Elevating Shared Parenting Policies and Practices Through The Lens of Lived Experience
This story series Power in Partnership: Elevating Shared Parenting Policies and Practices Through The Lens of Lived Experience highlights policy and practice changes across QPI sites to support birth and foster parents working together for what is in the best interest of each child and youth.
These stories are powerful tools for child welfare agencies to understand their role in supporting birth and foster parent partnerships, and can contribute to changing the narrative of foster care. Focused through the lens of birth and foster parents, each story addresses the policy and practice changes necessary to promote and support these relationships.
The series was developed by the Youth Law Center’s Quality Parenting Initiative in collaboration with the Birth and Foster Parent Partnership and the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance, with support from Casey Family Programs.
For more information or interviews please contact: Terry Harrak, tharrak@qpiylc.org
Redefining ‘Family’: California
The words that Ventura County foster parents Jackie and Daniel Mesa live by are warm and welcoming, and perfectly encompass their past three years: “The minute we receive the baby, you (the birth parents) are family. Period,” Daniel says…
Empowering Change: Minnesota
In 2018, Mikala found herself in an extremely challenging situation: striving to be the best mother possible for her children while struggling with a substance use disorder and domestic violence. As a result, Child Protective Services intervened and Mikala’s children were placed with a foster family…
Changing the Culture: Louisiana
Erik and Kara spent the early years of their marriage building their careers and raising their family. The demands of parenting their four young children kept the couple on the go, but as time passed and their kids grew older and more independent, they began thinking that perhaps they could take on more…
Changing the Training: Nevada
It was the autumn of 2020, and like so many of us, a family in Reno, Nevada was having a tough time. Parents Rob and Hazel had held onto their jobs — Rob, as a lead salesman at a car auto shop, and Hazel, as a supervisor at a wholesale food distributor — which provided a comfortable life for the couple…
Policy to Practice Implementation: Florida
In the Quality Parenting Initiative’s quest to ensure that every child gets the excellent parenting they deserve, the work often involves the transformation of policy from being text on a page into being real change on the ground…