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

Join the Movement for Family Well-being

Tune in for stories and lessons from the leaders, advocates, and community members who are working from the grassroots to the grasstops to ensure that all families have what they need to thrive.

This podcast is produced by Proximity Design Studio with funding support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It is not a project of Thriving Families, Safer Children and views expressed are those of hosts and guests, and are not representative of the funders, TFSC partner organizations or the Thriving Families, Safer Children movement.

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Meet Your Hosts

Tecoria Jones
Everybody LLC and BodyWorks Technologies

Tecoria Jones, a Columbia, South Carolina native, is a nationally recognized parent advocate with over 10 years of experience. She received the 2023 Birth Mother Casey Excellence for Children Award and has held key roles in Parent Teacher Organizations and School Improvement Councils. Known for her leadership and advocacy in food access, mental health, and parent involvement, Tecoria is a mediator, circle keeper, and expert in Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors framework. Her work is driven by a deep understanding of trauma and a commitment to resilience and hope.

Elliott Hinkle
Unicorn Solutions LLC, Principal and Founder

Elliott Orrin Hinkle (they/them) from Portland, Oregon, is a skilled consultant, facilitator, trainer, and speaker with over 12 years of experience in child welfare, youth mental health, and the LGBTQIA2S+ community. As the Principal and Founder of Unicorn Solutions LLC, Elliott elevates lived experiences to drive systemic change for children, youth, and families. Elliott serves as Board Secretary of Portland’s Bridging Voices LGBTQ+ youth chorus, the HOPE National Advisory Board and Family and Community Experts Council for HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences), and the Casper Pride Board of Directors.

Latest Episode:

2024-11-21

This week’s episode sheds light on the ongoing barriers to effectively engaging people with lived experience in child welfare system transformation. Recognizing that the community holds the answers has become a central theme in many conversations, yet agencies often lack the skills and experience needed to work with them well. It’s easy for leaders to […]

All Episodes

2024-11-21

This week’s episode sheds light on the ongoing barriers to effectively engaging people with lived experience in child welfare system transformation. Recognizing that the community holds the answers has become a central theme in many conversations, yet agencies often lack the skills and experience needed to work with them well. It’s easy for leaders to […]

2024-11-08

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 […]

2024-10-24

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, […]

2024-10-10

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. […]

2024-09-26

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 […]

2024-09-12

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 […]

2024-08-29

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 […]

2024-08-15

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 […]

2024-08-01

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 […]

2024-07-18

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 […]

2024-07-04

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 […]

2024-06-20

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 […]

2024-06-06

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 […]

2024-05-23

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 […]

2024-05-09

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 […]

2024-04-25

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 […]


Why Should You Listen?

Engaging

Episodes will focus on different topics and feature stories from local community sites that make the family well-being movement real and personal. Topics include the importance of lived expertise and power sharing, racial equity, and policy and practice innovations.

Educational

Each episode will unpack the topic from the perspective of what can be learned from the challenges and the successes. Movements don’t happen overnight and community and family well-being is complex. However, we can learn and grow from the experiences of others.

Actionable

The goal of each episode is to leave you with something that you can take back into your own community to grow the movement.

Join the Movement

Join the movement by listening, learning, and activating within your own community. Share the show with your colleagues, friends, and anyone in your community who can join with you in supporting families.

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Where to Listen?

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In addition to our site partners across the country, the following people and organizations have come together to show that it is possible to fundamentally rethink how America protects children and supports families.