Termination of parental rights is often described as a last resort, something that happens only after every other option has been exhausted. But many families and advocates question how those outcomes are shaped long before a case reaches that point.

In this episode, host Valerie Frost speaks with Toia Potts, a family advocate and organizer with Emancipate NC, about the role legal representation plays once families enter the system. Drawing from her experience and her work with Carolina Parent Defenders, Toia walks through what meaningful legal advocacy should look like in practice. She also describes the common gaps and how they can influence the trajectory of a case.

This conversation doesn’t offer a simple answer. Instead, it invites listeners to look more closely at how decisions are made, what shapes those decisions, and what it actually takes to prioritize keeping families together.

Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are a few resources that Toia wanted to share with you.

• CPS Stole My Children - Toia Potts - Inquest
• Motherhood Cannot Be Erased By The State | Toia Potts | TEDxLake Alfred
• Home | Black Mothers March
• Home - Emancipate North Carolina

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

For more than twenty years, there has been a growing emphasis on youth engagement — inviting young people into the conversations and decisions about the systems that impact their lives. However, there are still fundamental skills that many people are developing that are grounded in working with people with lived experience as experts.

Today, we’re joined by two child welfare advocates who are focused on that question—particularly how shared decision-making can shape solutions that actually work. Blanca Goetz is a Jim Casey Fellow and youth advocate, and Kathleen Holt-Whyte is a senior youth engagement consultant with Cetera Inc.

Together, they helped develop the Elevating Youth Engagement, or EYE, curriculum. Developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in partnership with Cetera Inc., EYE builds on more than two decades of the Casey Foundation’s national leadership in authentic youth engagement. The curriculum brings together system leaders and young people to explore what meaningful partnership in improving outcomes for young people in foster care can look like.

This conversation explores what happens when systems move beyond simply including young people and begin to consider what it takes for their perspectives to actually shape decisions.

Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here is a few resources that Blanca and Kathleen wanted to share with you.

• Elevating Youth Engagement - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Elevating Youth Engagement: Recording Now Available - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Elevating Youth Engagement: Recording Now Available - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Cetera
• Brain Frames: Short Tools for Positive Interactions With Youth in Foster Care - The Annie E. Casey Foundation

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

This episode of Community In-Site is a re-release from Season 2 with Dr. Jessica Pryce. Dr. Pryce is a research faculty at Florida State University and author of Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services. Dr. Pryce is a nationally recognized thought leader on child welfare workforce development. In this conversation, Valerie and Dr. Pryce talk about the agent–advocate–activist journey framework in Broken that challenges professionals to reflect on their role within systems and consider what it means to move toward advocacy and transformation.

Drawing from her experience as a Black woman working in child welfare, Dr. Pryce explores how the experiences of people impacted by the system can serve as critical data for change. She reflects on the discomfort, tension, and responsibility that come with questioning long-standing practices and assumptions.

This conversation doesn’t offer a simple path forward. Instead, it invites listeners to think more deeply about power, perspective, and what it takes to evolve, both personally and institutionally.

Community In-Site is now on YouTube. You can go to the website to listen to episodes, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here is a few resources that Jessica wanted to share with you.

• To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation | Jessica Pryce
• Publications — Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets
• Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com