Have you ever heard of the “miracle question”? It’s a classic tool used in Solution-Focused Therapy, a method that centers on envisioning the desired future rather than dwelling on past difficulties. The therapist might ask:

“If you went to sleep tonight and a miracle occurred while you were asleep which led to your problem being solved, what would you notice the next morning that would tell you this miracle had happened?”

This question helps clients focus on the outcome of positive change, not just the barriers standing in the way.

Now, imagine this: if you went to sleep tonight and, while you slept, the child welfare system transformed, shifting from a crisis-response model to one that truly supports families before they reach a breaking point. What would you notice the next morning that would tell you this change had taken place?

For me, I’d see families with access to services before they’re in desperate need. I’d see fewer urgent calls for foster parents and more community partners working visibly together to strengthen families. I’d see children and parents thriving together.

This vision is what Thriving Families, Safer Children (TFSC) had in mind when it began five years ago. In Kentucky, the initiative represents a collaboration of statewide partners including individuals with lived experience who are reimagining child welfare. Together, they’re centering families by ensuring that communities are strong, families are supported, and children are safe from harm.

All families deserve the chance to raise their children safely and successfully in their own homes. By shifting from a reactive system to one focused on proactive support and overall family well-being, we can prevent child maltreatment and unnecessary separation. And by elevating the voices of parents and youth with lived experience, we can build a more just, equitable, and compassionate system for everyone.

The TFSC initiative was built on the understanding that each site across the country would use different routes in order to achieve the same vision. In order to do so, guiding principles were put into place that are used to direct the work. The guiding principles developed by TFSC include: 

  • Partnering with lived experience, 
  • Addressing issues of racial equity and disproportionality, 
  • Centering the work in communities, and 
  • Emphasizing upstream strategies for prevention, health promotion, and well-being. 

Although there is room for improvement, Kentucky has made leading strides in implementing these guiding principles into the work that is being done. Below are some examples of those intentional initiatives:

Partnering with lived experts: 

  • The Kentucky team has been able to not only create a statewide birth parent council but also sustain it. KY SEAT has continued to partner with DCBS and other community based organizations in order to ensure that parent voices are included in child welfare related decisions that affect families. 
  • Lived experts from Kentucky have been able to represent the state on the national level both in engaging with partners from other states and also providing presentations and training for other states. 
  • The Department of Community Based Services has hired two lived experts to help guide the work internally. 
  • Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky in partnership with DCBS recently held their second annual Parent Engagement Summit. This one day event brings together stakeholders (DCBS, services providers and individuals with lived experience) in order to provide education on how to authentically engage lived experts as well as highlighting the work that is currently being done around lived expert engagement. 

Centering Communities: 

  • One way Kentucky is advancing this guiding principle is through the establishment of Regional Prevention Collaboratives. These collaboratives emerged from visioning sessions where community partners came together to assess local needs in all nine DCBS regions. Through this collaborative process, they identified strategies to meet families where they are and to strengthen support for community organizations in order to improve the services available to families across each region. 
  • For the last six years, Commonwealth Center for Fathers and Families (CCFF) has hosted a statewide Fatherhood Summit. This year, CCFF decided to meet communities where they are by hosting Symposiums throughout the state. Local community partners were able to work in partnership with CCFF in order to identify areas of focus for the symposium being hosted in their region.

Addressing issues of racial equity and disproportionality

  • Kentucky Youth Advocates facilitated Truth Telling Circles that highlighted the experience of Black young adults and their experience with the foster care system. The young adults then used their experience to create recommendations on how the system can change to better support Black youth. 

Emphasizing upstream strategies for prevention, health promotion, and well-being

  • The Department of Community Based Services created a new Division specifically focused around prevention efforts. The Division of Prevention and Community Well-Being utilizes community collaboration in order to support families with the hopes of keeping them from becoming involved with child protective services. There are 3 different branches of prevention: 
    • Primary prevention activities are directed towards the general population, with all community members having access to and opportunities to benefit from services and resources.
    • Secondary prevention activities provide families with services to address family needs and prevent child welfare involvement. 
    • Tertiary prevention services are provided to families in which child maltreatment has already occurred. These services are offered with the goal of preventing recurrence, avoid family separation, and to expedite reunification.  

There are many other examples of ways that Kentucky is leading child welfare reform work across the country, however, there is still much work to be done to reach that “miracle” change. 

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