The latest news & thinking from Alia...

When families are involved with Child Protective Services (CPS), navigating the complexities of parental engagement within services and meeting parents where they are is crucial for reunification with their children. As social workers, we often focus on understanding the parent’s readiness for change, but we must also consider other dynamics.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent throughout the United States raising awareness about children in foster care. These campaigns are intended to pull at the heartstrings so that people are called to action. Unfortunately, the picture (nee I say myths) these campaigns paint of unloved and unwanted children frequently epitomizes the toxic narrative that is decimating families under the veil of child protection. I’d like to offer my own counter-narrative to some of these myths so that we may begin to get the story straight.