Jan 8 2025
Why Now? The Urgent Call for Family-Centered Systems Transformation
Over the past 30 years, we have seen a 60% decline in physical and sexual abuse of children across the United States. At the same time, we have only seen a 10% decline in child neglect. We have also seen poverty remain stubbornly persistent while learning that 85% of families investigated by the Child Protective Services live at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. As we have learned over these years about the positive impacts of social connections on our well-being and ability to manage stress and crises, we have also seen social isolation grow across our country.These realities have motivated us over the past three years of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative and the first two seasons of this podcast series to build a shared understanding of neglect, its underlying roots causes, and the social and systemic critical pathways we may take to advance promising solutions. This year and this season of the podcast, we confront these complex realities where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them; and we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive.To do that, we must ask, how might we transform our systems, create a prevention ecosystem, and center families as the experts they are and the changemakers they should be?And why now? Today’s episode included the following speakers (in the order they appear):Host: Luke WaldoExperts:Jennifer Jones – Prevent Child Abuse AmericaKate Luster – Rock County Department of Human ServicesAllison Thompson – Center for Guaranteed Income ResearchSamantha Copus – Jefferson County Parents Supporting ParentsBlake Roberts Crall – Madison Forward FundBryan Samuels – Chapin HallAnthony Barrows – Network of Intersectional ProfessionalsMarlo Nash – Children’s Home Society of AmericaLaura Radel – US Department of Health and Human ServicesJaclyn Gilstrap – A Visual ApproachNorma Hatfield – Generations UnitedAndry Sweet, CEO, Children's Home Society of FloridaRamona Denby-Brinson – University of North Carolina School of Social Work:00–2:33 - Luke Waldo Over the past 30 years, we have seen a 60% decline in physical and sexual abuse of children across the United States. At the same time, we have only seen a 10% decline in child neglect. We have also seen poverty remain stubbornly persistent while learning that 85% of families investigated by the Child Protective Services live at or below 200% of the federal poverty line. As we have learned over these years about the positive impacts of social connections on our well-being and ability to manage stress and crises, we have also seen social isolation grow across our country.These realities have motivated us over the past three years of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative and the first two seasons of this podcast series to build a shared understanding of neglect, its underlying roots causes, and the social and systemic critical pathways we may take to advance promising solutions. This year and this season of the podcast, we confront these complex realities where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them; and we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive.To do that, we must ask, how might we transform our systems, create a prevention ecosystem, and center families as the experts they are and the changemakers they should be?And why now? Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities Initiative2:34-7:29 – Jennifer JonesIn 2022, over 3 million children were investigated for child maltreatment. There is great disproportionality for Black children as 50% will be investigated in their childhood by the child welfare system. We invest too little in prevention.We know that child welfare reform is happening across the country to provide better outcomes for children and families already in the system or entering today. But we also know that we have to move further upstream.We also know that social connectedness and Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) are essential to long-term well-being. So we don’t want to just prevent bad things from happening, we want to promote PCEs.Positive Childhood Experiences – Jennifer JonesWe need to address the context within which children and families live rather than just focusing on the individual challenges. We need to address the systemic issues.7:30-8:27 – Kate Luster“In Rock County, about 22% of our families in in involved in child welfare services are Black African-American families, whereas only 7% of our county population is represented by Black families. And so we have overrepresentation at sort of every step of every level of decision making within the child welfare continuum, reports to access screened-in reports, investigations, separations, and out of home placements, et cetera. So we know we are we're not alone in that. Those are statistics that show up ah across the state and across the country. And we feel committed to prioritizing addressing those disparities in our work moving forward.”8:28-10:06 - Allison ThompsonOne in eight Americans live in poverty. And even with a full-time job, most families working minimum wage jobs still can't meet their basic needs. In fact, across many US cities, a parent of two children making the minimum wage would need to work between two to four minimum wage jobs just to make ends meet without benefits. And even with benefits, a parent working a full-time minimum wage job with two children typically experiences a $3,000 to $5,000 gap each month between their basic cost of living and their income and benefits.To make matters worse, nearly half of all families with annual incomes of less than $25,000 a year also experience pretty significant income volatility, which means that their income each month is prone to both rapid and unpredictable change.Each month, families are often forced to make hard decisions to survive, decisions about paying utility bills or purchasing more costly, healthy foods. paying co-pays for their own medication versus paying their rent. And the bottom line is that neither the labor market nor the social safety net in the US is sufficient to keep families out of poverty. More is needed. 10:07-10:30 – Samantha Copus “It’s the child welfare system, not the parent welfare system. Who’s going to be looking after these parents who are looking out for their children?”10:31-11:11 - Allison ThompsonIncreasingly, we also know that economic and material hardship are significant predictors of child welfare involvement. This shows up as neglect often in the child welfare system. penalizing families for not having the means or resources necessary to make up for these market failures or government shortcomings. This type of neglect suggests that addressing inadequate economic resources should be one of the core set of tools for families when aiming to prevent child welfare involvement and out-of-home placement. So guaranteed income has emerged as an evidence-informed strategy to alleviate some of the burden that families bear as a result of the market failures and safety net shortcomings.”11:13-12:18 - Blake Roberts Crall “And I really believe that our social safety net in this country plays a huge, huge role in helping to ensure financial security for our families and their well-being. So that's a really important part of our social infrastructure that we need, um and it does it does a lot for families and for children. And at the same time, there's still so much more to do because there are families that are still struggling. We know that people are not able to make ends meet. And I think that there's an opportunity to look at our social safety net and figure out ways that we can make it better, make it more accessible, more inclusive, and provide more resources to families. It seems pretty crazy to me that you can be working in this country full time or working more than full time and still not be able to pay all of your bills and still to be struggling financially. The term working poor, we hear that a lot. That's literally people are working, but still under that poverty line. So for me, there's a lot of opportunity to be doing something different and really to think about how can we build systems of care and well-being for everyone. And I think guaranteed income or basic income is one possible tool that we can add in our toolbox.”What is Guaranteed Income? – Madison Forward Fund12:19-13:16 - Jennifer Jones The Theory of Change shifts to building and aligning a prevention ecosystem to create the conditions so all children and families can thrive. We want them to have what they need, when they need it, in the places where they need it. Theory of Change for Primary Prevention in the United States – Prevent Child Abuse America13:17-14:34 – Bryan SamuelsPeople come upon good ideas, they spend as much time as they can, but then often have to move on. After George Floyd’s murder, there was a moment where real change was demanded around equity for our communities. So Chapin Hall began focusing on how authentic systems transformation through community engagement occurs.System Transformation through Community Leadership – Chapin Hall14:36-15:30 - Luke Waldo Why is the authentic integration of Lived Experience into our systems and organizations’ decision-making and power-sharing needed today? 15:32-15:46 - Anthony Barrows“I’ve been on the inside of these systems. I’ve seen how they can positively transform people’s lives when they work and chew up and spit out people when they don’t work.”15:47-15:55 - Samantha Copus“The single most frustrating thing is screaming and feeling like no one can hear you.” 15:57-16:58 – Marlo Nash The current transactional state of Lived Experience in our systems practices. We need to move away from this, and yet there isn’t a guidebook or crystal-clear path.16:59-17:41 - Laura Radel“But there is a lot of excitement in many of the groups around the expansion of authentic engagement. I think that was a key theme that was coming out. However, folks are struggling within their organizations about making a true culture shift, and moving from a rallying cry to real action, more upstream in our processes and activities, and moving from storytelling and commenting mostly on the back end and on tentative decisions that our organizations have already started to make instead of engaging folks early and often, and with true power-sharing from the beginning.”17:42-18:43 – Jaclyn Gilstrap How do we address the harm when it happens, not if it happens? How do we do this for real, for real? People with lived experience confront many barriers, so how do we address this? 18:44-19:27 – Norma Hatfield True collaboration requires that we work together from the beginning of a process all the way until we are done building something together. House metaphor. 19:28-19:54 – Andry Sweet Co-creation requires that we really listen.19:55-20:48 Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson – Lived experience is a way of knowing. Moving away from the transactional nature of these relationships. We want the same for our families – health, happiness, and hope.20:49-21:04 - Anthony Barrows Who isn’t being listened to in your work?21:05-21:36 - Marlo Nash People with lived experience are willing to share their stories, often traumatic, but also their expertise to make changes that will improve outcomes for children and families now and for future generations.21:39-21:54 - Luke Waldo – Closing and Gratitude 21:56-23:00 Luke Waldo - 3 Key Takeaways We don't want to only prevent the bad things from happening. We need to promote and grow the good things.How might systems change themselves in order to respond to the needs of a diverse population of families that they serve?How do we address the harm that we've caused, and how do we do this for real, for real. How do we have the humility and the accountability to address the harm that has been caused, that families that we serve have been telling us, often yelling, yet unheard for too long.23:07-24:30 - Luke Waldo – Closing CreditsJoin the conversation and connect with us!Visit our podcast page on our ICFW website to learn more about the experts you hear in this series.Subscribe, rate our show and leave feedback in the comments section.Sign up for our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative and our quarterly newsletter.Follow the Institute for Child and Family Well-being on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.Email Luke Waldo at lwaldo@childrenswi.org to share how you are changing the conditions so that children and families can thrive.