Centering Lived Experience for Better Outcomes for Children: The Case for Kinship Care
Engaging those who have experience with the programs and communities impacted by policy leads to transformative solutions that improve outcomes for children and families. This is especially true in the child welfare system, where the powerful voices of youth and their caregivers are leading to significant mindset shifts across our country. One of those shifts is a new appreciation for kinship care. Individuals impacted by the child welfare system and research are both telling us that keeping young children connected to their families, siblings, relatives, cultures, and communities is key to helping them heal and thrive.
Come learn about recent advocacy victories, new policy opportunities, and how one state has created a network of direct service providers, families, and youth to center lived experiences, inform their policy agenda, and achieve major policy wins to move the needle on kinship care.
Session Resources:
Centering Lived Experience for Better Outcomes for Children: The Case for Kinship Care, Session Slides
Voices for Virginia’s Children launched a Youth in Action program to train, engage and empower teens/young adults who experienced foster care in advocacy
Generations United’s GRAND Voices
Generations United’s Fact Sheet: Children Thrive in Grandfamilies
Family First Prevention Services Act: Implementing the Provisions that Support Kinship Families (grandfamilies.org)
American Indian and Alaska Native Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Cultural Identity (Generations United, Center for Native American Youth, NICWA)
African American Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Cultural Identity (A Second Chance, Inc., Generations United)
State of Grandfamilies Report 2021 (Generations United)
State-level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States (Child Trends)
Grandfamilies.org serves as a national legal resource in support of grandfamilies within and outside the child welfare system.
Landscape of Kinship Navigator Programs Show Investment, Innovation (Chapin Hall)
National TA Center on Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Network
Promoting Stability in Kinship Foster Homes (Chapin Hall)
Presenters:
