True transformation in child welfare comes when we redefine our beliefs about what children need. (They need their families to be okay.)
….By avoiding out-of-family placement we change our measures of success to not only protect children’s physical safety, but also to safeguard their hearts.
Our current system is designed to keep youth from physical harm, and separation often happens. We now know that children cannot thrive without also healing the grief and loss that come after separation from a caregiver, and that the wellbeing of caregivers has a direct impact on this healing process. After decades of changing lives child by child, Alia sets its sights on bringing those innovations to a larger scale: to revolutionize the child welfare system.
We must disrupt the old way and redesign a new just and loving way of working with families where healing from separation is not necessary, because separation does not exist.
