In Uganda, Fostering a World without Adoption

Sacramento County's Cultural Broker Program places trained community advocates between Child Protective Services and Black families to prevent children from entering foster care. They work directly with families from the moment CPS gets involved until the case closes. They attend meetings with social workers, translate complex bureaucratic processes and advocate for parents. Of 552 families referred to cultural brokers between 2018-2023, 90% had successful outcomes, meaning children were reunited with parents, adopted, or placed in permanent living arrangements.

Hennepin County implemented a comprehensive overhaul of its child protection system, implementing a multi-pronged approach including increasing the staff and budget, splitting caseloads more evenly among workers, and instituting a two-month training program for new hires with ongoing education throughout their careers. The overhaul ensures families receive more comprehensive support, including therapy and addiction treatment services, reducing repeat cases and improving family outcomes.

To end prison gerrymandering, the city council in Wilmington, Delaware, counted people who are incarcerated in the local prison at their last address in the city for the 2020 Census. People who are incarcerated there but did not live in Wilmington were not counted.

Court-appointed special advocates (CASAs) are trained volunteers appointed by a judge to represent a child’s best interests throughout the foster care system and adoption court processes. CASAs spend time with the children to get to know them and their situations, including their medical, psychological and social needs, to advocate on their behalf. The CASA program began in the 1970s; today, there are about 1,000 CASA programs nationwide.

Summit County, Ohio's juvenile court's Multidisciplinary Team Representation assigns a parent advocate and social worker to child-custody cases to help parents reunite with their children much more quickly than the system typically processes cases. The program has just begun in the county, helping a handful of families reunite, but a study in New York City showed the same approach reunited families 43% more often than if just an attorney were helping the family. Parents whose troubles lead to the temporary loss of their children need supports that help them get on firmer ground.

California residents passed Proposition 11, a redistricting reform ballot initiative, in 2008 and in 2010, voters strengthened that reform by passing a bill to allow an independent commission to redraw state and congressional lines. Fourteen people, who were selected from 30,000 applicants, spent a year holding public hearings across the state to make informed decisions on how to fairly redraw district maps. As a result, more than a dozen Congressional incumbents lost their seats, which was not an intentional outcome but rather what resulted from decisions made based on the public testimony they heard.

A pilot program within the child welfare system in Philadelphia is providing wraparound services for parents at risk of losing custody of their children. The multi-disciplinary services include an attorney, social workers, and a peer advocate in addition to services that help stabilize families such as housing, employment, and addiction treatment. Similar programs in New York City and Washington state show significant reductions of time spent by children in foster care and increased rates of reunification - saving money and reducing trauma.

In order to address child abuse and neglect community members got together to form: R.O.C.K Mat Su, a collaborative organization composed of several organizations that has “teamed up with government agencies, schools and judges to develop a comprehensive solution.” So far, they have been able to train 10 schools to become trauma informed schools, trained over 2,000 people in the community, and created an alternative judicial court for children that prioritizes family reunification.

Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services arose from the need to improve the outcomes of drug addicted parents and their children, such as increasing reunification statistics. STARS employs case workers who have previously been drug addicted, and can provide immediate support and services such as meeting with the participant, accessing treatment options, and drug screening.

Low voter turnouts, populists offering half-truths, corporate interests, and the blurring of facts in the media are signs that democracy around the world is in turmoil. Internationally, citizens have assembled different programs and initiatives that arm ordinary people with information about policy and their elected officials, as well as distinctive ways to reform the electoral system.