Community In-Site Podcast: Voices From the Family Well-Being Movement.

In this episode, hosts Tecoria and Elliott connect with Zenayda Bonilla, a mother who overcame the challenge of feeling silenced by the child welfare system. Zenayda shares her journey of navigating motherhood in a new country and culture, and how she found support through the Center for Family Life in Brooklyn. The Center for Family […]

Keith Bostick is the President of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare and a long-term clinician, administrator, and director in the child welfare space. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of Broward County Human Services in the state of Florida. Along with the Haywood Burns Institute, Keith provides technical assistance to the Thriving Families, […]

In this episode, we sit down with Kailene Nihipali Sanchez, Network Manager at EPIC ʻOhana, Inc. in Hawaii. As a teenager, Kailene grew up in a community plagued by high rates of health issues, homelessness, and substance abuse. She describes a pivotal moment when she returned to her culture and identity to overcome early adversity. […]

In this powerful episode, we are honored to have Sarah Smalls, a tireless advocate for kinship caregivers and grandparents raising grandchildren. Sarah has been at the forefront of national and local efforts to secure resources, support, and respect for relative caregivers. She shares her personal journey of raising her three grandchildren and her influential roles […]

Tecoria and Elliott sit down with Judge Jay Dugger, who serves as the Chief Judge of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court for the City of Hampton, Virginia. His story highlights how collaborative leadership led to a reduction of kids in foster care from 300 to about 80 and only one child in residential […]

Clare Anderson is a Senior Policy Fellow with Chapin Hall at The University of Chicago. Clare was previously Deputy Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she provided leadership for federal programs and co-led developing and implementing a national well-being policy. She is a national thought leader on economic and concrete […]

In this week’s episode, Elliott and Tecoria talk with Susie Ballot about the Parent Leadership Initiative (PLI). Susie lives in Callaway, Minnesota on the White Earth Nation. She is a graduate of the Indigenous Parent Leadership Initiative (IPLI) program run by All Nations Rise. As a graduate of the Initiative, she helps people deepen their […]

In this episode, Claire Louge discusses why effective child safety begins with cultural change. She explains how her organization is working to shift the narrative from reporting families to believing in and investing in families. Oftentimes, people confuse detecting child abuse and neglect with preventing it, when true prevention aims to stop it from happening […]

In this episode, Elliott and Tecoria talk to Gwendolyn Clegg, Esq., about Oklahoma’s new statewide Office of Family Representation, where Gwen serves as the Executive Director. This office is so new, in fact, that it hadn’t even launched yet when this episode was recorded. Gwen is a parent defense attorney who has been working tirelessly […]

In this episode, Tecoria and Elliott open the door to a real and vulnerable conversation about the importance of LGBTQ+ youth inclusion. They talk to Shawn Mitchell, a Youth Contributor to the Safe Haven project, and Currey Cook, a Senior Counsel and Youth in Out-of-Home Care Project Director at Lambda Legal. This conversation touches on […]

In this episode, Elliot and Tecoria sit down with Sandra Gasca to talk about the family well-being movement and Thriving Families, Safer Children from the national perspective. Sandra is the Vice President of the Center for Systems Innovation at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which is one of the Thriving Families national partner organizations.  Thriving […]

In this episode, Elliott and Tecoria have a conversation with Sarah Winograd who is the Co-Executive Director of Together with Families. Together with Families is a new organization in Georgia that works with families at risk of CPS involvement and their children being removed and placed in foster care. They work with families to help […]

This episode is a little bit different from other episodes. You’re going to get some of the behind the scenes with your cohosts, Tecoria and Elliott. They share the backstory about why they wanted to be part of the podcast and what they hope to accomplish as the hosts of the show. They also dive […]

In this episode, Tecoria and Elliott are in conversation with Tiffany Boyd and Justin Lee. Tiffany is a Lived Experience Expert and Advocate for Youth and Justin is the Senior Director of Strategic Consulting at Casey Family Programs. The conversation is largely about centering the work in communities, which is one of the four guiding […]

Community In-Site is a podcast about the family well-being movement. Episode 1 highlights Valerie Frost’s story of how she became not only an advocate for families but one of the leaders of the Thriving Families, Safer Children site in Kentucky. Tecoria and Elliott talk to Valerie about her lived experience, the lessons being learned so […]