In recognition of five years of the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative, this episode highlights the power of youth and adult partnership. Valerie sits down with Alayna Leonard, a youth advocate and former member of Indiana’s Commission for Improving the Status of Children, and Sam Garman, a national youth engagement consultant with Cetera. Together, they share the story of how authentic, sustained engagement through the TFSC Youth Learning Action Network led to real policy change, culminating in a new law in Indiana that requires youth to be included in public policy decision-making.

What began as a cohort focused on relationship-building evolved into a movement, with adult allies becoming champions for youth leadership across systems. This conversation lifts up the core TFSC principle of partnering with people with lived experience and shows what’s possible when we truly support, not just involve, young people.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Alayna and Sam would like to share with you. 

• CitizenPortal.ai - Indiana Commission strengthens youth engagement with House Bill 1098
• CISC: Youth, Family, and Caregiver Engagement

We 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]

In this episode, Valerie Frost talks with Dr. David Sanders, Executive Vice President of Systems Improvement at Casey Family Programs and one of the early visionaries behind the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative.

As the initiative marks its fifth anniversary, David reflects on the bold idea that sparked it: the belief that we must shift from a system centered on child removal to one that supports families and promotes child and community wellbeing. Together, David and Valerie explore how the dominant intervention in child protection for the past 40 years, family separation, has shaped the system, and why a different path is both possible and necessary.

David shares how real change requires more than individual will, it demands a reimagining of parenting, policy, and prevention. He highlights the foundational principles of the Thriving Families initiative, including partnering with people with lived expertise, addressing racial equity, and centering community-based solutions.

This episode is ultimately about systems change, the courage to confront outdated practices, and the ongoing work of building something better, for all families.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Dr. Sanders would like to share with you. 

• Sharing Power – Casey Family Programs
• Engagement of Co-Designers – Casey Family Programs
• Child Welfare Co-Design – Casey Family Programs
• Lifting Up Voices - Casey Family Programs

We 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]

In this episode, Valerie talks with Dr. Jessica Pryce. Jessica is a Research Faculty member at Florida State University and the author of the book Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services. In addition to being a researcher and author, Jessica is a nationally recognized thought leader on child welfare workforce development. The framework in her book documents stories and lessons for moving from being an agent of the system to becoming an advocate and activist.   

Jessica’s book is a reflection and a call to action written from the perspective of a Black woman working in child welfare. She introduces us to a powerful framework she describes as the agent–advocate–activist journey. For the purposes of OUR show, the perspective I wanted to bring to this conversation is how Jessica sees the experience of people impacted by the system as data that can transform us and the system.

Ultimately, this episode is about power, discomfort, and the courage it takes to evolve. 

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Dr. Pryce would like to share with you. 

• To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation | TED Jessica Pryce 
• Publications — Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets
• Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets

We 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]

In this re-release of one of our most resonant Season One episodes, we revisit the conversation with Jay Dugger, Chief Judge of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in Hampton, Virginia. Host Valerie Frost wanted to bring this episode back because the story continues to matter. Judges hold a lot of power within their communities and Judge Dugger is a great example of how judicial influence can advance family well-being.

In the original episode, Season One hosts Tecoria and Elliott sat down with Judge Dugger to explore the critical role judges can play in transforming child welfare. Judge Dugger, speaking in his personal capacity, shared how collaborative leadership and proximity to families helped reduce the number of children in foster care in Hampton from 300 to about 80, with only one child in residential treatment.

He offers a powerful view of how judges, often seen as decision-makers from the bench, can also step into community spaces to help lead upstream solutions. His reflections underscore how judges can convene, center family voice, and act as changemakers in the family well-being movement.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to better understand the influence of judicial leadership in shaping systems that support, not separate, families.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Judge Dugger would like to share with you. 

• A Model for Collaboration and Results - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• UMW Honors 2024 Alumni Award Recipients at Reunion Weekend - Giving to Mary Washington

We 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]

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.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Carol would like to share with you. 

• Learn more and register for IBJ's Summer Freedom Symposium. 2025 Freedom Summer Symposium
• Institute for Black Justice Services
• Carol Mitchell, M.A., J.D. | LinkedIn
• Institute for Black Justice Facebook

We 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

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]

In this episode, Valerie sits down with Sarah Winograd, the visionary and founder behind Together With Families, an organization committed to transforming the way we approach family support. Sarah explains the philosophy behind Together with Families and Playbook on their Relational Practice Approach, which emphasizes showing up for families not as service providers, but as genuine partners.

The heart of Together With Families is the belief that families don’t need to be fixed—they need to be seen, heard, and truly supported. In this conversation, Sarah takes us beyond the transactional models that dominate child welfare systems, where families are treated as cases, to a more profound approach where relationships, trust, and partnership are at the core.

We explore the systemic changes necessary for building these kinds of relationships and how a simple shift from “fixing” families to walking alongside them can have a transformative effect. Sarah also shares real-life examples and the impact this approach has had on families in crisis, as well as how it is changing the way providers work across the nation.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Sarah would like to share with you. 

• Playbook — Together with Families
• Together with Families
• Together With Families | The Founders Vision on Vimeo
• Sarah (Babayeuski) Winograd | LinkedIn

We 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 guest is Clare Anderson, a policy expert and passionate advocate for using evidence to drive upstream investments to prevent child welfare involvement. Claire is a Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, and she’s spent years organizing data to help us understand the impact of economic policy on families — and what puts them at risk.

Clare helps connect the dots between the economic shocks that families experience between economic policy and child welfare involvement. Clare shares the preponderance of evidence from 40 years of research that simply validates what families have been saying all along: invest in public benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, and child care if you truly want to dramatically reduce family separation and foster care placements.

But this conversation is about more than the data. Underlying Clare’s message is a worldview centered on creativity, compassion, and imagination. Clare’s work reminds us that systems don’t change just because of evidence; they change when people decide to act differently. And she invites us to think about what it means to meet families not at the moment of crisis, but at the moment of opportunity.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Clare would like to share with you. 

• Access to Medicaid and Healthcare Promotes Child Safety – Chapin Hall
• Expanded Child Tax Credit as a Key Anti-Poverty & Child Welfare Prevention Strategy – Chapin Hall
• Access to Food Assistance Programs Increases Child Safety – Chapin Hall
• Disrupting the Link Between Poverty and Child Welfare Involvement through Policy, Practice – Chapin Hall
• A Key Connection: Economic Stability and Family Well-being – Chapin Hall

We 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]

Valerie sits down with Mashai Small—a former army sergeant, a mother, and member of the African National Women’s Organization leadership team. She’s also an organizer, abolitionist, and one of the leaders of the Black Mother’s March happening in Washington, DC on May 11th. 

Part of the family well-being movement is the abolitionist perspective, which holds that the path to justice requires dismantling the parts of systems that harm and oppress people. And that we have to invest in communities to liberate families. 

Mashai shares her journey from being an impacted parent to an organizer and activist fighting for the rights of families. She discusses the personal and community-based motivations behind her activism, including the systemic issues of racial inequity. Mashai shares what it means to organize in this space, the significance of the upcoming Black Mothers March, and the fight to keep Black families together. Through her work, Mashai offers powerful lessons on how Black parents can advocate for themselves and their families while pushing for a more just and equitable child welfare system.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Mashai would like to share with you. 

• Home | African National Women's Organization
• Home | Black Mothers March
• The Soul Koach | Linktree

We 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]

Valerie sits down with David Lujan who is the former Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Arizona School for the Arts. They discuss his pivotal role in significantly reducing the number of children in care in Arizona. In 2017, there were nearly 19,000 kids in foster care in Arizona. During David’s time at DCS, he oversaw a dramatic decrease in the foster care population, from 13,000 to under 8,000 children. This change was made possible through a strategic shift in case worker mindset, a focus on prevention, community-based services, and keeping children safely with their families. David shares his insights on how Arizona began prioritizing family preservation, including early intervention programs that provided parents with resources and support to address challenges before they escalated to removal.

David also reflects on the challenges he faced in transforming a system that had been designed primarily for intervention into one that prioritized preventing family separation. He explains how collaboration across state agencies, communities, and nonprofit organizations was key to creating lasting change. Tune in to hear about David’s leadership, the lessons learned through this transformative process, and how these strategies could serve as a model for other states striving to create a more family-centered child welfare system.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Heather would like to share with you. 

• A drastic decrease in the number of children in foster care | The Arizona Way
• DCS reaches milestone in safely reducing the number of children in care | Arizona Department of Child Safety

We 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]

In this episode, Valerie sits down with Heather Hanson, Founder of Building Bridges, LLC, and a leader in the Colorado Partnership for Thriving Families. Heather takes us through the journey of The Story of the System—a project that was initiated, designed, and led by individuals with lived experience to transform the way Colorado's systems engage with families. The project focuses on storytelling and qualitative data to ensure that the voices of those most impacted are heard and understood.

Heather reflects on the pivotal moment when the project idea was born, the power dynamics at play, and how this research led her to start her own consulting business, Building Bridges, dedicated to amplifying the voices of families in systems change. She shares insights on how shifting power from systems leaders to those directly affected by the system can drive sustainable, meaningful change. Tune in to hear about how lived experience leaders are reshaping policies and creating a future where families are supported and empowered.

NEW!! Community In-Site now has a Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Heather would like to share with you. 

• You can read the Story of the System Report here: SOTS_Report_FINAL.pdf
•  You can learn more about Illuminate Colorado here: Home - Illuminate
• You can learn about Heather's business Building Bridges here: LinkedIn

We 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]