In season 3 of Overloaded: Understanding Neglect, we confront the complex challenges of poverty, social isolation, and systemic failures where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them. In this season, we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive. Through conversations with national and local experts and changemakers, we dive into the innovative ideas that aspire to transform our systems through community leadership, build an aligned and comprehensive primary prevention ecosystem, and unlock the power of lived experience through true collaboration. Through the first couple years of our Strong Families, Thriving Children, Connected Communities initiative, which included seasons 1 and 2 of this podcast series, we were able to align the insights and experiences of those who know these issues best with the evidence that has shown promise in advancing meaningful solutions. This collaborative effort identified four critical pathways – Economic Stability, Social Connectedness, Community Collaboration, and Workforce Inclusion and Innovation - that will shape the future of our initiative that aspires to reduce family separations for reasons of neglect. Join me, Luke Waldo, as I explore how we might change the conditions through systems transformation, a prevention ecosystem, and the power of lived experience with research and policy experts Jennifer Jones (Prevent Child Abuse America), Marlo Nash (Children's Home Society of America), Bryan Samuels (Chapin Hall), Allison Thompson (UPenn's Center for Guaranteed Income Research), local practice leaders and experts Kate Luster (Rock County Human Services) and Blake Roberts Crall (Madison Forward Fund), and Lived Experience leaders and experts Anthony Barrows (Project Evident), Sixto Cancel (Think of Us), Samantha Copus (Jefferson County Parents Supporting Parents), and Bryn Fortune (Nurture Connection Family Network Collaborative). Additionally, we have the honor this season to share many highlights from this year's Wicked Problems Institute hosted by Children's Home Society of America and the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina. We believe neglect is preventable. Join us on Wednesday, January 8th when we premiere season 3 wherever you listen to your podcasts.
:06-1:03 – Luke Waldo - Over the past 30 years, we have seen a 60% decline in physical and sexual abuse of children across the United States. We should celebrate this achievement that came from building a shared understanding of the challenge and targeting solutions through prevention and early intervention. Over those same 30 years, we have only seen a 10% decline in child neglect while poverty has remained stubbornly persistent and social isolation has grown.
How might we change these conditions that overload families with stress and make them vulnerable to child neglect and family separation?
In season 1, we set out to build a shared understanding of neglect and its underlying root causes.
In season 2, we confronted complex systemic challenges that overload families, and the Critical Pathways that have shown promise in advancing solutions.
Now, how might we transform our systems, create a prevention ecosystem, and center families as the experts they are and the decision-makers they should be?
1:04-1:18 – Jennifer Jones – “Too many families are being subjected to harmful child welfare investigations. Too many families are being separated due to a wide range of things that, if we addressed them before they were in crisis, things like poverty.”
1:20-1:28 – Allison Thompson – “A neglect report is lack of supervision, or deplorable housing, or insufficient food, can all be thought of as proxies for poverty.”
1:36-1:48 - Blake Roberts Crall – “People are working hard, and yet they still can’t make ends meet. Families are still struggling, and a lot of that labor is unrecognized in the rest of our social safety net.”
1:48-2:00 – Samantha Copus - “It’s the child welfare system, right? It’s not the parent welfare system. Who’s looking out for these parents who are going to be looking out for these children? And that’s not to take away from the good intentions of the professionals of the system.”
2:01-2:06 – Kate Luster – “It’s not about staff doing things wrong, it was really about how we’ve implemented the system's mandates.”
2:07-2:18 - Anthony Barrows - “You name the system, and I’ve probably been on the inside of it. And I’ve seen how those systems can positively transform people’s lives when they work well and how they can chew people up and spit them out when they don’t.”
2:19-2:25 – Samantha Copus - “Parents aren’t wrong about how they feel when they’re in the system. The single most frustrating piece is feeling like you’re screaming and no one can hear you.”
2:26-2:34 - Jennifer Jones - “We must disrupt the status quo and advance equitable access to opportunities and environments that all families need to thrive.”
2:35-2:40 - Jaclyn Gilstrap – “We love talking about it. We are good talking about it, but how do we do this for real, for real?”
2:41-2:48 - Bryan Samuels - “Is the goal you’re trying to get engagement, or is it ownership? And if you’re thinking about ownership, then you need to go the extra mile.”
2:49-3:00 – Marlo Nash – “We’ve gotta be communicating with one another. We have to create the answers. To do that, you have to have spaces and containers that are safe where you can have those conversations.”
3:01-3:11 – Kate Luster – “As we’ve partnered with parents in new ways, we’ve learned the value and importance of acknowledging in formal ways the harm that’s been done.”
3:12-3:25 – Bryan Samuels - “Sometimes we rely too much on champions, that if you want community ownership, you gotta move beyond the people who will say the right thing and make sure you have the people around the table that will defend the right thing.”
3:26-3:36 - Blake Roberts Crall – “Think about the freedom of choice, trust, and self-determination as a way of bringing some trust back to our social safety net and welfare systems.”
3:37-3:57 - Ramona Denby-Brinson - “Lived experience is a way of knowing and we should recognize it for what it is. It’s one of the most powerful ways that we know, and that we can serve our families and our communities. And moving away from that transactional approach, we have to show up in very different ways. First and foremost, we show up with respect.”
3:58-4:02 – Samantha Copus - “Maybe that’s the biggest goal is changing the relationships between families and child welfare.”
4:03-4:14 – Jennifer Jones – “The ecosystem is reliant on a diverse array of actors working in this collective and unified way to achieve our aspirational outcomes and our north star.”
4:18-5:03 – Luke Waldo - Join me, Luke Waldo, for season 3 of Overloaded: Understanding Neglect, where we confront these complex realities where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them. In this season, we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive. Through conversations with national and local experts and changemakers, we dive into the innovative ideas that aspire to transform our systems through community leadership, build an aligned and comprehensive primary prevention ecosystem, and unlock the power of lived experience through true collaboration.
We believe neglect is preventable. Join us on Wednesday, January 8th when we premiere season 3 wherever you listen to your podcasts.
:06-1:03 – Luke Waldo - Over the past 30 years, we have seen a 60% decline in physical and sexual abuse of children across the United States. We should celebrate this achievement that came from building a shared understanding of the challenge and targeting solutions through prevention and early intervention. Over those same 30 years, we have only seen a 10% decline in child neglect while poverty has remained stubbornly persistent and social isolation has grown.
How might we change these conditions that overload families with stress and make them vulnerable to child neglect and family separation?
In season 1, we set out to build a shared understanding of neglect and its underlying root causes.
In season 2, we confronted complex systemic challenges that overload families, and the Critical Pathways that have shown promise in advancing solutions.
Now, how might we transform our systems, create a prevention ecosystem, and center families as the experts they are and the decision-makers they should be?
1:04-1:18 – Jennifer Jones – “Too many families are being subjected to harmful child welfare investigations. Too many families are being separated due to a wide range of things that, if we addressed them before they were in crisis, things like poverty.”
1:20-1:28 – Allison Thompson – “A neglect report is lack of supervision, or deplorable housing, or insufficient food, can all be thought of as proxies for poverty.”
1:36-1:48 - Blake Roberts Crall – “People are working hard, and yet they still can’t make ends meet. Families are still struggling, and a lot of that labor is unrecognized in the rest of our social safety net.”
1:48-2:00 – Samantha Copus - “It’s the child welfare system, right? It’s not the parent welfare system. Who’s looking out for these parents who are going to be looking out for these children? And that’s not to take away from the good intentions of the professionals of the system.”
2:01-2:06 – Kate Luster – “It’s not about staff doing things wrong, it was really about how we’ve implemented the system's mandates.”
2:07-2:18 - Anthony Barrows - “You name the system, and I’ve probably been on the inside of it. And I’ve seen how those systems can positively transform people’s lives when they work well and how they can chew people up and spit them out when they don’t.”
2:19-2:25 – Samantha Copus - “Parents aren’t wrong about how they feel when they’re in the system. The single most frustrating piece is feeling like you’re screaming and no one can hear you.”
2:26-2:34 - Jennifer Jones - “We must disrupt the status quo and advance equitable access to opportunities and environments that all families need to thrive.”
2:35-2:40 - Jaclyn Gilstrap – “We love talking about it. We are good talking about it, but how do we do this for real, for real?”
2:41-2:48 - Bryan Samuels - “Is the goal you’re trying to get engagement, or is it ownership? And if you’re thinking about ownership, then you need to go the extra mile.”
2:49-3:00 – Marlo Nash – “We’ve gotta be communicating with one another. We have to create the answers. To do that, you have to have spaces and containers that are safe where you can have those conversations.”
3:01-3:11 – Kate Luster – “As we’ve partnered with parents in new ways, we’ve learned the value and importance of acknowledging in formal ways the harm that’s been done.”
3:12-3:25 – Bryan Samuels - “Sometimes we rely too much on champions, that if you want community ownership, you gotta move beyond the people who will say the right thing and make sure you have the people around the table that will defend the right thing.”
3:26-3:36 - Blake Roberts Crall – “Think about the freedom of choice, trust, and self-determination as a way of bringing some trust back to our social safety net and welfare systems.”
3:37-3:57 - Ramona Denby-Brinson - “Lived experience is a way of knowing and we should recognize it for what it is. It’s one of the most powerful ways that we know, and that we can serve our families and our communities. And moving away from that transactional approach, we have to show up in very different ways. First and foremost, we show up with respect.”
3:58-4:02 – Samantha Copus - “Maybe that’s the biggest goal is changing the relationships between families and child welfare.”
4:03-4:14 – Jennifer Jones – “The ecosystem is reliant on a diverse array of actors working in this collective and unified way to achieve our aspirational outcomes and our north star.”
4:18-5:03 – Luke Waldo - Join me, Luke Waldo, for season 3 of Overloaded: Understanding Neglect, where we confront these complex realities where, too often, overloaded families are expected to beat the odds that have been stacked against them. In this season, we explore how we might change the conditions so that we improve the odds for children and families to thrive. Through conversations with national and local experts and changemakers, we dive into the innovative ideas that aspire to transform our systems through community leadership, build an aligned and comprehensive primary prevention ecosystem, and unlock the power of lived experience through true collaboration.
We believe neglect is preventable. Join us on Wednesday, January 8th when we premiere season 3 wherever you listen to your podcasts.