Kaleena Erwin, LMSW, CPM for Fun & Free FRIDAYS

Speakers: Kaleena Erwin, LMSW, CPM, Research Project Manager, University of Kansas

Kaleena Erwin, LMSW, CPM: I hope that if we continue in this direction with community supporting families, instead of referring to DCF for intervention, our priorities and our values will change. This means DCF will be able to focus on situations that are truly serious abuse and neglect concerns. And this means that families will believe that the community cares about them and we can shift the values from, "You need to figure this issue out on your own", to "There are so many people who care about you and your family and we are here to help you." This moves us away from the promotion of toxic independence and back to what makes us human, which is connecting and caring for people around us. And this means that each child will have a network of people who love them and foster care won't even be at the top of the list of options to remedy a family crisis.