Listen to an attorney and a parent ally, both partners with Washington State’s child welfare system, explain how parent partner programs are essential to prevention services.

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

Watch this recorded webinar to learn how other jurisdictions encourage kinship care placements and then discuss kinship support with your team.

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.

The infographic provides a visual reference for the cultural shift needed to protect children through strengthening families.

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

Helps child welfare leaders identify what they can do to advance their prevention vision and shows what they will see as that vision takes root.

Highlights the rewards and challenges of providing permanency and stability for relative children with differing needs. In this video, a single grandparent of five discusses her experience becoming a kinship caregiver, foster parent, and then legal guardian for her daughter's children, support the caseworker provided for her to become a certified foster parent, and the joy of watching her grandchildren thrive.

Emphasizes the necessity of strong community supports to create a secure and stable environment for a new kinship family. In this video, a grandparent discusses moving across the country to ensure her grandchildren could see their parents.

Demonstrates the dedication and flexibility needed when providing kinship care in order to navigate visitation schedules, foster care certification processes, and permanency proceedings.

Addresses the challenges that some caregivers face in their dual roles as grandparents and kinship parents and the value of support networks. In this video, a paternal grandparent discusses how she and her husband provide security and stability for their family by focusing on their grandchildren's emotional and educational needs with valuable agency support and maternal family involvement.

Demonstrates the life adjustments and rewards of becoming a kinship caregiver. In this video, a caregiver shares his story of what motivated him to become a kinship parent. He discusses how caring for his sister's children and a child with special needs, as well as managing a household, have changed his life and what encourages him to continue.

Demonstrates the benefits and challenges of serving as a kinship/foster parent and supporting and collaborating with children's biological parents. This video highlights one caregiver's decision to foster and adopt her son and become a kinship caregiver to his younger sibling. She discusses how she maintained a close, supportive relationship with their biological mother and how they ultimately created a united, blended family.

Addresses the importance of being open to agency support and resources and the necessity of self-care in working through family transitions and meeting family needs. In this video, a kinship parent caring for her niece's children reflects on her family's strategies for raising children who have experienced trauma and the resources that enabled them to become effective kinship caregivers.

Emphasizes the importance of community and caseworker support in having the resources needed to promote family well-being, particularly when caring for children with special needs. This video highlights the perspective of a kinship caregiver who is an Athabaskan native teaching her grandchildren the Navajo culture and community traditions and passing down her grandparents' stories.