First-of-its-Kind National Partnership Aims to Redesign Child Welfare Into Child- and Family Well-Being Systems

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Children's Bureau, Casey Family Programs, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Prevent Child Abuse America are partnering to launch a national effort to prove it is possible to fundamentally rethink child welfare.

This first-of-its-kind effort — Thriving Families, Safer Children: A National Commitment to Well-Being — will work across the public, private and philanthropic sectors to assist jurisdictions in developing more just and equitable systems that benefit all children and families and break harmful intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty.

Thriving Families will help select jurisdictions move from traditional, reactive systems to ones designed to proactively support child and family well-being and prevent child maltreatment and unnecessary family separation. This multiyear commitment will provide resources and support from the four partners and other relevant child- and family-serving federal agencies, jurisdictions, diverse community stakeholders and the public, private, faith-based and philanthropic sectors to create more just, equitable and humane child and family well-being systems.

Work will begin soon at demonstration sites in California (Los Angeles County), Colorado, Nebraska and South Carolina.

"Having invested heavily in elevating the voices of parents and youth with lived experience in child welfare, we now have not only the opportunity but the obligation to act on what they've told us they need to stay strong and healthy," says Jerry Milner, associate commissioner for the Children's Bureau at the U.S. Administration of Children and Families. "Our four organizations are uniquely prepared and driven to do just that, by transforming child welfare into a child and family well-being system."

"Now is a time to reimagine how we as a collective of caring and supportive adults — child welfare practitioners, parents, children and older youth, advocates and community partners — can redefine the mission and objectives of child welfare to help ensure all children, Black, Brown and Indigenous families who have been overrepresented in our systems, have the opportunities they need and deserve to thrive," says Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez, vice president of the Center for Systems Innovation at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

TO ARRANGE MEDIA INTERVIEWS, PLEASE CONTACT:

The U.S. Children's Bureau
Administration for Children & Families
Health and Human Services
Caroline Thorman
Director of communications
Desk: 202.401.4777
Cell: 202.841.0035
[email protected]

Casey Family Programs
Melanie Coon
Communications manager
206.930.1612
[email protected]

The Annie E. Casey Foundation
Gina Davis
Senior communications associate
410.949.1962
[email protected]

Prevent Child Abuse America
Charles Mutscheller
Chief communications officer
312.663.3520, ext. 819
[email protected]

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SOURCE The Annie E. Casey Foundation