It’s been a HOT summer, so the Thriving Families, Safer Children (TSFC) Kentucky team hasn’t been staying cool (or even, always, calm given the gravity of this work). But they have remained collected around a shared purpose—infusing the national guiding principles throughout our statewide initiatives. This mid-year update will be a tribute to the partnership and the hard work they’re doing individually and as a collaborative effort supporting one another’s efforts to keep the movement strong in Kentucky. 

So, who are these committed partners? Read on to learn more about the site team members and what they’re up to now to keep families together whenever safely possible with the right resources and supports to thrive:

Kentucky Youth Advocates

Regional Prevention Collaboratives

Two years ago, Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) held Visioning Sessions in each of the nine Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) regions. From there, 18-month primary and secondary prevention action plans were developed. Community members and partners in seven of the nine regions have met again to celebrate progress and propose new or modified primary prevention goals through Re-Visioning Sessions. The hope is to use these local strategies to keep families out of the system and safe and supported in their own communities.

Over 200 participants have attended so far along with survey responses from those who couldn’t make it to provide input on updated Action Plans! The final convening will take place in early August. 

KY SEAT – Statewide Parent Advisory Council

Parents are no longer hiding in shame but stepping out and using their voices everywhere! KY SEAT (Kentucky System Experience at the Table) just celebrated two years as a council and has doubled in size. Members have been engaged throughout DCBS workgroups as well as participating in focus groups, on panels, speaking at conferences, writing blogs, and reviewing documents for family-friendly language. They recently began speaking at prospective foster parent training sessions to share their experience of their child being in care and what they needed as a parent to stay encouraged and informed. 

Visit their website for updated member videos or check out their table at the upcoming KY State Fair alongside DCBS’s Division of Prevention. 

True Up

Youth Engagement efforts have been vast. Many of the former foster youth lived experts have been utilizing their time collaborating with organizations and improving their expertise along the way. They participated in Mindfest which provides a time to elevate awareness of the importance of mental health and wellness within individuals and systems. There was an immense amount of participation in the Mending Minds Mental Health Charrette centered on unique challenges faced by individuals within the foster care system and work towards fostering positive change through an enriching lived experience panel. Youth experts are also completing trainings such as Love Notes, racial trauma, community table training on domestic violence and homelessness, and more. 

True Up is currently in the process of expanding from the Jefferson Region into Northern Bluegrass as well as the Southern Bluegrass regions. 

Department for Community Based Services 

Alternative Response

DCBS, in partnership with The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, has implemented Alternative Response (AR) in the following regions: Northeastern, Two Rivers, Cumberland, Eastern Mountain, and Northern Bluegrass. The next regions targeted to implement in the winter are Jefferson and Salt River Trail. This shift in approach to how families are engaged with the system has been in partnership with parents who experienced the traditional child welfare system. 

Parents helped develop the AR brochure, have participated in ongoing planning and implementation team meetings, and numerous parent lived experts are engaging in a Participatory Action Research committee to steer how the evaluation team will learn about family perspectives and experiences with AR. This first-of-its-kind evaluation of AR will set Kentucky apart in truly having the people most impacted by AR be the ones to determine how to evaluate it.

Community Response

DCBS is partnering with the Doris Duke Foundation for OPT-In for Families to build off the Community Response pilot that is in its second year. This initiative hopes to prevent children and families from entering the child welfare system. The Division of Prevention & Community Well-being (DPCW) along with assistance from technical advisors (Harvard’s Government Performance Lab, Foster America, and Chapin Hall) are working to bring more child welfare prevention efforts to Kentucky families. At this time, the Flex Fund Design Committee (an important aspect of the OPT-In initiative) has begun the development of a process to provide flexible assistance to families who do not enter the child welfare system and need assistance to stabilize. This initiative also integrates those with experience with the traditional child welfare system into an advisory council made up of 50% of lived experts. 

Commonwealth Center for Fathers and Families 

Fatherhood Engagement

CCFF believes (and seeks to propagate the belief) that fatherhood engagement is the primary upstream strategy for well-being. From homelessness, poverty, violent crime, physical and emotional well-being to incarceration, addiction and human trafficking- fatherhood has been proven to be a protective factor. By promoting responsible fatherhood in our Commonwealth, CCFF is addressing a core, root cause of negative outcomes that impact Kentucky’s children and families. CCFF adopts a partner-centric, collaborative model that particularly seeks to enlist agents/agencies that work within or are situated within the communities we seek to serve.  

CCFF is swiftly expanding its reach to all 120 counties across the state. They are continuing to meaningfully engage with and sustain deep partnerships with fathers that have lived experience with social services, justice, child support, or courts as co-facilitators, outreach agents, and ambassadors as able and appropriate and preparing for the upcoming 2024 Annual Fatherhood Summit. 

The Administrative Office of the Courts 

Community Mapping and Upstream

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) will be conducting Community Mappings of the adult criminal system, along with child welfare/juvenile justice to identify gaps in services as well as resources. These community mappings led by local judges, lived experts, and community stakeholders to empower and strengthen communities across the state will include all three departments within the AOC’s Office of Statewide Programs – Family and Juvenile Services, Specialty Courts, and Pretrial Services. The idea behind mapping all three courts simultaneously is that many of the participants crossover through these courts. Having participants able to hear the resources and challenges in each system will lead to better solutions for families involved in these courts. The AOC is also in the initial stages of the JCAMP (Judicial, Court, and Attorney Measures of Practice) project, which includes both former foster youth and parents with child welfare experience.

The upcoming Citizen Foster Care Review Board town halls in August will cover the themes from the Building the Voices of Lived Experience: Lessons Learned from Navigating the System project. This is part of a larger body of work supporting communication and navigation for child welfare involved professionals and individuals. These August Town Hall meetings will focus on elevating the voice of lived experts with experience with the child welfare system and encouraging authentic engagement with community partners and stakeholders to promote child and family well-being, equity, and positive outcomes for children and families.

Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky

Parent Engagement

Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky (PCAK) in conjunction with the Department for Community Based Services, providers, and lived experts will be offering a one-day Parent Summit on September 11th. The Summit will be geared toward providers and parents with child welfare experience and will feature nationally known co-design expert Chris Rudd of ChiByDesign. Additionally, the Kids Are Worth It! Conference held September 9th-10th will feature a Parent Engagement track. We hope to attract upwards of 50 lived experts, who will also be co-designing the track and Summit. PCAK is working through the internal process of creation of a Parent Advisory Council composed of representatives from our parent education provider network. More to come soon!

Lean on Me Kentucky

PCAK received a legislative appropriation to create an Upstream Academy, which will train at least one person from each of the 120 counties on specific upstream prevention strategies. Part of the outreach for the Upstream Academy will be further enhancement of the Lean on Me Kentucky model, including hiring an Upstream Academy Coordinator and a Lean on Me Kentucky Coordinator to help propel our efforts. 

Brighton Center

Building Community Wellbeing Among Families 

The Brighton Center is two years into a five-year Community Wellbeing Initiative testing community based and parent driven upstream strategies in Northern Kentucky. Brighton Center is partnering with the Community Wellbeing Parent Advisory Board (PAB) in the leadership of comprehensive prevention strategies and the development of a framework for power sharing and shifting. Brighton Center has worked with the PAB and key partners to dive deeply into the racial equity and disproportionality in the areas of the role that quality early childhood education plays in preventing child welfare involvement and deeply examining equity in data. This has led to the funding through Administration for Children and Families for an Equity in Early Education Project and inclusion in a learning cohort through Interact for Health. These will bring capacity and learning to the prevention strategies advancing Community Wellbeing. In addition to the PAB, Youth Advisory Board’s (YAB) have been begun in the Northern Bluegrass. 

The Community Wellbeing Initiative has also developed a Wellbeing Credential to solidify and unify the standard and commitment and to codify the meaning of a Well Being Community and infused upstream prevention services into the pediatrician offices at St. Elizabeth. This includes a Parent Collaborator that is available for coaching parents and clinicians. In addition, a Service Link line has been established to draw the connection to concrete supports for families offering a system of connectivity that precedes the safety net system.

Statewide Family Resource and Youth Service Centers

Community Resources

The DCBS/Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSC) community response pilot is taking place in two counties, which includes five school districts. Referrals to DCBS that do not meet the criteria for investigation are referred to the local FRYSC for potential services or service brokerage. 

Department for Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities 

Race and Equity 

An overview of Youth Racial Trauma was provided to 250 community partners across the state with most participants reporting being more knowledgeable about the impact of microaggressions on the experience of racial trauma (88%). 

Kentucky Strengthening Families 

Prevention Framework

The Kentucky Strengthening Families (KYSF) Initiative is strengthening families by enhancing Protective Factors that reduce the impact of adversity and increase the well-being of children and families through family, community and state partnerships. KYSF helps support local communities in work related to Protective Factors through training and ongoing TA support. KYSF also partners with youth with lived experience to provide training across the state, serve on a workgroup, host, and lead Youth Cafés. 

For a full list of partners and links to their websites, visit kyyouth.org/tfscky.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich via Pexels