Today’s guest is Clare Anderson, a policy expert and passionate advocate for using evidence to drive upstream investments to prevent child welfare involvement. Claire is a Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, and she’s spent years organizing data to help us understand the impact of economic policy on families — and what puts them at risk.

Clare helps connect the dots between the economic shocks that families experience between economic policy and child welfare involvement. Clare shares the preponderance of evidence from 40 years of research that simply validates what families have been saying all along: invest in public benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, and child care if you truly want to dramatically reduce family separation and foster care placements.

But this conversation is about more than the data. Underlying Clare’s message is a worldview centered on creativity, compassion, and imagination. Clare’s work reminds us that systems don’t change just because of evidence; they change when people decide to act differently. And she invites us to think about what it means to meet families not at the moment of crisis, but at the moment of opportunity.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

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

• Access to Medicaid and Healthcare Promotes Child Safety – Chapin Hall
• Expanded Child Tax Credit as a Key Anti-Poverty & Child Welfare Prevention Strategy – Chapin Hall
• Access to Food Assistance Programs Increases Child Safety – Chapin Hall
• Disrupting the Link Between Poverty and Child Welfare Involvement through Policy, Practice – Chapin Hall
• A Key Connection: Economic Stability and Family Well-being – Chapin Hall

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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

Valerie sits down with Mashai Small—a former army sergeant, a mother, and member of the African National Women’s Organization leadership team. She’s also an organizer, abolitionist, and one of the leaders of the Black Mother’s March happening in Washington, DC on May 11th.

Part of the family well-being movement is the abolitionist perspective, which holds that the path to justice requires dismantling the parts of systems that harm and oppress people. And that we have to invest in communities to liberate families.

Mashai shares her journey from being an impacted parent to an organizer and activist fighting for the rights of families. She discusses the personal and community-based motivations behind her activism, including the systemic issues of racial inequity. Mashai shares what it means to organize in this space, the significance of the upcoming Black Mothers March, and the fight to keep Black families together. Through her work, Mashai offers powerful lessons on how Black parents can advocate for themselves and their families while pushing for a more just and equitable child welfare system.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

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

• Home | African National Women's Organization
• Home | Black Mothers March
• The Soul Koach | Linktree

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

Valerie sits down with David Lujan who is the former Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Arizona School for the Arts. They discuss his pivotal role in significantly reducing the number of children in care in Arizona. In 2017, there were nearly 19,000 kids in foster care in Arizona. During David’s time at DCS, he oversaw a dramatic decrease in the foster care population, from 13,000 to under 8,000 children. This change was made possible through a strategic shift in case worker mindset, a focus on prevention, community-based services, and keeping children safely with their families. David shares his insights on how Arizona began prioritizing family preservation, including early intervention programs that provided parents with resources and support to address challenges before they escalated to removal.

David also reflects on the challenges he faced in transforming a system that had been designed primarily for intervention into one that prioritized preventing family separation. He explains how collaboration across state agencies, communities, and nonprofit organizations was key to creating lasting change. Tune in to hear about David’s leadership, the lessons learned through this transformative process, and how these strategies could serve as a model for other states striving to create a more family-centered child welfare system.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

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

• A drastic decrease in the number of children in foster care | The Arizona Way
• DCS reaches milestone in safely reducing the number of children in care | Arizona Department of Child Safety

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, Valerie sits down with Heather Hanson, Founder of Building Bridges, LLC, and a leader in the Colorado Partnership for Thriving Families. Heather takes us through the journey of The Story of the System—a project that was initiated, designed, and led by individuals with lived experience to transform the way Colorado's systems engage with families. The project focuses on storytelling and qualitative data to ensure that the voices of those most impacted are heard and understood.

Heather reflects on the pivotal moment when the project idea was born, the power dynamics at play, and how this research led her to start her own consulting business, Building Bridges, dedicated to amplifying the voices of families in systems change. She shares insights on how shifting power from systems leaders to those directly affected by the system can drive sustainable, meaningful change. Tune in to hear about how lived experience leaders are reshaping policies and creating a future where families are supported and empowered.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

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

• You can read the Story of the System Report here: SOTS_Report_FINAL.pdf
• You can learn more about Illuminate Colorado here: Home - Illuminate
• You can learn about Heather's business Building Bridges here: LinkedIn

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, we re-release the conversation with Gwen Clegg, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Office of Family Representation. At the end of the episode, Valerie and Gwen catch up on what has happened in the past year, including the office’s growth, impact, new innovations, and what’s on the horizon.

As a reminder, Season One hosts, Elliott and Tecoria, talked to Gwen Clegg about Oklahoma’s new statewide Office of Family Representation. The office was so new at the time of the recording that it hadn’t even launched yet. Gwen is a parent defense attorney who has been working tirelessly to improve the quality of family representation in Oklahoma for more than 15 years. This conversation revealed how, across the country, families experiencing a child welfare case suffer from poorly funded, overworked, and ill-equipped (albeit well-intentioned) attorneys, which can lead to negative and sometimes dire consequences. Listeners followed Gwen through her journey of turning a vision of high-quality family representation in Oklahoma into a legislative-passed and funded reality.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

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

• Learn more about the app “Your Case Plan” and how it is being used to improve case communication and engagement between parents and attorneys. Your Case Plan, Your Case Plan Expands to North Carolina
• How to empower parents and children involved in the child welfare system through uniform, high-quality legal representation. Home - Oklahoma Office of Family Representation
• The Family Justice Initiative is a wonderful resource for high-quality legal representation of parents and children in abuse and neglect cases. Family Justice Initiative

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

Valerie sits down with Lisa Lawson, the President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. They discuss her leadership in the child welfare sector and the Foundation's pivotal role in advancing the Thriving Families, Safer Children (TFSC) movement. Lisa reflects on her journey as a leader, Foundation President, and the future of the TFSC movement.

Lisa shares insights into the shift from improving the foster care system to investing in community-based health promotion and family well-being. She also speaks about the work the Foundation is doing to keep children and families safe and thriving in their communities without involvement in the child welfare system.

The conversation explores the key principles behind the approach to TFSC, the challenges they’ve faced, and the tangible progress that’s being made. Lisa reflects on what excites her about the future of the child welfare sector and the role of philanthropy in driving lasting change. Tune in to hear how leadership, vision, and strategic partnerships are working together to create a movement that prioritizes prevention over intervention.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

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

• Thriving Families, Safer Children Embraces a Public Health Approach to System Reform - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• The Work of the Annie E. Casey Foundation

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, Valerie connects with Ashley Bates, a fellow parent leader in Kentucky and a Lead Family Coordinator. Ashley shares her powerful journey from navigating the challenges of substance use and family separation to becoming an advocate for change in Kentucky's child welfare system. She reflects on the importance of parent leadership, the value of lived expertise, and how her experiences shaped her commitment to reducing stigma and improving family outcomes.

Ashley offers an inside look at Kentucky’s approach to engaging impacted parents in systems reform efforts. She discusses the evolution of her own advocacy work, from her role as a peer recovery mentor to her current position on Kentucky SEAT (System Experience at the Table), which is a statewide impacted parent advisory council. Throughout the episode, Ashley emphasizes how involving families in systems change conversations and providing parents with leadership development opportunities can reshape the future of child welfare policies. Her story is a powerful example of how investing in parents with lived experience can drive meaningful, long-lasting change.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

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

• KYSEAT – Kentucky Youth Advocates: Kentucky's statewide birth parent advisory council
• TFSCKY – Kentucky Youth Advocates: Kentucky's Thriving Families, Safer Children site work
• Building the Voices of Lived Experience: Lessons Learned from Navigating the System – Kentucky Youth Advocates
• KYThrivingfamilies.org – Navigating the Child Welfare System in Kentucky

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, Valerie talks with Marie Zemler Wu and D.L. Moffitt of Foster America about an innovative shift happening in child welfare financing. Marie, Co-founder and Executive Director, and D.L., Fiscal Innovation Specialist, explain how Foster America is reimagining the way we support families by creating a just and equitable alternative to the current child welfare system. They envision families receiving the support they need before encountering child protective services and the threat of family separation.

Foster America has a fiscal strategy centered on family preservation. In partnership with national leaders and philanthropies, they launched the Fiscal Leadership Circle to rethink how existing child welfare funding is utilized. Marie and D.L. share insights into the crucial role fiscal leaders play in driving systemic change and how mentorship and community-building around state and federal funding streams can offer new opportunities to rethink resource allocation.

This conversation goes beyond financing. It’s about aligning our budgets with our values, ensuring that funding reflects what families truly need. Marie and D.L. also highlight a real-life example of a family benefiting from these approaches, showing how fiscal innovation can help keep families together.

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 Marie and D.L. would like to share with you.

• Learn more about Foster America - Home - Foster America
• Fiscal Leadership Circle video - Funding the Future: A Fiscal Approach to Child Welfare Transformation
• Fiscal Leadership Circle blog - Fiscal experts tackle child welfare funding challenges - Foster America
• Inaugural Fiscal Leadership Circle cohort - 2024 Fiscal Leadership Circle
• White House leaders join Foster America at event advancing strategies to support families - 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