Through a contract with the North Carolina Division of Social Services (NCDSS), the Center for Family and Community Engagement is honored to support the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Advisory Council, a part of the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Leadership Model. The Council is a diverse group of stakeholders including young adult alumni of the foster care system and all types of caregivers – birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. The Council represents stakeholder engagement at its finest and this year they tackled a lot!
In addition to more than a dozen state-level committees Council members serve on for NCDSS, members co-presented about the Family Leadership Model to local, state, national, and international audiences. They gave NCDSS feedback on fatherhood programming; COVID-19; the Extended Foster Care 18 to 21 Program; the Medicaid Foster Care Plan; and the Child Welfare Practice Model and tools. They have provided input into the Model’s leadership development and marketing materials. They helped to develop training courses for disaster planning and the child medical evaluation program. Through these activities and more, these individuals – who have first-hand experience with the child welfare system – utilized their collective voices to help improve outcomes for children and families.
We are grateful to each of the members of the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Advisory Council and celebrate their numerous accomplishments in 2021. If you would like more information about the Council or the Family Leadership Model, please email familyleadership@ncsu.edu.
