Driving Innovation 2023 HIGHLIGHTS
Foster America is driving innovation across the nation alongside those who believe as we do: children belong with their families.
In 2023, our team:
Advanced transformation work in Colorado: Our longstanding partnership with advocates across the child welfare ecosystem in Colorado continues to yield inspiring results that demonstrate the incredible impact of fresh approaches. Foster America is supporting the Reimagining Colorado Child Welfare Steering Committee in its efforts to envision a new approach to serving families across the state. Among successful projects the committee is working to scale is a community-based response system piloting in Larimer County. This community navigator program connects families to services at the earliest sign of need, with the aim of addressing hardship before it triggers a child protection investigation. In November, our team met with and interviewed families whose lives have been directly impacted by the program. They shared incredible stories of hope and resilience – and gratitude. Also inspiring are the community navigators themselves – some of whom have experienced and overcome some of the very hardships the families they serve are facing. Colorado’s commitment to hiring lived experts to operate the community navigator program is part of a larger effort to elevate the voices of those with firsthand knowledge of the system as we work to transform it. While working alongside some of the state’s boldest innovators to reduce the use of foster care, we are also actively taking steps to tackle disproportionality in the child welfare system. Addressing the overrepresentation of children and families of color at every step of the system’s decision-making process is central to our work. In 2023, Foster America hosted the first two convenings of a powerful three-part race equity series, bringing county and state officials together to identify pain points and chart a path forward. These events provide critical space for child welfare leaders to step back from their daily work to innovate for long-term solutions.
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