Note: I saw this article this morning on the Rise Facebook page. Rise publishes a magazine that is for and by parents who have been affected by the child welfare system. They have articles by staff who work in the child welfare system as well.
Here's an excerpt from the article:
Next month a major initiative to help vulnerable children and their families will begin in San Diego under a partnership between three prominent organizations.
The collaboration between the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Initiative, San Diego County, and San Diego Foundation, will focus on the foster care and juvenile justice programs, particularly what sort of factors lead to the disparities that cause some populations disproportionately entangled in these systems.
The three-year effort is expected to help diagnose what the county does well to assist its most vulnerable children, where it needs improvement, and then recommend changes.
“We are really looking at diving deeply at what are some of the causes, elevating this issue, and elevating this topic,” said Gillian Sealy, the CEO of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, a part of the Clinton Foundation.
I hope the voices of those who were in foster care as kids are heard. I hope parents impacted by the foster care system are heard. Birth parents. Biological parents. First families. Foster families. Adoptive parents. Those providing kinship care. Together. All heard. All hearing each other.
And beyond being just heard I hope those most impacted by the child welfare system are central to shaping improvements in the child welfare system. Not because it's nice or kind or compassion to listen, but because it's essential and necessary and wise.
It's hard to imagine successful changes being made if not created, in large part, by those most impacted. But unfortunately, too often those most impacted aren't heard from at all which is a big part of the problem.
I have to believe ACEs will be a foundational part of the study. We know a childhood with ACEs, and parenting with ACE impacts children and parents and parenting children. We know understanding and recovering from ACEs is important and difficult and that there's not enough understanding of how and why and what supports and programs are actually supportive.
Without better understanding how can any new or improved trauma-informed programs be created? It's encouraging to read that this study will be lengthy.
We need more trauma-informed people, parents, programs and policies helping each other to create more trauma-informed people, parents, programs and policies.
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