Community In-Site Podcast Debuts

Com­mu­ni­ty In-Site, a new pod­cast pro­duced with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, fea­tures sto­ries and inter­views from Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren. By shar­ing suc­cess sto­ries and fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion, Com­mu­ni­ty In-Site shows com­mu­ni­ties how to devel­op effec­tive, fam­i­ly-cen­tered sup­port sys­tems that pro­mote well-being and reduce unnec­es­sary child wel­fare involvement.

Lis­ten to Com­mu­ni­ty In-Site Episodes

Prox­im­i­ty Design Stu­dio and 14^th Street Stu­dios pro­duce the pod­cast. Hosts Teco­ria Jones and Elliott Hin­kle draw on their expe­ri­ences with the child wel­fare sys­tem and their careers advo­cat­ing for their peers to have greater roles in design­ing sys­tem improve­ments. Jones has been involved in sev­er­al fed­er­al and state fam­i­ly strength­en­ing ini­tia­tives and is a par­ent leader train­er for the Nation­al Fam­i­ly Sup­port Net­work. Hin­kle is the prin­ci­pal and founder of Uni­corn Solu­tions, LLC., which pro­vides well-being resources for LGBTQ youth; edu­ca­tion for the adults who care for them; and con­sul­ta­tion, train­ing and facil­i­ta­tion for youth-serv­ing sys­tems to bet­ter sup­port their development.

“If we’re focused on cre­at­ing a sys­tem that sup­ports fam­i­lies in a way that they don’t get involved with the child wel­fare sys­tem, the sup­port has to be cus­tomized for fam­i­lies and built at an indi­vid­ual lev­el with peo­ple with­in those com­mu­ni­ties,” said San­dra Gas­ca, vice pres­i­dent of the Casey Foundation’s Cen­ter for Sys­tems Inno­va­tion and guest on ​“Shift­ing Pow­er to Equi­table Part­ner­ships,” a recent episode of the podcast.

In the episode, Gas­ca dis­cuss­es how the network’s part­ners high­light promis­ing com­mu­ni­ty-cen­tered approach­es, host peer-to-peer action net­works for sites to learn from each oth­er and pro­vide tech­ni­cal assis­tance tai­lored to indi­vid­ual sites’ pri­or­i­ties. The Casey Foun­da­tion is doing this work along­side the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Casey Fam­i­ly Pro­grams, the Nation­al Cen­ter for Injury Pre­ven­tion and Con­trol at the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion and Pre­vent Child Abuse America.

Recent Com­mu­ni­ty In-Site episodes include:

• My Com­mit­ment to the Move­ment With Valerie Frost: In the debut episode, Jones and Hin­kle talked with Valerie Frost, strate­gic ini­tia­tives asso­ciate at Ken­tucky Youth Advo­cates, a Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren site. Frost shares how she became an advo­cate for fam­i­lies, the lessons from the devel­op­ment of the Ken­tucky Birth Par­ent Advi­so­ry Coun­cil and her vision for suc­cess. She recounts her involve­ment with the child wel­fare sys­tem after being accused of mal­treat­ment and how often typ­i­cal parental chal­lenges can lead to unwar­rant­ed child pro­tec­tive investigations.

• Cen­ter­ing the Work in Com­mu­ni­ties With Tiffany Boyd and Justin Lee: Jones and Hin­kle spoke with Tiffany Boyd and Justin Lee. Boyd has served as a mem­ber of the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Com­mis­sion for Chil­dren and Fam­i­lies, a Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies, Safer Chil­dren site, and dis­cussed the impor­tance of being a ​“lived expert.” Lee is a senior direc­tor of strate­gic con­sult­ing at Casey Fam­i­ly Pro­grams, a key part­ner of the Los Ange­les site. They dis­cussed cre­at­ing strate­gies for address­ing local pri­or­i­ties and how valu­ing rela­tion­ship-build­ing helps nav­i­gate inher­ent challenges.

• It’s a Pover­ty Prob­lem, Not a Par­ent­ing Prob­lem With Sarah Wino­grad: Jones and Hin­kle talked with Sarah Wino­grad, the coex­ec­u­tive direc­tor of Togeth­er With Fam­i­lies. Togeth­er With Fam­i­lies is a Geor­gia-based orga­ni­za­tion that works with fam­i­lies at risk of child wel­fare sys­tem involve­ment to help them meet their needs as they define them for them­selves with the goal of keep­ing fam­i­lies togeth­er. They dis­cuss how to build trust with par­ents and how to deliv­er resources in a way that is sus­tain­able and strength­ens fam­i­lies and communities.

“By learn­ing from sites with­in the move­ment and beyond, child wel­fare agen­cies, com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions and oth­er part­ners can con­tin­ue to iden­ti­fy and over­come bar­ri­ers to deliv­er­ing sup­port that keeps fam­i­lies togeth­er and healthy,” said Feli­cia Kel­lum, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“The Com­mu­ni­ty In-Site pod­cast pro­vides an excel­lent mech­a­nism to accom­plish this goal.”

To learn more about the pod­cast or to reach the hosts, con­tact comminsite@​gmail.​com.