Community In-Site
Community In-site is about the family well-being movement. Hosts Tecoria Jones and Elliott Hinkle bring their lived expertise with the child welfare system as well as their professional insights to each episode. We'll be talking to leaders, advocates, and community members who are working from the grassroots to the grasstops on strategies to invest in the well-being of families and communities in order to prevent child welfare involvement. The show will feature stories and lessons from community sites (featuring Thriving Families, Safer Children sites) that make the family well-being movement real and personal. Each episode will unpack a specific topic (e.g. racial equity or community partnerships) and what can be learned from the challenges and successes. The hosts hope to leave listeners with something they can take into their own work to help grow the movement in their community.
For more information about the family well-being movement and Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative you can visit, Thriving Families
Episodes
62 episodes
How Cash Assistance with No Strings Attached Can Prevent Foster Care with Melody Webb [Re-Release]
This episode of Community In-Site is a re-release with Melody Webb, founder and CEO of Mother’s Outreach Network and lead of the MotherUp pilot.Direct cash support for parents can sound both simple and provocative. Research shows that ne...
Why Diaper Banks Can Be Key to Preventing a Family Crisis with Dr. Megan Smith
Diapers may seem like a small need, but for families raising babies, diaper insecurity can affect child care, work, parental stress, health, social connection, and the choices families are forced to make every day. In recognition of...
What's Best for Newborns and Parents When Substance Use Is Involved? With Dr. Sharon Ostfeld-Johns
When substance use is involved during pregnancy, the instinct to protect a baby can quickly lead to testing, reporting, child welfare involvement, and possible separation. But what if pregnancy is also one of the most important opportunities we...
How One College is Creating the Conditions for Students from Foster Care to Succeed with Nailah McDowell and RaMaj Parker
Getting into college and succeeding in college are two very different things.Young people with foster care experience have gained greater access to college through tuition assistance, scholarships, and enrollment support. But if access a...
How Do We Build Public Assistance Programs So Families Grow Beyond Them with Commissioner Clarence Carter
What happens when a public-systems leader with more than 30 years of experience is asked to move from a sweeping vision for reform to the realities families experience when they seek help?In this episode of Community In-Site, ho...
Is Our Definition of Prevention Right for What Families Need with Zach Laris
Prevention is one of the most common words in child welfare and family well-being conversations. But what are we actually trying to prevent?Are we trying to prevent foster care entry, family crisis, poverty, surveillance, or are we tryin...
How Hip Hop Culture Can Be a Cornerstone of Family Support with William Feggins and Camille Sledge
Family well-being is often discussed in terms of concrete resources and services. But what happens when family support is built from the cornerstone of community, culture, creativity, healing, and relationships? What if reimagined what’s possib...
Centering Fathers to Advance Justice with Carol Mitchell
Today’s episode is a re-release of the recording with Carol Mitchell from Season Two on June 19, 2025. This is a great episode for both Father’s Day and Juneteenth. In this episode, Valerie sits down with Carol Mitchell, a seasoned ...
Who Is Shaping AI in Child Welfare, and Who Should Be with Derrick Stephens
AI is here and how it impacts our work and lives is only going to speed up. As AI becomes ubiquitous in child welfare and family well-being systems, an important question emerges: who is shaping the use of these tools, and whose experiences are...
Can a System Built on Separation Become a System Built on Well-being with Sixto Cancel
The child welfare field is increasingly focused on shifting toward a broader vision of family well-being, one that emphasizes prevention, stability, and keeping families together whenever possible. But a fundamental question remains: can the sy...
Community is the Infrastructure: A Practical Case for Family Well-Being with Angela Burton
The child welfare field is increasingly asking what it would take to fundamentally change how we support families, and whether the systems we have today are capable of evolving into what communities and families have been asking for.One ...
What if Termination of Parental Rights Didn’t Exist with Toia Potts
Termination of parental rights is often described as a last resort, something that happens only after every other option has been exhausted. But many families and advocates question how those outcomes are shaped long before a case reaches that ...
Youth Engagement Starts with Checking Your Privilege at the Door with Blanca Goetz and Kathleen Holt-Whyte
For more than twenty years, there has been a growing emphasis on youth engagement — inviting young people into the conversations and decisions about the systems that impact their lives. However, there are still fundamental skills that many peop...
Stories Are Data With A Soul and Will Transform Systems with Dr. Jessica Pryce
This episode of Community In-Site is a re-release from Season 2 with Dr. Jessica Pryce. Dr. Pryce is a research faculty at Florida State University and author of Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services. Dr. Pryce is a nationally...
Funding the Future: How Philanthropy Can Drive Innovation and Social Change with Marvin Smith
As the family well-being movement continues to push toward prevention, experimentation, and community-led solutions, what does it look like for philanthropy to support that shift? How can philanthropy be a leader in driving innovation and socia...
How Cash Assistance with No Strings Attached Can Prevent Foster Care with Melody Webb
Direct cash support for parents can sound both simple and provocative. Research shows that neglect is the most common reason families become involved with child welfare, and it is often tied to economic hardship, which is why direct cash suppor...
How Transitional Housing Can Help Youth Build Wealth with Mike Williams
When most people think about transitional housing for youth aging out, Mike Williams thinks about home ownership as a way to help them build generational wealth. Mike is the CEO of Dreams and Success Homes and SMART DREAMS Inc. Some would say t...
Why Less Intervention Doesn't Mean Increased Risk with Mollie Warren
Some would say that reducing child welfare intervention puts children at risk, while others argue that too much intervention causes its own harm. How can stepping back be seen as both responsible leadership and potentially risky, and what does ...
Why Abolition Shouldn’t be a Scary Word with Erin Miles Cloud
Some would say that abolishing the child welfare system would put children at risk while others would say it is a beautiful vision for families. How can one idea, one word, spark such vastly different points of view, and what does this differen...
How Entrepreneurship Can Solve the Right Problems with Bobbi Taylor
Producer's Note: Season Three is Coming in January....In this episode, host Valerie Frost talks with Bobbi Taylor, an experienced child welfare advocate and founder of Proximate Solution about why entrepreneurship matters in the family w...
Thriving Families: Insights on Preventing Family Separation [Re-release] with Lisa Lawson
Since our original conversation with Lisa Lawson, she’s published a new book called Thrive: How the Science of the Adolescent Brain Helps Us Imagine a Better Future for All Children. The book is a powerful reminder that adolescence is ...
Launching DC’s Warmline and Building Community Trust with Director Tanya Torres Trice
In this episode, host Valerie Frost talks with Tanya Torres Trice, Director of Washington DC’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), about CFSA’s efforts to build trust with the community as they launch DC’s Warmline to better support famili...
From Exclusion to Youth Leadership: Organizing for Racial Justice with Demarco Mott
In this episode, host Valerie Frost speaks with Demarco Mott, a passionate youth leader and advocate from Miami who has spent years fighting racial disparities in child welfare and school systems. Demarco is the Chair of the Citrus Family Care ...
How a "Third Place" Became a Catalyst for Change in New York with Liangliang Han
In this episode, host Valerie Frost speaks with Liangliang Han, Program Director of the Family Enrichment Center at the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Together, they explore Rise Up, a community-driven initiative where immigra...
Leading with Courage and Clarity in Uncertain Times with Dr. Melissa Merrick
In this episode, host Valerie Frost sits down with Dr. Melissa Merrick, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), to talk about what it means to lead today as we all navigate through uncertainty. She emphasizes the importance of ...