Let's Have a Conversation

Back 2014 NIPFC was contracted to train across the state of Wisconsin in 5 regionalized county sites to assist with the phase implementation of their family finding practices statewide. One of the counties was Outagamie, Director Bob Friend checked in with division manager Melissa Blum and family finding supervisors Jennifer Sailor to find out about their results, key discoveries, and remaining challenges along the way. This conversation is broken down into three separate episodes. This is the first episode, the group discusses their journey to install and implement family finding, the key moments and opportunities that impacted their course, their efforts to improve alignment.

In our 10th episode of our "Let's Have a Conversation" podcast series  Director Bob Friend connects with Kelli DeCook and Renaux Swancutt of Family Service Rochester, as well as Laurie Tochiki from Epic `Ohana. They converse how they've maintained 20 years of quality practice in family conferences.

Let us know how we're doing. Rate our episodes and leave us comments!

Show Links:

Family Service Rochester

County of Olmsted Child and Family Services

Epic 'Ohana, Inc.

In our 9th episode of our "Let's Have a Conversation" podcast series, Director Bob Friend connects with Joey Cordero to hear his story as a parent in the child welfare system, and how the successful resolution of the matter and subsequent reunification with his young daughter led to a life and career change that has evolved to helping other fathers successfully navigate the child welfare system experience.

Learn more about Joey Cordero's work and impact through the following links:

Video: Engaging Fathers: Joey

Website: San Francisco Fatherhood Initiative

As Joey shared in the podcast, you can reach him by phone our email. His contact information is provided below:

Google Voice: 707-992-5054

Email: [email protected]

In our 8th episode of our "Let's Have a Conversation" podcast series, Director Bob Friend converses with attorney and fellow NIPFC trainer, Kelly Beck, and Martin Henderson, founder of Fatherhood Matters, Inc. in San Antonio, Texas. The discussion delves into their work to include fathers in Juvenile Dependency Court in child custody proceedings.

We're excited to release another episode of our podcast “Listening to and Learning from lived Experience.”  Program manager at NACAC Kim Stevens directs efforts to expand post-adoption services throughout the United States and Canada, providing training and support to parent and youth leaders. She sits down with Bob and discusses how her work with those who living in/or have lived experience in foster care continues to shape and sharpen her perspectives, advocacy, consultation and program management.  

We're excited to release another episode of our podcast. Melanie Sheetz, Executive Director of the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition in Missouri, and Mike Kenney, co-founder and Executive Director of Kinnect in Ohio, share their common story to install and implement the 30 Days to Family model in 9 Ohio counties to address the impact of the opioid epidemic on families in Ohio facing child welfare system involvement

We're excited to release another episode of our podcast. Kevin Campbell describes his international travel experiences to NIPFC's Mike Mertz, comparing the approaches in social work amongst different cultures and communities.

We're excited to release the final episode of our four part podcast series with Kevin Campbell. NIPFC director, Bob Friend, sits with Kevin while he describes the shift of justifying family finding to it being understood as a human right.

We're excited to release the third of our four part podcast series with Kevin Campbell. NIPFC director, Bob Friend, sits with Kevin as he looks back on his experiences and the combined effort that went into the passing of the Fostering and Connections Act of 2008, and the impact on current practice.

In part two of four, NIPFC director, Bob Friend, chats with Kevin Campbell about the experiences he has had witnessing the impact of the connection of loved ones with youth who have been in and out of the foster care and child protection system.