Sowing the Seeds of Hope: Keeping children safe with families

Abstract

Safe children. Strong families. Supportive communities. Casey Family Programs uses these words to describe the desired outcomes of our mission to provide, improve — and ultimately prevent the need for — foster care.Read them in reverse — supportive communities, strong families, safe children — and a framework emerges. If the first condition — supportive communities — is true, the next can follow. If the next is true — if families are strengthened by those supportive communities — then we can have safe children.Understanding that all three are connected is key to improving safety for our nation's children, guiding us to think, plan and act differently.Over the past quarter century, this country has made great progress in keeping children safe, with significantly fewer experiencing abuse or neglect. Much of that has taken place in recent decades, a time when communities across the nation have begun to think, plan and act based on data, research and experience of what works best to keep children safe in their own families and cultures. Local, state, tribal and federal leaders have worked to develop and implement policies and practices that ensure more children can grow up safely in strong families and supportive communities. From Texas to Washington state, Kansas to Connecticut, a shared vision is growing of a child and family well-being system that supports improved safety. In this report, we look at how communities are adapting their approach to ensuring child safety and what leaders from all sectors can do to support continued progress