Tagged With "Alexander Youth Network"
Member
Bob Crayton
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Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Initiatives [CTIPP]
CTIPP CAN Call - Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Initiatives - September 15th, 2-3:30pm ET/11am-12:30pm PT - Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/742183645 Meeting ID: 742 183 645 One tap mobile +19292056099,,742183645# US (New York) Please join us for next week's CTIPP CAN Call, which will focus on building mental well-being for infants, toddlers and preschoolers and the adults who care for them. This month's presentation will feature Drs. Kaitlin Mulcahy and Gerry Costa, and Kelly...
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FREE WEBINAR - The Impact of Mind Matters: Preliminary Evidence of Effectiveness in a Community-Based Sample
Becky Antle, Ph.D., Professor of Social Work and esteemed University Scholar at the University of Louisville, won The Dibble Institute’s national competition to evaluate Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience in 2019. As a result, Dr. Antle and her colleagues have conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of Mind Matters on a host of outcomes related to trauma symptoms, emotional regulation, coping and resiliency, and interpersonal skills for at-risk...
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Me & My Emotions: A New, Free Resource for Teens
The pandemic has had a lasting effect on youth mental health. Moved by a desire to reduce youth’s toxic stress and increase their resilience, The Dibble Institute, in partnership with a team of students and alumni from ArtCenter College of Design and author Carolyn Curtis, PhD, is releasing Me & My Emotions —a new, free adaptation of our beloved Mind Matters Curriculum. The mobile-friendly Me & My Emotions website features engaging graphics and bite-sized lessons teens can access and...
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Healing Trauma Through Animal Assisted Interventions
Benchmarks' Partnering for Excellence (PFE) project works to connect youth and families involved with the child welfare system, who screen positive for trauma, with a trauma-intensive mental health assessment known as the TiCCA. The TiCCA, or trauma-intensive comprehensive clinician assessment, is a 6-10 hour holistic assessment where specially trained clinicians dive deep to assess for the impact trauma has had on their client’s functioning and identify any related needs. The goal of the...
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Pitt County Department of Social Services Hosts Annual 'Bready Bear' Event
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) project works closely with local child welfare agencies to implement trauma-informed shifts in the community. This is done through educating the community on the effects of trauma while also working with local child welfare agencies to screen youth who become involved and connect them with a Trauma Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA). As a result, we know many of our youth in foster care experience higher rates of trauma than their...
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Alexander Youth Network Continues to Advocate for Trauma Informed Services
In July, North Carolina started the process of Medicaid transformation. Oversight and management of some Medicaid behavioral health dollars transitioned from more regionalized, specialized organizations to statewide organizations that focus on both behavioral health and physical health. During this transition, providers have worked tirelessly to ensure that much needed services continue despite logistics surrounding health plans. During the process of Medicaid transformation, providers have...
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Warning: Positive Changes Ahead!
Benchmarks is pleased to announce the implementation of a new project which seeks to improve the lives of children in the child welfare system. In conjunction with Vaya Health, a Medicaid managed care organization in North Carolina, we are excited to begin this important work. We believe this project has the potential to greatly impact the services children receive, the way professionals work together, and enhance the lives of the families we serve. Benchmarks has proven success in project...
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Cultural Competency in Multi-Regional Project Implementation
We have been sharing updates about one of our newest projects with Vaya Health and we hope you have been following along! On the front-end of the project, we are continuing to meet with stakeholders to collect valuable information that will help propel our work forward. Behind the scenes, we are analyzing county-specific data with a culturally competent lens in order to gain a better view of the unique strengths, needs and challenges for each county and how those views impact the system as a...
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What You See Depends on Where You Sit
Benchmarks is very grateful for the opportunity to host child welfare stakeholder focus groups as part of a new project with Vaya Health. Vaya is committed to providing quality services to our most vulnerable population- children that have experienced trauma, child abuse and neglect. As a part of the child welfare project, the data collection process will include the typical number crunching, quantitative data analysis, but we know that does not always capture the entire story. In order to...
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Human Trafficking Risk Screening Project in Children’s Homes in North Carolina
Human trafficking and child sex trafficking are topics being more widely discussed across the state of North Carolina than ever before. Human service agencies are beginning to shift their focus to better understand and address this issue. Following changes within the child welfare system’s utilization of congregate care and the implementation of the Families First Prevention Services Act, one major implication that has become known are the risk factors that heighten a child’s likelihood of...
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Opportunities for Healing: Exploring Strategies to Improve Racial Disproportionalities & Disparities in Child Welfare
Research shows that due to substantial histories of abuse, neglect, and increased exposure to trauma, youth in foster care have exceptional concerns regarding their mental health needs. “Rates of psychiatric symptoms and disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and reactive attachment disorder, are much higher in children in foster care” (Lohr & Jones, 2016). When we couple this knowledge with data on racial disproportionality and...
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Spotlight on Chatham County DSS for Supporting Kinship Caregivers
Placing youth with relatives should be the first choice considered for children in custody, but we know that does not mean it is the easiest choice. Kinship providers are asked to take youth with very little notice, and they do not have the same amount of time to prepare as foster parents. Chatham County Department of Social Services has found that engaging relatives with a little different approach from traditional foster parents has been successful. One approach that has significantly...
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Saying Farewell: Rockingham County Continues SAP Independently
Rockingham County Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services (RCDHHS-DSS) began their journey with the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) in 2019. During this time, the DSS staff have worked to increase their knowledge of trauma-informed practices to best meet the needs of children entering permanency planning. The SAP process includes timely screening for trauma in order to quickly identify a child’s need for further assessment, so that they are more likely to...
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Takeaways from the 2022 Kids: Empowered Communities Driving Change Conference
Benchmarks’ staff attended the virtual policy summit hosted by NC Child and the NC Essentials for Childhood Initiative on March 29 th and 30 th . The two-day conference was packed with inspirational messages from child advocates across North Carolina. After a formal opening from NC Child Executive Director, Michelle Hughes, and a moving keynote address with a call to action by Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson of the Children’s Defense Fund, organizers from across the state came together to host...
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Sandhills Center Dives into TiCCA Work in the Midst of Change Whirlwinds
Change is difficult anytime an organization must undergo it, but it is doubly hard when that organization is navigating multiple systemic changes. Add in growing the organization’s number of consumers and partner agencies to the mix, and things can feel downright impossible. In the past year, North Carolina’s Local Management Entities-Managed Care Organizations (LME-MCOs) have weathered re-alignments, with some North Carolina counties choosing to shift to another LME-MCO catchment area.
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A Vision for Pathways to Permanency
Last summer Benchmarks began facilitating a project to address the overwhelming challenges facing the child welfare serving system in North Carolina. When Vaya Health, a Medicaid managed care organization in North Carolina, approached Benchmarks about managing the project they recognized negative impacts on youth in foster care from the longstanding misalignment between the child welfare and the behavioral healthcare system. We began by hearing from stakeholders about how to best meet the...
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Why Use a Standardized Battery of Measures in Mental Health Assessments?
The question posed in the title is one that Benchmarks’ project managers and coordinators hear often during our implementation work within our state’s social services and mental health agencies. As busy as our mental health clinicians are, why would we want them to spend more time completing a battery of measures for children and families that need to get into services as quickly as possible? Isn’t it better to get their basic comprehensive clinical assessment completed quickly and start...
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Nature RX – How Nature-Based Interventions Can Support Healing & Well-Being in the Face of Trauma
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) joins forces with County Department of Social Services offices, LME/MCOs, and private providers to address the trauma related needs of children involved in the child welfare system. Knowing that children involved in child welfare are more likely to experience trauma than their non-involved peers, the partnerships work to screen these children for trauma and connect them to an assessment to address their needs. In response, Benchmarks designed the...
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A Full-Circle Moment
Approximately every six weeks, each Benchmarks Center for Quality Integration team member is responsible for a blog post on our PACEs Connection page. Each month, one blog is a Partner Spotlight which highlights the incredible work happening across the state of North Carolina. For the month of May, Benchmarks Consultant, Sharron Roberts authored our partner spotlight blog where she shared about her “full-circle moment” below. My search to highlight a partner in our Pathways to Permanency...
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June is PTSD Awareness Month
While many of us involved in this work are aware of the importance of understanding the impact that diagnoses like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—a mental health condition which results in coping difficulties following traumatic experiences—and other trauma related disorders can have on people’s lives, the reality is that many still lack necessary awareness. As we, in our roles as professionals, allies, advocates, and educators celebrate PTSD awareness month and work to engage those...
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The Disconnect
What if every decision we made was based solely on what we knew? How might that change our personal behaviors that impact our health? For example, if I took everything out of the equation other than what nutrients my body required, I would only select quality foods 100% percent of the time. This means I would never waiver on my decision to eat healthy, even when offered my favorite treat. When faced with the decision to grab a quick bite from fast food restaurant than to prepare a meal at...
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Engaging Persons with Lived Experience in System Improvement Projects
We are gaining momentum in our Pathways to Permanency Project, a Vaya Health initiative to align the work of the child welfare and behavioral health systems. Workgroup sessions are taking place monthly, stakeholders’ meetings are occurring quarterly and in between we are busy ensuring the work moves ahead so that sustainable change is possible. However, as we have navigated this project it has been overwhelmingly clear that we needed and wanted to include individuals with lived experience in...
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Partner Spotlight: Cleveland County DSS
In this month’s Partner Spotlight, Benchmarks would like to highlight our partners at Cleveland County DSS. Since 2016, Cleveland County has been working with Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Improvement to implement Partnering for Excellence (PFE), a project that aims to ensure child welfare involved youth are appropriately screened, assessed, and treated for trauma in a timely and effective manner. Recently, Cleveland transitioned to the sustainability phase of the project which means all...
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Changing Policies: A Trauma-Informed Approach
Pathways to Permanency Project, a Vaya Health initiative created to align the work of the child welfare and behavioral health systems, continues to develop solutions to improve outcomes for child welfare involved youth and families. Child welfare stakeholders utilize monthly workgroup sessions to explore the impact and feasibility required of each potential solution to identified problems. As the project managers, Benchmarks’ staff often hear that a potential solution is to create new...
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Words Matter: Screening vs. Assessment
Frequently in the world of mental health, we find ourselves using many terms that can become confusing, even for those that work within our systems. As Benchmarks continues to expand projects across North Carolina, we find that the terms “screening” and “assessment” have become a regular part of this confusion. The interchangeable use of these terms has contributed to mix-ups surrounding the terms’ actual meanings, leading professionals to inadvertently refer children and families to...
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TiCCA Train the Trainer Training
Two major components of implementation work are ensuring fidelity and sustainability. Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) focuses on fidelity when implementing the use of Trauma-Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessments (TiCCAs) through a rigorous training and certification process as well as ongoing continuous quality improvement processes. The project also focuses on the sustainability of TiCCA completion in local communities after Benchmarks is no longer providing...
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Restoring the Nervous System by Healing the Mind-Body Connection
One of the aims of Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is to educate communities about the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); specifically, how these effects impact the youth and families that encounter the child welfare system. Through our work we know that when systems are trauma-informed, it can help shift the perspectives of professionals from “What is wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”, which ultimately informs the way we treat and address...
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Clay County DSS: Standing in the Gap for Unlicensed Kinship Care Providers
Research suggests that kinship placement is best practice when youth are placed in out-of-home care. Courts must first consider a relative or kinship placement and child welfare agencies are tasked with preserving the family by allowing birth parents to coordinate care for their children with a relative or kin. Although kinship care is the best option for youth in foster care, it often is accompanied by limited supports for kinship providers. Lessons learned from our Pathways to Permanency...
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Suicide Prevention 2022: Creating Hope Through Action
September is Suicide Prevention month, and the theme for this year’s World Suicide Prevention campaign is “Creating Hope Through Action.” Perfectly situated only a couple of months after the United States launched the new National Suicide Prevention and Crisis Line. The new line, 988, was designed to be an easy to remember way for people to access help in times of need. While a new crisis line increases the availability of needed mental health assistance, the stigma surrounding mental health...
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Celebrating Kinship Caregivers
As we turn over the calendar to the new month of September, we want to take a moment to recognize National Kinship Care month. This is a time to celebrate the support of families and other adults with family-like relationships, who have stepped into the role of a caretaker when biological parents cannot do so safely. This scenario is more common than you might imagine, impacting 4% of all children across the United States, totaling more than 2.6 million children. When a grandparent, aunt,...
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Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina: SAP Provider Spotlight
The Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Project (SAP) and Surry County’s SAP Leadership Team welcome The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina as our newest Trauma-Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) provider! The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina (Children’s Center) provides a wide array of programs and services for children and families in the Northwestern region of North Carolina. Community Relations Coordinator, Valerie Smith, states “The Children’s...
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Setting Up for Success: Sharing Lessons Learned for Creating Sustainable Training Teams
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) is a test of change project that aims to provide Department of Social Services (DSS) agencies with a trauma-informed pathway to screen for and address trauma for child welfare-involved youth. To do this, the project focuses on cultivating a more trauma-informed community through education and trainings. In 2019, Benchmarks’ PFE began implementation in Pitt and Craven counties. Just a few years, the project shifted from the implementation phase into...
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Incorporating Mental Wellness Activities into Daily Practice
During the month of October, we acknowledge Mental Illness Awareness Week (2nd-8th) and World Mental Health Day (10th). In North Carolina alone there are over 1 million adults living with a mental health condition and over 100,000 youth ages 12-17 who have been diagnosed with depression (NAMI 2021). It is always the right time to focus on your mental health as a part of your overall wellness. Here are three ways to incorporate mental wellness activities into your everyday. Breathwork There...
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Standardized Assessment Protocol Pilot Is Expanding to In Home Family Services
Benchmarks recently completed implementation of the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) in Burke, Rutherford, and Surry Counties, with a target population of children and youth involved in foster care. The process implemented was specifically for children and youth ages four and older, with the goal of assisting the child and family’s access to a quality, evidence-informed trauma assessment. We refer to this assessment as the Benchmarks Trauma Intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment...
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Implementing Trauma Training at Cabarrus County DSS
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) was created by Congress in 2000 as part of the Children’s Health Act to “raise the standard of care and increase access to services for children and families who experience or witness traumatic events.” This unique network of frontline providers, family members, researchers, and national partners is committed to changing the course of children’s lives by improving their care and moving scientific gains quickly into practice across the U.S.
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Helpful Takeaways From Trauma 101 Training
Benchmarks’ Partnering for Excellence (PFE) aims to cultivate trauma-informed communities among child welfare systems across the state of North Carolina. In addition to helping community partners implement a trauma-informed pathway for child welfare involved youth, Benchmarks’ PFE hosts a bi-annual NCTSN Trauma 101 Training for social workers and community members. Pitt and Craven Counties recently wrapped up their fall Trauma 101 Training. The four-day training dives deep into what trauma...
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Benchmarks Offers "Trauma & Resilience" Training
Beginning January 2023, Benchmarks’ Center for Quality Integration will add “Trauma & Resilience” to our catalog of offered trainings. “Trauma & Resilience” uses the National Childhood Traumatic Stress Networks’ (NCTSN’s) Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit as its base curricula with influences from our teams’ own “on the ground” knowledge, research, and experiences. Across North Carolina, Benchmarks has been assisting communities in efforts to become more trauma-informed over the...
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Partners Health Management Continues to Partner for Innovative Pilot Project
This week we are giving a shout out to Partners Health Management! They are a valuable teammate in making the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project successful, and Benchmarks is proud to be partnering with this organization. Partners serves as a Managed Care Organization (MCO) for clients with mental health concerns, intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as substance use disorders, managing services for the behavioral health care needs of these populations. Partners...
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January is Mental Wellness Month
In efforts to promote the importance of maintaining good mental health, the month of January has been designated as “Mental Wellness Month”. With nearly one in five U.S. adults living with mental illness ( NIMH, 2022 ), it is important that we all take the time to check in on our mental health. Those who have suffered from trauma are often at higher risk of experiencing mental illness. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study correlated that those with four or more ACEs were more...
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Rockingham County DHHS-DSS Spotlight
Rockingham County Department of Health & Human Services-Division of Social Services is adept at participating in pilot projects in the health and human services realm, and is always interested in doing innovative, trauma-informed work that is for the benefit of the children & families they serve. In 2019, Rockingham County chose to participate in Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP) project and sought to provide foster children with the opportunity to receive a holistic...
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The Benefits of Peer Sharing Across Projects
As mental health agencies make decisions regarding whether they want to participate in pilot projects, it is beneficial for them to gather valuable information including feedback from agencies who already participate in the projects. Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) clinicians Dale Smith of the Children’s Center of Northwest NC and Mollie Hedgecock of Rockingham County Youth Services participated in an information session with behavioral healthcare providers who are...
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Trauma-Informed Consultation within Agencies
Benchmarks has implemented 2 projects across the state over the past 12 years, Partnering for Excellence (PFE) and the Standardized Assessment Protocol (SAP). Both projects are implemented within County DSS offices with a goal of ensuring children and families in child welfare have access to trauma screening and subsequent Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessments (TiCCAs). Having access to TiCCAs provides an opportunity for the child and family to receive holistic recommendations...
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Vaya's Pathways to Permanency Project: Utilizing (b)(3) Respite to Support School Suspension
Since 2021 Benchmarks has been consulting with Vaya Health on a project called Pathways to Permanency . This project aims to coordinate efforts between Vaya, County DSS offices, and mental health providers to ensure youth in foster care have access to high quality behavioral health services. To better understand the needs of children, families, and professionals within Vaya’s catchment, landscape analyses and several focus groups were conducted. Main themes from initial discoveries were then...
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Partnering with a Purpose: Creating behavioral health services for youth in foster care
The “Accessible, Quality Continuum of Behavioral Health Services” workgroup is one of the six workgroups convening monthly in the Vaya Health Pathways to Permanency project. Participants who join the monthly sessions are from across the Vaya Health catchment area and work in child welfare, Medicaid managed care, behavioral health, and child placement. This cross-system group of professionals is tasked with developing solutions to challenges identified during the beginning of the project. In...
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Solid Foundations Spotlight
Benchmarks’ Standardized Assessment Protocol project (SAP) would like to welcome Solid Foundations as the newest Trauma-intensive Comprehensive Clinical Assessment (TiCCA) provider! Bobby Fisher, owner of Solid Foundations stated, “Solid Foundations Counseling Center is always striving to improve our services and the care provided to our clients. Participating in the Benchmarks’ SAP allows us to expand on our Evidence Based Practices and to provide the best care to our clients and our...
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Pathways to Permanency Project: Quality Clinical Assessment to Drive Services Workgroup
Monthly, cross system stakeholders are meeting to discuss best practices and develop tools to ensure that youth in foster care receive timely and quality clinical assessments that are tailored to their unique needs. The Pathways to Permanency Project is a collaborative effort sponsored by Vaya Health, an LME-MCO in North Carolina, that seeks to improve the outcomes for youth in foster care. The project's “Quality Clinical Assessment to Drive Services Workgroup” is a crucial part of this...
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May is National Foster Care Month: Supporting Children and Families
National Foster Care Month is an important initiative led by the Children's Bureau, a national organization that partners with federal, state, tribal, and local agencies to improve the overall health and well-being of children and families across the country. During this month, the bureau takes the time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of foster parents, family members, volunteers, mentors, policymakers, and child welfare professionals who work tirelessly to help children and...