Hear a father and an agency administrator talk about what needs to be in place to make family engagement easier.

Explore the process of transitioning to a prevention-focused child welfare system from several perspectives, including those of a mother and son with lived experience and leaders who set the tone and direction for putting families at the center of child welfare work.

In this introduction to the podcast series How We Partner With the Community to Improve Service Options, agency leaders talk about the changing culture of their organizations. Leaders from Kentucky discuss their Child Welfare Transformation initiative, three transformational goals, and culture of safety.

Explore the efforts agencies, community collaborative organizations, and others are making to bring families, youth, and communities to the table as they strive to improve the child welfare system in this podcast. 

Explore existing frameworks for protective capacities and protective factors and learn how to use them together for better prevention.

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.

Explore a family-focused program that embodies many of the changes that Kentucky wants to see throughout its child welfare system in this podcast. The START, program demonstrates a shift in organizational culture to focus on family and serves as an example of a truly collaborative team that uses early intervention and a shared decision-making model to work with families.

In this episode leaders from the District of Columbia child welfare agency and a community collaborative organization discuss their longstanding partnership. The commissioner for Kentucky's child welfare agency describes the agency’s strategic communication plan and considers the role of the agency as part of the larger child welfare system.

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

Explore strategies to recruit and support caregivers, strengthen their voices, and work together with them to meet the needs of children and youth.

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

Explore tools and resources that can help states plan for family-strengthening activities aligned with the FFPSA and prevention-oriented collaboration strategies.

Listen to Indiana’s child welfare partners talk about making the shift to an upstream approach to prevention services possible in this short podcast. 

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.