Family Connect™: Rebuilding Family Visibility from Day One

Episode 1 of the CSI Intel™ Brief will explore how child welfare systems can strengthen early decision-making by improving family visibility from the very beginning of a case.

Across the country, state and county systems are facing enormous pressures: workforce shortages, rising case complexity, placement instability, and increasing expectations for prevention, all without expanded resources.

One of the most persistent challenges? Systems are often making critical safety and permanency decisions with only fragments of family information.

Today’s episode focuses on a model designed to address that gap: Family Connect™, CSI’s evidence-informed family search and engagement framework.

Key Takeaways:

• Why systems lose family visibility
• How Locate, Engage, Connect, and Sustain works in practice
• Why paternal kin engagement matters
• And how early family clarity changes safety, permanency, and workforce outcomes.

Find something interesting or would like to learn more? Visit our website at csiinvestigators.com to meet our team, schedule a consultation, or contact us directly via phone.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome everyone to episode one of the CSI Intel Brief: Providing the Facts to Act, a podcast exploring how investigation, intelligence, and human-centered engagement help organizations bring clarity to complex situations. In this episode, we're going to be talking about Family Connect, rebuilding family visibility from day one. In today's episode, we'll explore how child welfare systems can strengthen early decision making by improving family visibility from the very beginning of a case. Across the country, state and county systems are facing enormous pressures, workforce shortages, rising case complexity, placement instability, and increasing expectations for prevention, all without expanded resources. One of the most persistent challenges systems are often making critical safety and permanency decisions with only fragments of family information. Today, we focus on a model designed to address that gap, Family Connect, CSI's evidence-informed family search and engagement framework. Family Connect isn't a one-time search, it isn't software, and it isn't added workflow for frontline staff. Instead, it's a structured approach that integrates investigative rigor, trauma-informed engagement, and technology-enabled verification to strengthen early family identification and activation. Joining me today are Ann Schlegel and Talina Lindsay, who work at CSI and impact the design and implementation of Family Connect across multiple jurisdictions. Welcome to you both.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So we're with a very interesting topic we're going to be going through, and we'll talk a little bit more about some of the major areas we're going to be going over. But could you both introduce yourselves to the audience, explain a little bit of your background and why you're here and talking about this subject? And maybe we can start with you.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Sure. My name is Ian Schlegel. Child welfare is my passion. That's why I'm here. I've been in the child welfare field for close to 30 years now. I started as a caseworker, boots on the ground in the field, worked my way through there from a supervisor, a program specialist. I served in administrative roles as a deputy and then a director into child welfare agencies here in Pennsylvania. And about two years ago, I joined the CSI team as their child welfare senior advisor. And it's really to expand on the child welfare work of what really matters to me and to the system altogether. My decision to join CSI and leave public child welfare was really surrounding the opportunity to make a difference in a much broader sense by developing and implementing and help guiding services that are needed for child welfare agencies.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

It sounds like from your background, you've covered pretty much every angle of the child welfare universe.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

I feel like I have. I also feel like there's so much more that I probably didn't, because every day is a new experience.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

It's a such an important topic. Really looking forward to digging into this with you.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

And Talina, can you introduce yourself for the audience, please?

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yes. So I'm Talina Lindsay and I'm the supervisor of the Family Connect unit here. My background's not as long as Anne's, but I have been in child welfare for about 11 years. I started working within foster care, then I moved up to County. I was an ongoing supervisor for a while. I felt the need to learn to bridge that gap and between the foster care world and the families that we were servicing in the community. And about a year, maybe a year and a half ago, I joined CSI's team and I had this opportunity to expand my knowledge and grow. Children are my passion. I have five kids myself. So I think that it's really important to help the kids in the community and the families build those connections. So my team is pretty much the boots on the ground and keeps us pretty busy.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

I'm sure you can't do this job without having a passion for children and protecting them and everything you can do for them.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

That's great. Well, I really didn't know much about this topic until we got together to go through these outlines and sort of discuss what we're going through. And it's fascinating to me. And a lot of what I were talking about makes so much sense. But, you know, generally speaking, for the audience, you know, giving them a background of what we're going to go over. We're going to explore why systems lose family visibility, which is something, again, I didn't appreciate how important that is and what that means to a child's welfare when they're pushed in a tight, tight position. We're going to talk about how to locate, engage, connect, and sustain, and how that works in the practice of what you both do, why paternal kit engagement matters, and how early family clarity changes safety, permanency, and workforce outcomes. So, with that as a background, let's start with the big picture. And Anne, I'm going to ask this question to you. What pressures are states facing that make early family visibility so urgent?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I think there's so many pressures, but the one that comes to uh the top of my mind first for family visibility is really around the needs of children and youth and how those needs have really intensified over the past several years. The lack of behavioral health resources, the lack of placement options, uh youth waiting in hospital settings for a hospital bed or sleeping in CYS offices, child welfare offices or hotels because placement resources are unavailable. Where if we were able to earlier identify family, maybe some of those things would not occur.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Has it gotten worse?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I feel like it has gotten worse. The feeling is that has gotten worse. And we like to blame everything on COVID-19. But since that time, systems have really been interrupted. Um, behavioral health systems, mental health treatment, access to services, and just the needs of youth have really increased.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Well, and so this idea of family visibility, um, which you just mentioned, is is something that is so important in making sure that these situations are handled and handled properly. Why does that matter? And maybe maybe start with what is family visibility and then why is it so important?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah, family visibility is really identifying that family network, that support system early in a case. And why is it so important? I I think everything goes from there. So reducing congregate care placements, reducing emergency shelter placements, reducing the amount of time that children spend jumping from placement to placement and lack of stabilization really happens with family visibility. So if you had that family visibility, you would be able to see those reductions in congregate care and resource family stranger foster care, if you will, placements because you have that family visibility.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

And at its core, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is understanding who the family is surrounding this person, this kid.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

And in family in the broad sense of terms. So when we say family, we're not just saying blood relatives. It's anyone who is important to that child or that family throughout the course of their life, could be a baseball coach, could be a Girl Scout leader, could be a next door neighbor, a school bus driver, along with all of the blood uh relatives.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Which I imagine, you know, isn't somewhere you can go to one place to see, oh, here's the picture of who this kid's family is.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

And so on on a boots in the ground perspective, Talline, if I can shift this over to you. So you you have the responsibility of trying to pull this all together and identify this. So practically speaking, what's this look like?

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So what that looks like for our team is we really focus on finding as many family and kin and supports as we can right away. Because from the county perspective, they're focusing more on the emergency response, the safety of the child, and the placement. Caseworkers are often working under those extreme pressures and time restraints. They're worrying about documentation and making sure that all their ducks in a row don't have the time or the tools that we do to access as many family members as we possibly can to help maybe find the supports for the child in the most timely, effective manner. And whenever you're able to access that many family members and make those attempts, we bring them to the table a lot earlier in order to maybe find the most appropriate placement for that child and keep that child connected to their family and to their kinship, which is extremely important.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

And I would imagine that the counties and these uh organizations that are responsible on the front line of responding to an incident, you know, they have to meet their minimum legal obligations first and foremost, which are designed to protect the kids, but aren't necessarily always the full picture of what's best for the child. Um, and is that where you find that that what you guys are doing is really supplementing and helping with that?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

Absolutely. Our partnership, I think, is greatly beneficial for them and for the families that we serve. We're able to bring a large amount of people to the table and provide that support, however, that might may look in their capacity, which allows the county to make their decisions and really have that partnership to help them.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

That's great. All right. So, Ann, how you know, now I understand a little bit better about you know how a county may interact with somebody like Talina and her team or you that are out there, but how does CSI specifically define its role within these state systems?

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, so CSI does not see itself as the system itself. We are an extension of the system. So we provide that additional support, we provide the information that county child welfare agencies need in order to make informed decisions.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Okay. And Talina, with what Ann just said about how the CSI sort of integrates into these state systems, not replacing them, but supporting them, how does this help the frontline staff?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So it really helps to reduce the burden from the county casework team to be able to locate, not only locate those engaged um those individuals for that family, but through our investigators and our engagement specialist, um, we're able to focus on the pieces that take up the most time. And that's really those in-depth conversations with family members and with kinship and with it could be, like Ann said, it could be teachers, it could be a coach that that child feels very close to. Um, it also allows the caseworkers to spend more time working directly with the child and immediate family rather than spending their hours trying to track down information and contacts and make those initial conversations to bring those individuals to the table.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

So, I mean, is it fair to say that what part of the problem is it's an information gap for those frontline workers? They don't have access to everything that you can bring to the table immediately for them to make potentially the best decisions in the interest of the child. Is that fair to say, Ann?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

I think that's fair to say. I think the other part of it too is that child welfare notoriously works in crisis. And even from the early stages of an intake case, safe, that's usually when family clarity breaks down, is usually right from the front. Uh and rightfully so, the the system, the caseworkers are focused on safety, the child safety being number one at all times. And when you're focused on safety, you're doing the parts of the work that require you to do in order to ensure that safety. The next step is always, okay, now what? Now who where's this child going to be placed? Or who's the family that can help support? And that's always the afterthought after safety. Um, but unfortunately, it has to all work together. And in order to build that family system, you're you're ensuring the safety of that child as well. But in those intake uh stages when they're working in that crisis, there's just not the time, the ability, or having the tools available to be able to quickly find that that can or those resources.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

And and I would have to imagine in in many of those situations, the the child themselves are either incapable of giving the right information or don't know the right information themselves, necessarily looking at it in that way. And and so you said their their primary concern is making sure they're safe and secured. And you can't just say, oh, well, this kid's gonna tell me what I need to know in terms of the right family connections.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Right. I would say the child or the or the parent.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

You know, there's a lot of emotions heightened, emotions heightened at that time. And, you know, sharing that information about your extended family does not seem like the thing you would want to do as a parent when you're in that crisis. One, you know, you some folks don't want their families to know what is happening with them. So you cannot rely just on asking the chatter or the parent.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Yeah. Anybody, it's I'm sure it's an embarrassing and and scary situation for them. I would imagine family members are afraid of what it means to answer any questions sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Absolutely.

unknown 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

All right. Um, so Ian, let's let's let's move on to sort of the next segment of this episode, which is sort of identifying the problem. So, where does family visibility typically break down?

SPEAKER_01 13:58

So, um, as I had said earlier, family visibility typically breaks down in the intake stage of the case, the beginning of the case, the investigation stage, where the focus is on investigating whether that child is safe and whether the incident or the maltreatment actually occurred. And it's really focused on that investigation stage rather than that broader family network.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

And so we know from what you've described, and it makes sense that intake is the a critical stage. I mean, what what does the system typically know at intake? You know, what what is available to them?

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, initially the system typically knows what's on the referral. It might be just basic demographic information of who's all living in that household that that that that child or youth uh had resided in. Possibly a parent who maybe is not living in the household, but um has contact or a connection with that child, and maybe the reporting source who knows this child in some sort of way. Other than that, there's not much information available right off the bat. It's up to that intake worker, that investigation worker to go into that field, investigate the information that was on the referral, and then try to determine whether or not there's additional folks, a family who can help support.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

So they're really limited to what's in that report at that time. And, you know, they're again primary concern is safety and security for the child, and and you know, that the investigative piece is secondary for them at that point.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Right. They're time limited in their own work as well to complete that investigation. And that family uh clarity or family connection is not part of the investigation process.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Okay. And and I I gotta imagine this is frustrating for them a lot of the times because they're they're put in that position of knowing that there are, if they had all the resources and time in the world, they could could do more right then and there, but they don't. Um, and Talina, I'm sure you're dealing with this a lot. Could you talk to us about, you know, what is that workforce reality for the caseworkers? What's what's the what's that look like for them?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

So the reality for the caseworkers is they're really trying during that, during that stage to reconstruct the family unit while managing everything else that they have to prepare for during that case. Some of those responsibilities include court preparation, documentation. Of course, documentation of every single step is crucial, placement coordination, where is this child going to go? Who do we have access to and who is appropriate? Um, any service referral needs that that child or family might need. And of course, ongoing safety monitoring. When the workers are carrying such full caseloads, it becomes pretty difficult for them to conduct that investigative and engagement phases that we are capable of doing here at CSI to build that child support network and family network. Because of these pressures, family discoveries tend to happen over time instead of that immediate, like our process is tip uh 30 days. So, examples that we see frequently that we run into are fathers who are not identified until later on down the road, and it could be months later. Um, an aunt or a grandparent that learns of the situation long after it's already occurred and placement decisions have already been made. Um, and relatives usually surface later on down the road who could have been possible placement options or supports for that child that were not identified in the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

And that's got to be frustrating for them. There's a lot of T's to cross and I's to dot, it sounds like, that keep them busy, you know, without being able to do any of the meaningful investigative work that you're you're coming in and helping with.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Absolutely. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Okay. And Ann, you know, are is some of this due to system design problems? You know, does that play into this at all?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

A thousand percent.

unknown 17:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

It's absolutely a system design process. It's the way the system's set up. You start with an intake, you start with an investigation, which is focused on safety and doing that investigative work to determine if an incident of abuse or neglect has occurred. The structuring of the family system, the way the system is designed, doesn't occur until after the family has already been accepted for service and you're starting to do that case planning and permanency planning, where really that whole thing needs to start right in the beginning. Family looking for a family to support in order to divert families from the system would be the way that the Family Connect model would function, is really to build a whole new system design where you're working upstream and you're getting that family clarity from the beginning. And imagine the ripple effect that would have on the cases going through. I mean, you would not have children placed in emergency temporary placements. You would have families being able to be diverted from the system because they have that family supports coming together and being able to support that family out of crisis. You would have paternal children have mentioned paternal uh family, fathers identifying those fathers early, identifying paternal family early in order to provide that additional support to help families get out of their own crisis and not have the systems have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

And I have to imagine it's hard to reverse some of these decisions once they've been made.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Correct. Correct. I mean, if you don't have all the information to make a decision, to make an informed decision, then you're just making decisions based on what you have. And then information, as Tolina said, comes later down the road. And now administratively, court-wise, those initial decisions are being now reopened and challenged because more information has come forward as we go through. I think of a case I had, you know, towards an adoption stave, a child was ready to be finalized by an adoptive family that they were with for over two years. And family was identified later on in the case. They didn't know this child was in care and it disrupted the process for a child and the adoptive family and the and the birth family as well.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

And I always say that the wheels of justice are greased with molasses because it moves fluffily.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

And then and if you have to go back to a court or petition a court or get a court date, I mean, that alone is gonna be weeks, if not months. And I can see how making decisions that you have to make, uh to place a child somewhere, make sure they have a roof over their head and food in front of them is gonna be tough to reverse if if you don't uh have that information at hand.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

No, I mean that the cost that that was to the system.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

So you're thinking of a child who might have been in a congregate care placement before, and the cost of that congregate care placement, the courts now going to want evaluations done by a trained professional to determine the best interest of the child of uprooting from a home they've been in to going to kin. So again, the cost that is associated when decisions are not made uh with full information at the beginning of a case.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Right. Absolutely. You can see that. And and as part of this, because investigations, engagements are often treated as separate.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

In in my opinion, yes. If they work together, you would have um the full picture at the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

And this is the this is the concept behind Family Connect.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

That this is done at the beginning, as close to the beginning as possible, so that the information to make these decisions is is in hand as quickly as possible.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Okay. And can you talk a little bit about the historical development of the roles?

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah, absolutely. So Family Connect really combines several elements that are often separated in child welfare. So, as you said, the investigation, the family engagement, the field based expertise. So that was the thought process behind how we were going to do the model. Um, what we talked about up until this is the reasons why it's important to have the model. So, our model, our family connect model was broken down into four parts. It's locate, engage, connect, and sustain. In that locate stage, our trained background analysts and our investigators are hoping to locate, identify, and verify possible kin outreach for children and families. So within several hours of when we get referrals, maybe even a day, we're able to provide county agencies with a list of 50 to 60 kin right off the bat of who is a potential kinship support for this child or family. So again, our locate stage with the training that we have with our background analysts and our investigators, we don't just hand them, um, hand the county a report of names and phone numbers. These are information that we've verified through all of our databases and all of our resources and all of our trained staff to verify that these are indeed kin. And then we move on to our engaged stage, which is the stage that Talina oversees.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

So Talina, Ann just described that the processes for Family Connect are locate, engage, connect, sustain. And she just described the location piece, which is, you know, identifying who are potential potential family members that are out there, verifying, you know, who they are. And then this is handed over to your team to take on engage. So what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 23:20

So the engagement piece is really, really critical and crucial. Um, it's about reaching out to every single individual that we've identified in a thoughtful and respectful way. We have some deep-rooted conversations. We make sure that they are understanding the situation and they also understand the role that they might play in supporting the child andor sometimes the family. Engagement focuses on building trust and having open, honest communication with those family, family members to participate.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

And I would imagine, and we talked about this earlier, that there's probably a lot of hesitation, especially if if you're viewed in any way, shape, or form as being part of law enforcement or the court system or whatever, there's probably families that are going to be hesitant to talk to you. I I have to imagine that's a skill set that takes a while to be able to break through that and that engagement process.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Absolutely. There's a lot of trauma-informed conversations occurring daily.

SPEAKER_02 24:15

Yeah, that's a tough piece, and you have to have the right personality for that, I'm sure. Locate and engage. And then next is connect. Talena, you want to talk about the connect piece?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah. Connect is probably my favorite one besides engagement because that's where we take those conversations and we begin to translate them into meaningful relationships. Um, how we could build those relationships with those kinship family members who are expressing their willingness to want to be involved with the child and the family. Of course, some of those conversations include kinship placements, any supportive family involvement, and even participation in planning for the child's future. Those could look like you know, team meetings that the county maybe holds in order to see who could do what with that child to be able to wrap those services around them. The goal is to really strengthen the child's network and sense of belonging within their family unit.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

And it sounds like this is really an important piece because you're not just handing over information, you're handing over a potential plant. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

And then the last stage is sustain. Is that correct? Okay, so Ann, why don't you tell us a bit about what sustain means?

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah, I think sustain is is probably just important, if not more important to the system as you think about the life of a case. So sustain is really about that family visibility not disappearing. So in child welfare, unfortunately, there's a lot of turnover. So a worker leaves, that information that worker had is is gone. Right. Or buried deep into a case system somewhere. Um, our sustain phase makes that family visibility maintain visible, maintain their visibility. So we continue to ensure that those family relationships are always visible to that to that team.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

So all this work that's been done, that that last phase is to make sure it's got stickiness, it stays with that child.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

That's that's critical. And I know software is, I'm sure, a part of what goes into this, but why is this not just a software process?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Software can't do what we do. Yeah. Yeah, we have that human-centered element to it that software just can't do. Software doesn't have investigative judgment, it doesn't have thoughtful outreach, software doesn't uh coordinate follow-through, have those trauma-informed conversations that we have, be able to talk to kin for hours who are crying on the phone about their disconnect with their kin or walk through with a county caseworker, the importance of connecting a family together. So, yeah, software, that's why it's not just software.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

And I'm sure any caseworker who's on the front lines would has probably been through situations where an organization has said, Well, we got this shiny new piece of software, doesn't that solve all your problems? And it's sounding like that's a small piece of the equation.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

That's correct. That's only one piece of the equation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

So, Talena, can you talk a little bit about the human element of all this? And and and I think that this builds off of the idea that software is a tool, but probably not the most important piece of what we have here. So, what's the human element? How does that play into this?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

So the human element is the most important, like Ann was saying, that helps engagement, and engagement really requires those real conversations that is a trust-building conversation between the engagement liaison and really caseworker and the family members. Many relatives have never interacted with the child welfare system before, which you know sometimes poses the uncertainty and I guess the you know, the unknown. It really makes them very nervous, which means someone, and it's usually our team, needs to explain the situation, answer any questions that we potentially can help answer, really learn how to, you know, learn about the family members to understand their family dynamics and determine how each person may be able to support that child and that family. Those conversations, like Ann said, cannot be be made through software alone.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Right. You have to be able to speak human.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yeah. And probably even more so than that to be able to calm them down in a situation where you said they're nervous, they might be afraid they're somehow in trouble and or afraid of what this means to answer a question one way or the other.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

It's a very emotional conversation because sometimes we're engaging with family members who they might not even know that this child exists. Right. So it it can be very emotional. And like Ann said, we could be on the phone for an hour. And it it is that human element of compassion and being there to listen and to talk, talk them through that.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Yeah, it's it's just not something you can speed up.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

No.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

So Anne, with all these pieces in place and the the need to tie together the human element with investigative and software. So how's how's this press practice infrastructure work and practicality?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah, I mean, absolutely, we strengthen the operational capacity of child welfare agencies. We're providing them all of the information at their fingertips. We give them a nice packet where it's all right there, who the entire family system is, who's willing to be a support. And it really helps them to be able to make those informed decisions so you don't have all of that downstream chaos following whatever decision they made initially. That's smart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

So Ann, early on uh at the very beginning, I mentioned the term paternal kin identification. That was a new term for me. I'm sure uh something familiar to you both in the in the space. Can you explain what that is and why that's significant?

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Absolutely. So sometimes we think paternal kin is a new term for child welfare staff as well, because it's not something that is heavily pressed, even in that in the intake stage. One would think that it would be very common to figure out who the parents are, mom and dad, from the beginning of a case, but it's not always like that. When child welfare gets referrals, it's a referral on the household, which um in the system, more often than not, it's a female uh figure or mother and the children. And uh when when fathers are not identified, if they're not engaged, if they're not having connections with their child or family, they're not a visible part of that family and therefore often forgotten. So identifying paternal kin is extremely important, one legally, because that individual has a legal obligation to his children, as well as the system has a legal obligation to him, but it really expands that entire family network by identifying those paternal kin. What we found in our family connect work is the majority of the paternal kin we've identified have been the most willing to step up as supports for that child or family.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

So it sounds like Talina, they're they're kind of invisible in a lot of instances, and it takes a little bit of gumshoe work to make sure you know who's out there. And as Ann mentions, it opens up a whole line of potential family members willing to step in. Can you talk a little bit about how how that works, you know, when you're out there and actually working these files?

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah, so our background teams, like Ian had talked about before, are in the process, um, they identify and really our engagement um team gets boots on the ground. And we're we're constantly calling and we're messaging, trying to get in contact with the fathers and their in their family, which like Jan said, drastically expands that support area for that child. And in many cases, like she said, the paternal relatives do step up and they're willing to significantly provide support. Um, and once they're informed and engaged, many are willing to participate in supporting the child in in meetings and in any way that they could help the case and the in the family.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Yeah, I and I can see how important that would be. That again, if you're not looking, how are you going to find all these people who may be helpful for that that kid's well-being? And and it it it it sounds like there's some system level importance to all this.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Can we talk about that a little bit? You can explain what that means.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Sure. So we talked earlier about just placement shortages in general. So the system, there's a placement shortage nationwide. I mean, systems everywhere are looking for either um foster homes or safe placements for kids who can't remain safely at home. And this really opens up some of those placement options for them. There's limited treatment resources available. There's increasingly complex youth who are really disconnected from, you know, the paternal side that really could offer that support and mentoring to that youth. So uh terrific system benefits of identifying paternal kin, not just financial benefits of being able to, you may possibly have this child placed in a lesser cost uh kinship placement, but really to have that individual to coach and mentor a youth with complex needs.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Yeah, and and you can just see that practically speaking, there's going to be a limited number of government resources to place someone. And then if you don't have good foster parents to step in, you know, and even when you have foster parents, they're still a stranger to the child. Correct. You know, if you have good options in the family unit, that seems to make the most sense. It sounds like what uh Family Connect's all about.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

It's true.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

And can you talk a little bit about let's move on to the impact of what Family Connect has done? What outcomes have you observed?

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah, we're we have been so proud of the outcomes. It we really have seen the amount of family expand for children and for families themselves, the kin who have been able to pull together and provide a whole support network. We have seen, we've seen more placement options, we've seen increased um or decreased time to reach permanency. We've seen children being reunified with fathers that they never even met before. We've seen families diverted from the system altogether because we kin are willing to support them. We've seen cases close within the system earlier. I don't know if Lena, if you can think of any others that I might not have.

SPEAKER_02 35:02

Well, if you if you if we build off of what you said, maybe a child who's never had a relationship with their father before and they're reconnecting on that side of the family. Maybe have you seen that in your work where it's actually strengthened the family connections.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

Absolutely. Like Ian said, I think that's some of my favorite cases where we've been able to identify a father and bring him to the table. And we have seen reunifications occur that is, you know, we're dealing with not just the county, but different entities as well that work, you know, within that county level, and they come to us and say, Thank you. We cannot believe that you guys found found him. Or, you know, they thought for one reason or another he just wasn't, he was gone.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Well, and the bigger, the deeper, the more reliable a family unit is to support a child, the less likely they're gonna come back.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

I mean, I think that's very important. And and and all this is because you're providing better information for the staff. Yes. Okay. And and this is this is your allowing them to make better decisions earlier because they have the information that they need.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Absolutely. Um, it's better information to guide their work, you know. Um, it it helps them really identify and guide their work a little bit more. When the workers are able to understand the broader picture of those family dynamics earlier, um, they could do a few different things. They make more informed recommendations. As you can imagine, like Ian said earlier, some of those recommendations, the child ends up in out-of-kin placement. And that's because they weren't able to identify family members or individuals. They also coordinate with relatives more effectively in order to wrap those services and those family needs around that child and maybe what might keep them from you know being in the system a little longer. And it also plans for the child's um future and with greater clarity of you know where they're going and what the what that potential might look look like.

unknown 37:04

Right.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

And I and a lot of what you just described is you know the bigger impact of you know what it seems like this is all doing. And maybe you can touch base on that and also talk about how early identification affects these permanency timelines. Because it it if I if I heard you guys correctly, that you know, these permanency timelines are are a struggle and it's a a piece that organizations without the right information are are gonna always struggle with and maybe tie this all together to see how that really has an impact on that.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Absolutely. And um to piggyback on some of what Tolina had said, caseworkers do a fantastic job at what caseworkers know how to do. They are trained on how to assess safety, they're trained on how to develop case plans, they're trained on how to make decisions based on risk and safety with the information that they have. They're not trained in what we do. They're not trained in investigating, engaging those, the the kin network. That's what we have our specialist for. So when we give the casework team the facts that they need in order to make the decisions, it really helps to decrease the length of time that children remain in care. We've given them all the information. Children, they're able to ensure that the children are placed in a setting with a kin that is able to provide that support. And it helps children to be stable in those placements, to not move around from placement to placement, which also reduces that length of time in care. So just by having the information at hand, the facts that they need to make those informed decisions reduces that time and care. Without that, they're guessing on what would be best.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

And and I gotta imagine that's mentally tough on them.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

You know, they're trying to make decisions in the dark without everything they would love to have.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

And they find themselves in in chaos constantly. Right. Because when you don't have the right decisions and you make a decision, and that decision is it's ends up exploding on you, then you're in chaos trying to fix that choice and move to another one.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

Right. And and obviously the main focus of all this is to support these children the best way possible. But you know, that's done by reducing burden on the the frontline staff. Um, can we talk about that a little bit and talk about how Family Connect does that? What practically speaking are some things that really help the burden of frontline staff and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Why don't we I'll ask both of you, Telena, you want to talk about since you're you are seeing a lot of this on the ground. Let's let's discuss it.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Yeah. So, like you said, it it does reduce a lot of the burden and the burnout because as you can imagine, every mostly all counties, they don't have enough workers and they don't have enough hours in a day. So my team kind of takes that stress off of them. And I know, you know, at first we handed them this list and they said, What do you want us to do? Call these people. We're like, No, we're gonna do that for you. And I think that that's what they appreciate the most is that collaboration because we have the time and the team in order to contact these individuals to make those meaningful connections. So really it is that's how it's taken the burden off. They're in the driver's seat. We're just gathering the information, providing them with the that information and you know, assisting them with anything further that they may need. You know, we're asking, do you do you want us to help with, you know, um, warm handoff communications, you know, home assessments. How can we, how can we help you?

SPEAKER_02 40:43

So it's really trying to take as much off of them as as we can, knowing that well, you you you do the math and say it takes an hour to get somebody to talk to you meaningfully about the family situation, and they have multiple files, uh they can't do that. There's just not enough time in the day.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

No. Yes. And I mean, some of our families we're finding 90 to sometimes a hundred. We found like a hundred, hundred and ten people. And that's a lot of people to attempt, you know, and and we're calling and we're emailing and we're reaching out any by any means that we we possibly can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

And do you have anything to add to that from your perspective?

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Yeah, I think we also take the administrative burden off. Um, it's a federal requirement to do family, family finding, family connect, family um engagement, whatever uh term you wish to use. It's a federal requirement to do that for child welfare staff. Right. They have to document that they have done that work. They have to show that they've done that work. We provide that to them. So we take some of that administrative burden off of them by providing them with all of the detailed information they need to satisfy that requirement as well.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

So even some of those T's that need crossed and I's that are audited, you provide some of that.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Even for court, court requires those efforts be made, and they'll attach our packets to their court work to be able to prove that.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

That's great. What does the impact, what or what is the impact of the role of specialization?

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yeah, I think I touched on that a little bit earlier when I said caseworkers have the specialization in child safety and case planning. The impact of our specialization in investigation work and our background analyst work and and our um engagement liaisons is really one, the quality of it. So when you have a specialization in it, and this is what you're focused on, the quality of what you do increases. So the impact of that increases um along that way as well.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

And between the specialization roles and the burdens taken off administratively and otherwise, it seems that this provides clarity. And does this clarity reduce bias that otherwise exists within the system?

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Yeah, absolutely. So when the system only sees maybe a portion of a child's family, decisions really are just relied upon what they see. If we're opening up that full story for them, then they're able to make decisions with the full picture and not just that little portion.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

Right. And it makes sense. You can only make decisions on what you know. And if without that, you're you're again you're making the best decisions you can, but it might be incomplete. We I think we've talked in great detail about how this all sort of comes together to bring information to the frontline workers and allowing the caseworkers to make better informed decisions earlier, which is the key to all this. But let's talk a little bit now about integration. And and I'm going to ask you this question. So, how does this Family Connect process anchor other CSI services?

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Family Connect's a starting point. So, in order for the county to really Make true decisions and see what's happening with the case or the family. It's really to get that full picture on the family. Once you have that full picture of the family, um, you understand those family dynamics and you have a clearer understanding of what additional supports, services, resources you may need in order to continue to help that family.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

Does this potentially activate other CSI services?

SPEAKER_01 44:25

Yes. Okay. Depending on the circumstances in that case.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Okay. And what would some of those services be?

SPEAKER_01 44:32

Um, so locate services. So if a maybe child goes missing and we have our locator investigators help to find that child, we have that family network that we can, you know, even search through that kin network that we've already discovered to see if we can help locate that child. So our locate our investigators who are out in the field can can then do that that work in order to locate that missing youth. So our field support services with being able to help the the counties in doing their day-to-day work that becomes more timely for them, whether they need a transport, they need that that each other youth transported to a visit or to court or to an appointment or to a placement, we can provide that support to them. We have our safety monitoring services. If a county needs an extra set of eyes on a child to ensure that a child is safe in a living environment, we have our safety agents who are able to provide that monitoring for them as well.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

And Talena, I think if correct me if I'm wrong, but what Ann just described with investigating and field and safety support, these are the kind of things that activate with your team as requested by case workers.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

Yes, yes, they do. The supports are typically activated when a case reaches a point where the agency needs deeper verification on certain things. They might need the field presence, like Ann was talking about, or additional situational awarenesses to move forward safely within that case. Many situations, the information available through the documentation or phone contact simply is not enough to fully understand what's what's actually occurring in real time in that case. Child welfare cases often require agencies to answer questions as well that cannot be resolved from a desk. So that's when, you know, or computer software, so that's where that boots on the ground is really beneficial. And just for example, agencies may need a few things to verify who's actually living in a home. They might want to know that. Determine whether a relative is a viable support. Like I was talking about our locate of our youth, um, locate of youth um who has um disengaged from placement or to understand family dynamics that can't be fully accessed, uh, assessed through records alone.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

And I gotta imagine you get that phone call often where someone's like, Talena, tell me about this case. Tell me about this kid.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02 47:12

Yeah. And that handoff of information sometimes is like, I'm I'm under a crunch. Tell me what's going on here. Yes. Yeah. And can you talk a little bit about the role of investigative support in all of this?

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Sure, absolutely. So investigative support, I think, is crucial and why we made it a necessary part of Family Connect as well. But with investigative support, it really drives down that facts to act that we say that is where we ensure that the investigators are gathering that factual information that's needed in order for those decisions to occur.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

And that's, I'm sure, a lot of guidance from you and your team of saying these are the kind of things we need. I mean, I'm sure your investigators know that after working with you for a while, but they need to know what they're looking for as well.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Okay. And sort of building off of that, so you have the investigative, but the field-based supports, you know, how does that, how do their roles play into this as well?

unknown 48:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

So the field-based supports, um, as I said, the counties will utilize field-based supports in a number of ways. Whether it is to locate a case participant because they need to interview that individual for a reason, or that individual might have information regarding the family that they find crucial, they'll have our team look for and talk with that individual. Whether it is to gather records, whether it is to do door knocks, do safety checks, do uh, you know, make sure who's all living in the home is something I'd said. It's just uh the a piece to the big puzzle that we do.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

And and you do all this work, better decisions are made about where to place this child and put them in the best situation possible. But you still have to follow up. What's how does safety monitoring play in some of this?

SPEAKER_01 49:06

Yeah. And so safety monitoring, um, the counties will ask that uh we give them an extra set of eyes. The county might have um information that someone's residing in the home that maybe should not be in the home, whether it be a tier three sex offender or whether it be someone who's prohibited by court order to be in that home, the county will ask us to provide that extra set of eyes to verify that um this individual is or is not there.

SPEAKER_02 49:35

So you don't leave the process once you hand over the information. You're there making sure that those decisions were the right ones.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Correct. Okay. And the most important thing is giving that information back to the county so they can make decisions based on facts.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Okay. And it sounds like a lot of this, Talena, is strategic and the strategic use of these supports. Can you just touch base on that for us?

SPEAKER_00 49:56

Absolutely. So, what is important for that is for leaders to understand that these supports are not activated within every case and that they're used strategically, like Yan was talking about, when additional uh capacity or expertise is needed or field presence that can help the system better understand what is actually happening in the child's environment and what is going on firsthand to make better decisions.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

Makes sense. Well, we're we're coming towards the end of our uh podcast here. We covered a lot of information, fascinating, and and it's uh very impressive to me the work that you both do. But let's let's wrap this up with a few closing questions. So, Ann, I'm gonna start with you first. If a leader could improve one upstreet breakdown tomorrow, what should that be?

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Oh, that's easy. Early visibility. And I look back at my child welfare days and think about opportunities that I missed as a child welfare worker, as a supervisor, as you know, a leader, and that was not focusing more on early visibility to give you that full picture of that family network that's surrounding that child. If you don't start with early family visibility, you're working downstream. And that's pretty much how the system works that we see every day. Not having that family visibility, you have placement disruptions, you have delayed permanency, you have overwhelmed staff. And it just thinking if you had that from the beginning, how many changes could have happened in the trajectory of that case?

SPEAKER_02 51:37

And and I think it's abundantly clear after talking through this that that early information is is critical. But Talina, you know, what is it the system often knows the beginning? And I think that ties it back to saying that's the best scenario we could ask for. But what's the practicality of what you're seeing without it?

SPEAKER_00 51:55

So what we're seeing is when a child first enters care and enters the system, agencies often know very little about the broader family network and about the circumstances that have really been occurring. Workers may know immediate household, like Ian was talking about, but many other important connections that could be made for that child are often very invisible. Those might include the paternal relatives, like we talked about, grandparents, aunts, uncles, family members, or other supportive adults, such as teachers, coaches, neighbors. You know, we we talk about neighbors. That child might have gone there often for dinners or for lunches. So it's at that exact moment that the system knows the least about the family network. It is often making some of the most important decisions of the life of the case.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

And and when this visibility does improve, what can we expect to see?

SPEAKER_01 52:54

We see the system becoming stronger. We see workers having more options for placement decisions. We see children having better connections with their kin. We see permanency conversations happening earlier. As leaders, I would say leaders probably have better information to determine if the uh decisions and the resources that they're investing in are actually working.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

That makes sense. And we are uh pretty much at the end of our podcast. And do you have any closing perspectives you want to give?

SPEAKER_01 53:29

Yeah, I would say that um child welfare will always involve complex, difficult situations. That's not going to go away. But I think when systems can see the full picture when a child um enters care, that if they have that full picture, then better decisions are being made. And ultimate, ultimately, that's what every leader um in this field is trying to achieve is better decisions being made, having that factual information, and and really having systems work uh thoughtfully rather than reactively.

SPEAKER_02 54:07

Makes sense. Well, Ann and Talena, I want to thank you both uh for sharing your knowledge and the important work that you both do.

SPEAKER_00 54:16

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 54:17

So, as we've discussed today, early family visibility isn't simply about identifying names in a database. It's about reconstructing family systems in a way that supports relational practice, reduces administrative burden, and strengthens defensible decision making. When family discovery happens late, systems react. When family clarity happens early, systems stabilize. In our next episode, we'll expand this conversation to a leadership level, exploring how investigation, engagement, and data integration must function together upstream. We'll talk about governance, technology, and how systems can scale early family visibility without restructuring authority or adding permanent staffing. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Intel Brief, CSI Providing the Facts to Act. If this conversation resonates with your work, we invite you to continue the dialogue and look forward to exploring the next chapter with you.