Truth Telling Circles by Multisystem Service Providers
In the United States alone, state and local child welfare agencies spend $33 billion annually to administer programs and services, with a workforce of at least 300,000 individuals across public and private sectors in child welfare, family courts, and other allied systems. In the last thirty years, thousands have been implemented reforms, reports, task forces, blue ribbon commissions, initiatives, and evidence-based practices—many lauded as the significant change that will transform child welfare. Yet the data tell a different story, a story of systems lumbering on and producing far too many negative outcomes for children and families that come at an $80.2 billion annual cost to society, expressed through such outcomes as high rates of incarceration, homelessness, and poorer lifelong health for millions of people. We unapologetically reject the change philosophy of incrementalism that has permeated the design of child welfare practices, policies, and laws for the past fifty years. Incrementalism has only deepened the tentacles and solidified the structures of the existing child welfare industry in regulating family life. This specific TTC invites multisystem service providers into a conversation where we will collectively probe why we, as agents of the system, continue to act in ways that are counter to our ethos and that cause harm to children, families, and communities—particularly those who are living in poverty, marginalized, and disproportionately people of color. The intent is to break the code of silence that prohibits professionals from speaking their truths about the impacts of child welfare systems.