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Diapers may seem like a small need, but for families raising babies, diaper insecurity can affect  child care, work, parental stress, health, social connection, and the choices families are forced to make every day. In recognition of National Diaper Need Awareness Week, September 14-20, 2026, this episode asks what becomes possible when family well-being policy begins with the needs families are already naming before those needs become crises. In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Dr. Megan V. Smith, Chief of Innovation & Impact at the National Diaper Bank Network, about diaper need, the Super Bundle, and why immediate material support can be an entry point to something much larger: maternal well-being, direct cash support, economic security, and long-term opportunity through baby bonds. Together, Valerie and Dr. Smith explore why upstream prevention has to become concrete, what it means to meet today’s needs while planning for tomorrow’s growth, and how family-centered policies can move forward even when they run into old debates about work, dependency, deservingness, personal responsibility, and the role of government. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. https://thrivingfamiliessaferchildren.org/ Here are some resources that Dr. Smith wants to share with you. Index - National Diaper Bank NetworkThe NDBN Diaper Check 2026 - National Diaper Bank NetworkUrban Institute Partnership - National Diaper Bank NetworkSuperbundleWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

When substance use is involved during pregnancy, the instinct to protect a baby can quickly lead to testing, reporting, child welfare involvement, and possible separation. But what if pregnancy is also one of the most important opportunities we have to help a parent recover, stabilize, and safely care for their child? In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Dr. Sharon Ostfeld-Johns, who is dual board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics and is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Ostfeld-Johns appears in this episode in her personal capacity and not as a representative of any organization. Dr. Ostfeld-Johns has worked to rethink how hospitals respond when babies are born substance exposed, including reducing unnecessary newborn toxicology testing and developing more compassionate Family Care Plans. Her work raises a central question: can systems respond seriously to risk without automatically treating substance exposure as evidence that a parent and baby should be separated? Together, Valerie and Dr. Ostfeld-Johns explore why pregnancy can be such an important window for treatment and support, how stigma and fear can push parents away from care, what compassionate Family Care Plans look like in practice, and how CAPTA notifications, child welfare reports, and hospital decision-making can become conflated. The conversation asks whether infant safety and family preservation have to be competing goals, or whether a more coordinated and evidence-informed response can give babies and parents a better chance to remain together safely. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are some resources that Dr. Otsfeld-Johns wants to share with you. Sharon Ostfeld-Johns, MD, IBCLC | Yale School of MedicineWhy Some Doctors Are Pushing to End Routine Drug Testing During Childbirth - RevealFolder - Google DriveWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Getting into college and succeeding in college are two very different things. Young people with foster care experience have gained greater access to college through tuition assistance, scholarships, and enrollment support. But if access alone were enough, completion rates would look very different. In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost talks with Livingstone College Vice President Nailah McDowell and student RaMaj Parker about what changes when an institution asks a different question: not simply whether students are ready for college, but whether the college is ready for its students. Livingstone spent nearly a year preparing before welcoming its cohort, looking beyond tuition and academics to belonging, relationships, trust, and the kinds of support that rarely appear on a financial-aid form. Nailah shares what it takes to design that kind of institutional response, while RaMaj offers his own perspective on what support, trust, and belonging look like in practice. Together, Valerie, RaMaj, and Nailah explore whether real opportunity requires more than opening the door, and what it would look like for institutions to take responsibility for creating the conditions students need to stay, grow, and succeed. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are some resources that Nailah and RaMaj wanted to share with you. Livingstone College | Excellence – The Livingstone WayHBCU looking to offer foster care students HOPE (and money) - HBCU GamedayA Model HBCU Program Nurtures Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care - The Annie E. Casey FoundationWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

What happens when a public-systems leader with more than 30 years of experience is asked to move from a sweeping vision for reform to the realities families experience when they seek help? In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Clarence Carter, author of Our Net Has Holes in It. Carter argues that America does not lack programs, funding, or the desire to help. It lacks a coherent design for helping people move from crisis toward lasting stability, dignity, and agency. Commissioner Carter offers a blueprint for redesigning public support around outcomes rather than transactions. But a blueprint is only as useful as our ability to translate it into daily practice, relationships, and decisions that families can actually experience. Together, Valerie and Commissioner Carter explore what it takes to move beyond what exists on paper, how leaders can connect policy intention to implementation, and whether systems can help families move from surviving to thriving and flourishing while preserving what matters most: their dignity, agency, and ability to define when support has truly worked. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here is a link to Commissioner Carter's new book. Our Net Has Holes In It: Carter, Clarence H: 9798895761267: Amazon.com: BooksWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Prevention is one of the most common words in child welfare and family well-being conversations. But what are we actually trying to prevent? Are we trying to prevent foster care entry, family crisis, poverty, surveillance, or are we trying to build the conditions families need to thrive? In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Zach Laris, founder of Bolder Horizons and author of Child Welfare Wonk, about the Family First Prevention Services Act, federal financing, evidence standards, implementation, and the limits of the current prevention frame. Family First was meant to help move child welfare upstream by allowing federal dollars to be used for prevention services. But early data raises bigger questions about what prevention is designed to do, what states are incentivized to build, and whether a child welfare financing policy can carry the weight of a much larger family well-being vision. Together, Valerie and Zach explore whether Family First has exposed an implementation problem, a policy design problem, or something deeper: a vision problem. This conversation sits in the tension between policy possibility and family reality. Policy can create flexibility on paper, but families experience systems through implementation, trust, culture, and whether help feels safe enough to use. So the question is not only whether Family First is working. It is whether prevention is big enough for the family well-being vision we keep placing on it. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Zach wanted to share with you. Weekly Wonk: Family First, Light on FamiliesBeing an Architect in a Firefighter Era - by Zach LarisWonkCast: People Power Policy | Zach Laris | SubstackChild Welfare Wonk | Zach Laris | SubstackWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Family well-being is often discussed in terms of concrete resources and services. But what happens when family support is built from the cornerstone of community, culture, creativity, healing, and relationships? What if reimagined what’s possible for a family resource center.  In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with William and Camille, founders of School of Hip Hop in Phoenix, Arizona. They use hip hop culture to engage young people and families in ways they believe traditional systems often miss. Through music, dance, visual art, mentorship, and business education kids and their parents get the benefits of a typical family resource center plus so much.   Drawing from their own lived experience with child welfare involvement, they reflect on why culturally grounded spaces matter, what it means to create community-centered support, and how relationships can become a form of prevention and healing. Their work eventually became connected to Arizona’s broader Family Resource Center movement through partnerships focused on prevention and community support. And while School of Hip Hop is not a traditional Family Resource Center, this conversation raises a broader question many communities are working through right now: If family well-being is truly about helping families thrive, what kinds of spaces actually help families feel safe enough to ask for help before a crisis happens? Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that William and Camille wanted to share with you. School of HipHopFind Your Village WALKTHEPLANK.mp4 - Google DriveSchool of HipHop Radio #Shorts - YouTubePhoenix School of HipHop’s Afro Grooves fundraiser lights up ArizonaWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Today’s episode is a re-release of the recording with Carol Mitchell from Season Two on June 19, 2025. This is a great episode for both Father’s Day and Juneteenth.  In this episode, Valerie sits down with Carol Mitchell, a seasoned attorney, social justice advocate, and founder of the Institute for Black Justice (IBJ). With over 20 years of public sector leadership experience, Carol is dedicated to transforming how systems recognize and support Black fathers as essential caregivers and partners in family well-being. Based in Washington State, IBJ is committed to uplifting Black families by addressing systemic bias and promoting policies that center Black fathers’ dignity and leadership within family and community life. For example, the BABAS Program empowers dads to successfully navigate systemic challenges, achieve reunification with their children, and build healthy, enduring parent-child relationships. This episode explores the often-overlooked role of fathers, especially Black fathers, in caregiving and systems change. Carol and Valerie discuss the historical and cultural pressures shaping fatherhood, and why naming and centering fathers in child welfare and family support systems is critical for true justice and healing.  Tune in to hear powerful stories from Carol’s advocacy work and discover practical ways child welfare leaders and others can shift their approach to engage fathers authentically and respectfully. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Carol wanted to share with you. Institute for Black Justice - Social Justice, Family AdvocacyCarol Mitchell, M.A., J.D. | LinkedInFacebookWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

AI is here and how it impacts our work and lives is only going to speed up. As AI becomes ubiquitous in child welfare and family well-being systems, an important question emerges: who is shaping the use of these tools, and whose experiences are reflected in their design? In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Derrick Stephens, a lived-experience leader and technology builder working on AI-informed tools for human services, about the opportunities and risks AI presents for families and young people. Drawing from both his lived experience and his work developing technology solutions, Derrick discusses why community involvement and co-design are essential if AI is going to support families rather than reinforce existing problems. He also shares the story behind Pathway Navigator, a tool designed with and for young people to help them navigate resources, organize next steps, and build toward long-term stability. The conversation explores how technology can support immediate needs while also creating pathways to employment, financial security, and opportunity. This conversation invites listeners to think more critically about how AI is already shaping the future of child welfare and family well-being, and what it will take to ensure communities help design that future rather than simply experience its consequences. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Derrick wanted to share with you. AIEYU - Where Technology and Humanity ConvergeCardinality.ai | Cardinality.ai's Train & Hire Program: Empowering Veterans for Success in TechLeading with Intelligence: A CEO’s Roadmap to AI Readiness & Co-designWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

The child welfare field is increasingly focused on shifting toward a broader vision of family well-being, one that emphasizes prevention, stability, and keeping families together whenever possible. But a fundamental question remains: can the system we have today actually become a family well-being system? In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Sixto Cancel, founder and CEO of Think of Us, about what it would take to transform the current child welfare system into something fundamentally different. Drawing from both his lived experience in foster care and his national policy work, Sixto reflects on why he believes change can happen from within rather than starting over entirely. He explores how the system developed over time, why safety remains a central concern, and what it might look like to build a family well-being framework using the infrastructure that already exists. The conversation also touches on the broader conditions required for transformation, including government investment, community-based support, economic stability, and preparing young people for long-term success. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple answer. Instead, it invites listeners to think more critically about what transformation would actually require, and whether families would feel the difference. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Sixto wanted to share with you. Think of UsLinkedInWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

The child welfare field is increasingly asking what it would take to fundamentally change how we support families, and whether the systems we have today are capable of evolving into what communities and families have been asking for. One of the ideas at the center of that conversation is abolition. For many, it has existed as a critique from outside the system. But as that conversation moves closer to positions of leadership, new questions are emerging about what it would actually look like in practice. In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Angela Burton, an attorney and advocate who was recently one of the final candidates to lead New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. Drawing from her perspective, Angela outlines a practical approach for how to build the infrastructure that would support the needs of communities and families while preventing investigations and removals. She also explores how abolitionist ideas translate into leadership, what changes might be possible within existing systems, and how strategy, accountability, and decision-making would need to shift. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple answer. Instead, it invites listeners to think more critically about what it would take to move from critique to implementation, and what meaningful change would actually require. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Angela wanted to share with you. Reinvesting Upstream - NYC Family Policy ProjectNarrowing the Front DoorProposal for the Office of Family Well-Being_12.19.25What is the Child and Family Wellbeing Fund?  | Schuyler CenterWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Termination of parental rights is often described as a last resort, something that happens only after every other option has been exhausted. But many families and advocates question how those outcomes are shaped long before a case reaches that point. In this episode, host Valerie Frost speaks with Toia Potts, a family advocate and organizer with Emancipate NC, about the role legal representation plays once families enter the system. Drawing from her experience and her work with Carolina Parent Defenders, Toia walks through what meaningful legal advocacy should look like in practice. She also describes the common gaps and how they can influence the trajectory of a case. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple answer. Instead, it invites listeners to look more closely at how decisions are made, what shapes those decisions, and what it actually takes to prioritize keeping families together. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here are a few resources that Toia wanted to share with you. CPS Stole My Children - Toia Potts - InquestMotherhood Cannot Be Erased By The State | Toia Potts | TEDxLake AlfredHome | Black Mothers MarchHome - Emancipate North CarolinaWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

For more than twenty years, there has been a growing emphasis on youth engagement — inviting young people into the conversations and decisions about the systems that impact their lives. However, there are still fundamental skills that many people are developing that are grounded in working with people with lived experience as experts.  Today, we’re joined by two child welfare advocates who are focused on that question—particularly how shared decision-making can shape solutions that actually work. Blanca Goetz is a Jim Casey Fellow and youth advocate, and Kathleen Holt-Whyte is a senior youth engagement consultant with Cetera Inc. Together, they helped develop the Elevating Youth Engagement, or EYE, curriculum. Developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in partnership with Cetera Inc., EYE builds on more than two decades of the Casey Foundation’s national leadership in authentic youth engagement. The curriculum brings together system leaders and young people to explore what meaningful partnership in improving outcomes for young people in foster care can look like. This conversation explores what happens when systems move beyond simply including young people and begin to consider what it takes for their perspectives to actually shape decisions. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here is a few resources that Blanca and Kathleen wanted to share with you. Elevating Youth Engagement - The Annie E. Casey FoundationElevating Youth Engagement: Recording Now Available - The Annie E. Casey FoundationElevating Youth Engagement: Recording Now Available - The Annie E. Casey FoundationCeteraBrain Frames: Short Tools for Positive Interactions With Youth in Foster Care - The Annie E. Casey FoundationWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

This episode of Community In-Site is a re-release from Season 2 with Dr. Jessica Pryce. Dr. Pryce is a research faculty at Florida State University and author of Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services. Dr. Pryce is a nationally recognized thought leader on child welfare workforce development. In this conversation, Valerie and Dr. Pryce talk about the agent–advocate–activist journey framework in Broken that challenges professionals to reflect on their role within systems and consider what it means to move toward advocacy and transformation. Drawing from her experience as a Black woman working in child welfare, Dr. Pryce explores how the experiences of people impacted by the system can serve as critical data for change. She reflects on the discomfort, tension, and responsibility that come with questioning long-standing practices and assumptions. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple path forward. Instead, it invites listeners to think more deeply about power, perspective, and what it takes to evolve, both personally and institutionally. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here is a few resources that Jessica wanted to share with you. To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation | Jessica PrycePublications — Sharing Power | Shifting MindsetsSharing Power | Shifting MindsetsWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

As the family well-being movement continues to push toward prevention, experimentation, and community-led solutions, what does it look like for philanthropy to support that shift? How can philanthropy be a leader in driving innovation and social change?  In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Marvin Smith, founder and CEO of Funding Bravely. He is also the host of the Funding Bravely podcast. Marvin's work focuses on how philanthropy can move beyond maintaining existing systems and instead support experimentation, proximity to communities, and community-led innovation. He discusses the balance foundations often navigate between sustainability, urgency, and how funding decisions influence which ideas move forward. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple prescription for philanthropy. Instead, it invites listeners to think more deeply about how power, risk, and accountability shape funding decisions and what it might take for philanthropy to support lasting change. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here is a site where you can learn more about Marvin's work.  Funding Bravely - Podcast - Apple PodcastsCEP_A_Sector_in_Crisis_FNL.pdfCerulli Anticipates $124 Trillion in Wealth Will… | Cerulli AssociatesMarvin L. Smith | SubstackWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]

Direct cash support for parents can sound both simple and provocative. Research shows that neglect is the most common reason families become involved with child welfare, and it is often tied to economic hardship, which is why direct cash support has become part of prevention conversations. Some would say that giving families money, with no strings attached, is exactly what prevention should look like, while others raise questions about responsibility, trust, and accountability.  In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost speaks with Melody Webb, founder of Mothers Outreach Network and lead of the MotherUp pilot. Melody walks through how MotherUp works and why it focuses on Black mothers facing economic stress and heightened system surveillance. She describes how their direct cash program helps parents gain financial stability, plan for the future, deepen their relationships with their children, and avoid deeper system involvement. This conversation doesn’t offer a simple answer. Instead, it invites listeners to look more closely at the assumptions we bring to parenting, poverty, and prevention and to consider whether distrust of families has quietly shaped the systems meant to support them. Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families Here is a site where you can learn more about Melody's work.  Home - Mother's Outreach NetworkBuilding a Guaranteed Income to End the "Child Welfare" System | Columbia Journal of Race and LawStanding with Moms Film - Mother's Outreach NetworkMotherUpPhase2FinalReport20251102-1.pdf - Google DriveWe appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being. Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. [email protected]