Explore additional resources to learn how incorporating voices of lived experience can help improve child welfare services. 

This handout is part of the series, “Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions.” It is designed to facilitate discussion about the issues raised in the video, “Kinship Adoption: You Get a Call, ‘Do You Want These Kids?’”

Hear about the challenges and experiences of an adoptive family and how they created belonging, healthy development, and normal experiences.

Explore additional resources on how to increase commitment to partnering with people with lived expertise in child welfare. 

Explore ways to increase commitment to partnering with people with lived expertise in child welfare.

Find out where evidence-based programs and services are being implemented to prevent children from entering foster care.

This “Service Array Data Inventory Sample Worksheet” (Worksheet) is a companion tool to A Data-Driven Approach to Service Array Guide developed by the Capacity Building Center for States. To use the Worksheet, you can print it out and fill in the blank squares, or use the questions as a guide.

Discover how the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS) has been implemented in one state to promote normalcy for children and youth in foster care.

Explore tips and strategies to effectively engage and sustain the involvement of families and youth at the agency level. 

Learn to prepare transgender children and youth for court and support them in the courtroom.

Read about the value of collaboration as the key to prevention, safety, and long-term stability for children and families.

Watch this short, animated video to examine how changing the language and messaging we use can support a shift to a more prevention-focused child welfare system.

Learn about the Indiana Department of Child Services’ upstream prevention approach to training and development, expanding the service array, and collaborating with system partners and providers in this recorded webinar.

Engage staff and partners with activities in this guide to start a dialogue and create a vision for a more prevention-focused child welfare system.

Hear practical advice about transforming partnerships from the team implementing a holistic prevention program in North Carolina in this short podcast.