May 2023 Newsletter

This month from our CEO...

Amelia Franck Meyer joined the hosts of the New Hampshire Children's Trust podcast for their 50th Anniversary episode! She highlighted the footings of the child welfare system and how, through small but significant changes, we can create UnSystems so that all families thrive. Listen to the podcast here!

Rock County Equity Project

Last week at the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) National Human Services Summit, we delighted in the opportunity to share about the collaborative systems transformation work happening in Rock County, WI we call the Rock County Equity Project.

Our Community Cultivator, LaMikka James, and CEO, Amelia Franck Meyer, shared insights and learnings from the co-design process alongside Kate Luster, Director of the Rock County Human Services Department.

Focused on the Rock County community of Beloit, the goals of the project are to eliminate racial disparity in child protective services; reduce the number of children placed out of home; and engage with families with increased satisfaction. So far, the number of youth in care dropped by 73% and the use of residential care dropped by 34%.

Two years of system readiness and community mobilizing and an October 2022 design sprint resulted in the Idea Book: A New Future for Beloit Families. This is a co-created, mutually accountable, actionable plan from the perspective of Black families in Beloit to minimize impact of CPS by creating a beloved community of support.

Read the Idea Book to learn more

Here are some ideas that got us thinking this month. Visit our website to read the full-length posts, and join us in the conversations online!

• When adults are able to meet the needs of their families – starting with the most basic such as quality housing, food, healthcare, and childcare – it creates a solid foundation for safe and healthy child development. Conversely, multiple family stressors increase the risk of parental overload. This, in turn, increases incidences of child abuse and neglect and child welfare involvement.

• Right-sizing child welfare is an adaptive challenge. Narrowing child protective services down to its rightful, marginal place in a much larger series of preventive strategies for promoting child safety and family wellbeing has not been done before.
• Major economic and injustices remain, yet this trend is worth highlighting: a White House report shows micro improvements in the employment prospects of Black Americans. Parents having sufficient resources to provide for their families helps minimize family stress and protects against child abuse and neglect. Concrete support to families IS a child protection strategy.

Resource Highlight

Bright Spots is a first-of-its-kind online resource library of child welfare practices reviewed and recommended by parents who have been impacted by the system.

Mother's Magnolia Trust provides low-income, Black mothers in Jackson, Mississippi $1,000 cash on a monthly basis, no strings attached, for 12 months.

Single Black mothers are often seen as statistics rather than individuals worthy of significant investments. To transform this narrative and humanize the lives of Black mothers, Springboard to Opportunities has made a commitment to make room for the voices of these mothers and the success of their personal goals.

Visit findbrightspots.org to learn more about this practice and how it can be implemented in your agency.

Explore Bright Spots