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The Ahlquist Agenda
The Ahlquist Center for Policy, Practice and Innovation is the policy and advocacy arm of Brightpoint, a distinguished child and family service organization in Illinois. The Center advocates for robust, antiracist, equitable policies and social supports that create social capital, economic mobility, and systems designed to ensure children, families, and communities thrive.In this podcast, we invite you to take an inside look at how we think about policy: why it matters, how it impacts youth, families, and communities in Illinois, and what you can do to help.
The Ahlquist Agenda
Breaking Barriers in Child Welfare
In today’s episode, we dive into reimagining the child welfare system. Continuing our discussion from Breaking Barriers. Transforming Systems. Centering Families, guests Jen Agosti and Amanda Whitlock join the show to talk about what centering families in child welfare truly means, and what other social and governmental supports families need to thrive.
Episode Resources:
To learn more about Children Home & Aid’s commitment to investing in families to disrupt the systemic and multi-generational cycle of racial, social and economic inequality, read our Blueprint for Impact. You can view the video for our Breaking Barriers panel here
To learn more about the racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system specifically, read the University of Illinois’ Children and Family Research Center October 2020 report:
This webinar, hosted by the Child Welfare League of America, talks about the work Connecticut has done to promote anti-racist policies in child welfare.
Finally, we are by no means the first group to talk about this issue. Dr. Bob Hill, who Jen mentioned, wrote an article in 2004 on institutional racism in child welfare. Dorothy Roberts wrote her book Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare in 2002. In an article posted shortly after the book was published, Roberts says “Today’s child welfare discourse is marked by an abysmal failure to grasp the racial harm inflicted by the child welfare system.”
To learn more about Brightpoint, visit our website at http://www.brightpoint.org