Policy & Practice | Summer 2024

Prevention, (2) Child Protection Services and Prevention of Foster Care, (3) Out-of-Home Care, and the most recent area, (4) Workforce. We have 23 core high-priority research gaps iden tified; sample Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that are ready to use by funders and researchers; and a research paper entitled, Engaging Lived Expertise in Child Welfare Research . 18 The newest product is an Equity Assessment & Improvement Tool for Research Teams ; all of these materials are available on our project website. The website is a place where researchers, people with lived experience, and other organiza tions can collaborate and learn more about our work. They can share what they are doing as well. 19 The National Research Agenda effort organically became more than a six-month activity to prioritize a few research gaps. First, it was and is the epitome of how best to engage people with lived experience. This work reflects all the potential pos sibilities when you bring in diverse people and experiences and commit to the hard work and each other. In fact, I’ve never been on a project where my name comes first on documents, above nationally known researchers and CEOs, but on this project it happens. Today, because of the incredible engagement of the organizations and team members of the National Research Agenda, our important work continues. For the past month, we (my team of peers with lived experience and some other team members led by the Child Welfare League of America) have written a Call for Abstracts: A Special Issue on Authentic Inclusion of People with Lived Experience in Child Welfare Research, Program Design, and Evaluation. 20 Even more exciting is that I’m writing this article for APHSA and working with a committee of diverse people to plan a pre-conference, day-long workshop for their Economic Mobility & Well-Being (EMWB) Conference in Portland, Oregon, this summer. This is exciting because I believe it will get more people engaged around the importance of people with lived experience and the National Agenda Research efforts. The APHSA symposium allows for people with

Family Programs (CFP), 15 the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 16 and other organizations who have published information about kinship care. The data they provide are invaluable and I utilize it all the time. Most of all, I have to thank Kentucky Youth Advocates 17 who also talked with legisla tors, and provide me a platform to use my voice for kinship families in many ways within my home state. To say that this leg islative session was a win for kinship families is an understatement. However, to say that it was easy and quick is not accurate. These gains required years of work and I’m so grateful for the openness of the legislature and DCBS. For Kentucky, there’s

no sitting on our laurels because too many families are still in need due to the many children entering out-of home care each and every day. The National Research Agenda for a 21st Century Child and Family Well-Being System One transformational opportu nity to learn more about data and research around child welfare was my role as a lived expert working on the National Research Agenda for a 21st Century Child and Family Well-Being System. This project, led by Casey Family Programs, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation included five other par ticipants with lived experience to help prioritize potential research gaps and plan a strategic outreach campaign. The participants were diverse—with experience in kinship care, as a foster caregiver, a birth parent, and youth who had been placed in foster care. Due to that incredible authentic engagement of everyone on the team, we now have four main work areas. These are (1) Community-Based

it, “Subsidized Permanent Custody” or “SPC,” and the program was scheduled to begin July 2024. 12 The last message in my op-ed was the need for a Kinship Task Force. We needed more data and I felt that it would take a legislative task force to get it. I also saw the task force as an opportunity to engage and educate more organizations and the public around kinship care in Kentucky. We needed to look at existing policies and identify more specifically where we could make additional improve ments. I met with state Representative Samara Heavrin and she quickly put forth House Concurrent Resolution 117 (HCR-117). This resolution was a “Concurrent resolution establishing the Kentucky Kinship Task Force.” 13 Unfortunately, HCR-117 didn’t become a reality due to the multiple requests for other legislative task forces. However, I’m happy to report that I recently had a follow-up meeting with Representative Heavrin and that she is pursuing the establishment of a formal working group to study kinship care. I can’t say enough about organiza tions like Generations United, 14 Casey

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