists hold to very fundamental philosophies, including believing that everyone in the family has something to contribute and only themselves are the experts on what is best for their own family. The tone is set that the family members are partners of the child welfare system, not clients, and their participation is essential for the children to have positive outcomes.
What's the coolest part about 30 Days to Family®?
The most exciting part of 30 Days to Family® is that we are able to find distant relatives and find estranged family members that want to be in touch and involved with these children. Without 30 Days to Family®, and the fidelity to the structured model, we might miss out on some of these key players.
What part of your job and this new role drives you?
I believe that all children deserve stability and safety, and 30 Days to Family® allows that to happen for more children. It allows children to be with people they know and to hopefully not experience the same level of trauma they might if they were moving from one foster home to the next.
What opportunities with your new role are you most excited about?
I am excited to see what our 30 Days to Family® team can do and excited to advocate for expanded family search and engagement efforts as a whole at Cornerstones of Care.
Want to learn more about 30 Days to Family®? Click here!
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Promoting Racial Equality in Child Welfare
Black children represent almost one-quarter of the children in foster care in the United States but only 14% of the general population.1
This type of trend has been traditionally understood as a product of institutionalized racial bias within child welfare. Research shows that black children experience more negative outcomes at every stage of a child welfare case.2
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As a system, we have to be proactive about eliminating these trends. Over the last decade or so, new interventions and techniques are being tried in areas all over the country. But there is always more work to be done. Here are just a few of the various methods that are in play today.
Blind Removals
In 2010, Nassau County, in New York State, began implementing the process of blind removals. Investigative staff considering removing children from their families and placing them in foster care present the details of the case to a committee of professionals after "de-identifying" the family members in terms of demographic information. Names, races, ethnicities, and addresses are not provided to the members of these committees, allowing them to make determinations about removing children solely on the evidence supporting child abuse and neglect.
Through the implementation of blind removals, as well as increased trainings and staff self awareness about institutional racism and implicit bias, Nassau County has made great strides in reducing negative trends. Between 2011 and 2016, after a color-blind removal process was deployed, the percentage of Black children removed from their homes in Nassau County went from 57% to 21%.2 The practice is now being expanded and implemented in various other jurisdictions around the country.
To learn more about blind removals click here!
Racial Equity Core Teams
A Racial Equity Core Team is a primary leadership team responsible for designing, coordinating, and organizing racial equity plans and activities across a government jurisdiction or institution that is committed to equitable systems change. The Core Team often serves as the engine for change, leading the way, pulling others along, chugging through sometimes challenging terrain, keeping things on track, moving a diverse community of people in a common direction, and building the movement and momentum to arrive at the destination of equitable outcomes.3
Why are Racial Equity Core Teams needed? Issues of racial inequality can be difficult conversations to have even between two people, let alone within an entire agency. The Core Teams are needed to normalize conversations about race and proactively strategize about the most effective and sensitive ways to advocate for change. Core Teams can take the best of intentions an agency has about promoting racial equity and turn them into actionable tasks.
The expectations and responsibilities of Core Team members will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but may include:
- Champion and advocate for racial justice and model the organizational values.
- Represent agencies or departments at leadership meetings and communicate messages from the Core Team to your own agency or department.
- Participate in all Core Team meetings and activities, as well as committees, work teams or caucuses.
- Provide leadership, facilitation, coaching, and technical assistance to internal departmental equity teams to figure out openings to pilot activities, develop goals and plans, and implement strategies for achieving results.
- Coordinate, track, and report agency/department racial equity action plans, successes and improvements.
- Continually learn and support agency/department learning.
- Meet with employees, especially those whose voices may not be considered, and encourage employee-generated ideas and solutions.
- An opportunity to inform and implement strategy and plans to advance racial equity and social justice across all areas of work within a department or jurisdiction.
- An opportunity to collaborate and build relationships with staff across divisions, and leverage internal expertise to advance the goals of the effort.
- An opportunity to build personal and professional knowledge and skills, including: Strategic planning, effective communications, complex problem solving, application of racial equity assessment tools for planning and decision-making, and in-depth analysis of racism and racial justice.
Agencies in North Carolina, Washington, Minnesota and New York are adopting this approach. Learn more and access the Racial Equity Core Teams toolkit by clicking here!
Racial Equity Impact Assessments
Race Forward, the Center for Racial Justice Innovation, promotes the use of Racial Equity Impact Assessments for use in jurisdictions everywhere. A Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA) is a
systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision. REIAs are used to minimize unanticipated adverse consequences in a variety of contexts, including the analysis of proposed policies, institutional practices, programs, plans and budgetary decisions. The REIA can be a vital tool for preventing institutional racism and for identifying new options to remedy long-standing inequities.4
Why are REIAs needed? REIAs are used to reduce, eliminate and prevent racial discrimination and inequities. The persistence of deep racial disparities and divisions across society is evidence of institutional racism––the routine, often invisible and unintentional, production of inequitable social opportunities and outcomes. When racial equity is not consciously addressed, racial inequality is often unconsciously replicated.4
The REIAs consist of a variety of questions with certain goals, such as:
- IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS: Which racial/ethnic groups may be most affected by and concerned with the issues related to this proposal?
- ENGAGING STAKEHOLDERS: Have stakeholders from different racial/ethnic groups— especially those most adversely affected—been informed, meaningfully involved and authentically represented in the development of this proposal? Who’s missing and how can they be engaged?
- IDENTIFYING AND DOCUMENTING RACIAL INEQUITIES: Which racial/ethnic groups are currently most advantaged and most disadvantaged by the issues this proposal seeks to address? How are they affected differently? What quantitative and qualitative evidence of inequality exists? What evidence is missing or needed?
- EXAMINING THE CAUSES: What factors may be producing and perpetuating racial inequities associated with this issue? How did the inequities arise? Are they expanding or narrowing? Does the proposal address root causes? If not, how could it?
- CLARIFYING THE PURPOSE: What does the proposal seek to accomplish? Will it reduce disparities or discrimination?
- CONSIDERING ADVERSE IMPACTS: What adverse impacts or unintended consequences could result from this policy? Which racial/ethnic groups could be negatively affected? How could adverse impacts be prevented or minimized?
- ADVANCING EQUITABLE IMPACTS: What positive impacts on equality and inclusion, if any, could result from this proposal? Which racial/ethnic groups could benefit? Are there further ways to maximize equitable opportunities and impacts?
- EXAMINING ALTERNATIVES OR IMPROVEMENTS: Are there better ways to reduce racial disparities and advance racial equity? What provisions could be changed or added to ensure positive impacts on racial equity and inclusion?
- ENSURING VIABILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY: Is the proposal realistic, adequately funded, with mechanisms to ensure successful implementation and enforcement? Are there provisions to ensure ongoing data collection, public reporting, stakeholder participation and public accountability?
- IDENTIFYING SUCCESS INDICATORS: What are the success indicators and progress benchmarks? How will impacts be documented and evaluated? How will the level, diversity and quality of ongoing stakeholder engagement be assessed?
The application of REIAs in various jurisdictions is already underway! Agencies in Minneapolis and Seattle, among others, are showing promising results.5 Learn more by clicking here!
As we at the Institute watch policy and practices unfold that support racial equity, we are beyond excited to continue to learn more and share any new innovative practices which get us closer to a fully equitable child welfare system.
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1. https://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=foster-care
2. Pryce, J., Lee, W., Crowe, E., Park, D., McCarthy, M., & Owens, G. (2018). A case study in public child welfare: County-level practices that address racial disparity in foster care placement. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 13(1), 35-59.
3. https://www.racialequityalliance.org/resources/racial-equity-core-teams-the-engines-of-institutional-change/
4. https://www.raceforward.org/sites/default/files/RacialJusticeImpactAssessment_v5.pdf
5. https://www.aecf.org/m/resourcedoc/aecf-ToolsforThoughtCaseStudy-2016.pdf
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Until next month, we wish you hope, health and well-being.
- The Institute Team
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