The Imprint Weekly

On this week’s episode, Brightpoint CEO Mike Shaver and University of Illinois School of Social Work researcher Will Schneider join to discuss Empower Parenting with Resource, a test of the impact of guaranteed income as a component of how child welfare systems engage parents. Empower will provide hundreds of system-involved parents with cash assistance as part of a randomized control trial.

Reading Room
New Research Funded on Mental Health, Child Welfare
https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/new-research-funded-mental-health-child-welfare/54184

Support Grows For No-Strings-Attached Cash For Families To Prevent Foster Care Removals
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/support-grows-for-no-strings-attached-cash-for-families-to-prevent-foster-care-removals/243395

The Bay Area’s Latest Guaranteed Income Program Offers Low-Income Families $500 a Month
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/bay-areas-latest-guaranteed-income-program/60793

Former Foster Youth Included in L.A. County Guaranteed Income Project
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/former-foster-youth-included-in-l-a-county-guaranteed-income-project/240181

On this week’s episode, we review some recent research on child opioid overdoses, youth with disabilities in foster care, and the Biden administration’s historic apology to the Indigenous community. 

Jerry Milner, co-founder of the Family Justice Group, joins us to discuss his time leading the U.S. Children’s Bureau during the previous Trump administration, and what his experience during the first term suggests to him about what might be coming in the next four years. 

Reading Room

Federal Roundtables with Foster Youth Find Them Feeling Supported, But Uncertain
https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/federal-roundtables-foster-youth-find-supported-uncertain/49643

While Trump Separated Families, One of His Appointees Fought To Keep Them Together. Will Biden Keep Him Around?
https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/trump-separated-families-milner-biden-foste/50944

 Staying The Course for Families
https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/staying-course-families-what-got-right_/51632

Most States Now Access Federal Funds for Family Court Lawyers
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/states-access-federal-funds-for-family-court-lawyers/247752

This year, Jamaican child welfare officials abruptly removed eight teenage boys from a residential facility known as Atlantis Leadership Academy. All eight were American youth and three were adoptees. 

Dawn Post, a veteran attorney for youth in foster care, represented the teens pro bono, working with the Jamaican government to ensure their safe return to the United States. She joined us to tell the story, discuss the broader connections to child welfare present in this incident, and announce a new legal office she has launched called Themis Youth Law and Advocacy. 

Reading Room

Jamaica pulls U.S. boys
from troubled teen school after allegations they were abused
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jamaica-troubled-teen-abuse-allegations-atlantis-leadership-academy-rcna144426

Adopted. Abandoned. But not forgotten.
https://kentuckylantern.com/2024/09/03/adopted-abandoned-but-not-forgotten/

‘I’d rather die than go back’: Jamaica’s school for troubled US boys
https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/american-teenagers-jamaica-atlantis-academy-j25rgm0p5

Themis Youth Law & Advocacy
https://www.themisyouthlawadvocacy.org/

On InnerViews, Ivory Bennett speaks with Jose A. Perez, winner of the 2024 Youth Voices Rising New York Op-Ed competition, for his poignant essay, When Help Hurts: Foster Care vs. My Mom. In a powerful conversation, Perez shares his journey from New York’s foster care and prison systems to becoming an acclaimed poet, actor, and advocate. Listen as Jose reflects on a system that separated his family, the art that saved him, and his current role advocating for justice and opportunities for system-involved youth. Don't miss this impactful dialogue on resilience, transformation, and the power of family.

Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents the 4th District of Wisconsin, was in the state legislature when her state commenced a welfare-to-work program that would become the template for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. 

Moore now sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees TANF. She joined the podcast to discuss her problems with TANF, how it could be improved, and we discussed her most recent bill on the intersection of poverty and child welfare systems.

Reading Room

Full Committee Hearing on Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
https://bit.ly/3Ybqv8

Rep. Gwen Moore’s comments from the hearing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JVCneYbvLQ

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, with Ashley Burnside
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/temporary-assistance-needy-families-ashley-burnside

Strengthening Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a Safety Net and Work Program
https://bit.ly/3zRBdJa

Public Comment in response to “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Intermediate Improvement to the Disability Adjudication Process: Including How We Consider Past Work”
https://bit.ly/4f61weR

TANF Cash Assistance to Families Plummets, But Program Remains Consistent Funder of Child Welfare
https://bit.ly/3W9Zce9

Bipartisan Effort in Congress Aims to Steer Impoverished Families Away From Foster Care Systems
https://bit.ly/3YgrZ1L

Amid Pandemic, Congress Considers Giving Parents More Time to Reunify with Kids in Foster Care
https://tinyurl.com/3tazannm

On this week’s episode, we are joined by Administration on Children, Youth, and Families Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston, the most senior Senate-confirmed child welfare official in the Biden administration. We discussed the past year of federal child welfare policymaking, what the priorities will be for the final few months before Inauguration Day, implementation of the Family First Act, and the right way to incorporate lived experience.  

Reading Room

Oregon Chooses Former Foster Youth to Lead Its Child Welfare System
https://bit.ly/3YnAUQ0

During Confirmation Hearing for Top Biden Child Welfare Officials, Senators Voice Their Own Priorities
https://bit.ly/3gKAWe4

Senators Press Biden Administration Over Lack of Progress on Foster Care Prevention Law https://bit.ly/3YltuN3 

Message From Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston
https://acfmain-stage.acf.hhs.gov/acyf/news/message-commissioner-rebecca-jones-gaston

On this week’s episode, we review some recent headlines in child welfare and youth justice. 

On this week’s episode, we review some recent headlines in child welfare and youth justice, including some big picture takeaways from recent stories about spiraling juvenile facilities and universal drug screening for soon-to-be parents. 

We also talk to Marina Nitze about what states and child welfare systems have been doing in terms of licensing kinship caregivers since the Biden administration took action to make that process easier and more financially fair for relatives and other people close to families. 

Reading Room

Conditions Dire at Washington State’s Largest Lockup for Young Adults
https://bit.ly/4dJn1jO

 One in Eight Incarcerated Juveniles Experiences Sexual Victimization
https://bit.ly/3TU6DFZ

Liz Ryan Considers 50 Years of a Landmark Law That Keeps Kids Out of Adult Jails
https://bit.ly/480if02

State Challenges Universal Drug Testing on New Moms
https://bit.ly/4eSgl3B

Kids of Color in Minnesota Foster Care Are Most Likely to Live With White Foster Parents — And Why There are Concerns
https://bit.ly/3TTU9yc

Minnesota Joins Growing Number of States Allowing Adoptees New Access to Birth Records
https://bit.ly/4eTdbg1

Texas Tallies Use of Trash Bags for Foster Youth
https://bit.ly/4eW00Lr

Becky Shipp, Veteran Child Welfare Policy Advisor, Has Passed Away
https://bit.ly/4eT9uH7

In this compelling episode of InnerViews, host Ivory Bennett talks with Christina Abraham about her journey as she aged out of the foster care system at 21. Christina shares her struggles navigating life in a group home and the challenges of finding stable housing in New York City. Through her story, Christina sheds light on the harsh realities faced by youth aging out of care and the urgent need for systemic change. Tune in for an eye-opening conversation about resilience, hope, and the fight for security in adulthood.

On today’s episode we spoke with Aditi Shrivastava, deputy director of income security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known widely as TANF. We talked about the proposed new rule for regulating how states use this program, a new test of how to measure success, and we also discuss the many guaranteed income projects that have popped up around the country.  

Reading Room

Rule-a-Palooza! Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, with Ashley Burnside
https://imprintnews.org/podcast/temporary-assistance-needy-families-ashley-burnside

Support Grows For No-Strings-Attached Cash For Families To Prevent Foster Care Removals
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/support-grows-for-no-strings-attached-cash-for-families-to-prevent-foster-care-removals/243395

Feds Begin Test of Welfare Work Requirements
https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/feds-begin-test-welfare-work-requirements/250920

Here’s What Happens When You Give People Free Money
https://www.wired.com/story/sam-altmans-big-basic-income-study-is-finally-out/

On this week’s episode we talk to Kamilah Bunn, CEO of the National Adoption Association, and Toni Oliver, former president of the National Association of Black Social Workers, about the recently published “Black Paper,” an early look at the effect of NAA’s Ujima Black Family Connection Program. The goal of the program is to convene Black leaders to work on addressing long-standing disparities in child welfare and push back against the stereotype that Black families do not adopt.

Reading Room

Ujima Black Family Program gets $500K Grant from Walmart
https://shorturl.at/7LKfn

Black Paper: Urgent Need for Black Family Connections and Support for Black Leaders Advancing Change Efforts in Systems
https://www.adoptnaa.org/page/blackpaper