Family Voices United launches regular "Share Your Perspective" questions on timely topics relating to child welfare. This new paper asks experts with lived experience across the country, "The federal Administration for Children & Families (ACF) is hiring their first ever Chief Equity Officer. "How would you advise them to implement diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, specifically with regards to children, youth, and families involved with the child welfare system?"
(e.g. child welfare workers, families, attorneys and judges, and others involved in the child welfare system)?"
Lived Experience Experts identified the following priorities in response to the question:
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The Federal Administration for Children & Families Chief Equity Officer needs clear, measurable deliverables to implement diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
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Lived experience should be incorporated in the Federal Administration for Children and Families approach to policies and practices implementation.
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The Federal Administration for Children & Families needs to implement improved training around diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
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FAmilies deserve the support and resources needed to prevent youth from entering the system, and provide needed help for families.
Please click below to access the full paper and read quotes from young people with experience in foster care, birth parents, kinship and relative caregivers, and foster/ resource and adoptive parents.
