The Child Welfare and Racial Equity (CWARE) Collaborative brings together more than a dozen organizations dedicated to transforming the child welfare system. Under the leadership of “lived experts” — people who have survived the system as children, youth, parents, kinship care givers, and foster parents — the Collaborative pursues the radical, anti-racist transformation of the child welfare system so that children, parents, and families are free to thrive in their homes and communities.
Composition:
The Collaborative is comprised of roughly 20 federal and state-level advocates in the fields of child welfare, early childhood and health. But its heart is the Coordinating Committee, made of five subject matter experts and nine “lived experts” — those who have personally experienced the child welfare system. The Coordinating Committee guides The Collaborative’s values, principles and goals. Federal and state-level advocates come from the following organizations:
- First Focus on Children
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Bar Association, Center on Children and the Law
- Association of Children’s Residential Centers
- Center for the Study of Social Policy
- Child Focus
- Children’s Action Alliance
- Children’s Defense Fund
- Children’s Trust Fund Alliance
- Foster Club
- Generations United
- National Crittenton
- National Foster Parent Association
- National Indian Child Welfare Association
- Youth Villages
Mission:
The Collaborative works to transform the child welfare system from one that regulates families to one that takes an anti-racist approach to family integrity and child safety.
Method:
The Collaborative centers the expertise of individuals who have lived through the system to create policy recommendations, events, tools, strategic plans, and organizational connections. Our lived experts are co-leaders and co-creators of The Collaborative’s recommendations and efforts and are compensated as such.