The Imprint Weekly

On this week’s podcast we discuss the state of legislation on Raise the Age reforms in Georgia, Texas and Wisconsin; a new campaign to repeal the Adoption and Safe Families Act; and news on the Family First Act. Kevin Skidmore, owner of Four Fourty Trucking in Georgia, joins to discuss his journey from a youth transferred into adult jail to a businessman helping young adults come back home from in...

The Imprint Weekly Podcast is releasing bonus episodes featuring our publisher, Daniel Heimpel, and Molly Tierney, the child welfare lead at Accenture and former child welfare director for Baltimore.  On this episode, the two friends discuss   the growing call for child welfare to paddle “upstream,” investing more money in keeping families together and less on splitting them apart. What will it ta...

On this week’s podcast, we discuss Washington’s limitations on life without parole, “raising the floor” on juvenile arrests, rules of the road for foster youth COVID relief and prioritizing foster parents for vaccines. Dorothy Roberts, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Program on Race, Science & Society, wrote Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare two decades ago. At the time,...

On this week’s podcast, we break down the major child and family provisions in the $1.9 trillion stimulus package signed by President Biden last week, including a major guaranteed income program for parents.  Dave Newell, CEO of the Children’s Home Society of Washington, joins us to discuss a year of pandemic for an organization with services ranging from Head Start and home visiting to foster car...

Over the next few weeks The Imprint Weekly Podcast is releasing bonus episodes featuring our publisher, Daniel Heimpel, and Molly Tierney, the child welfare lead at Accenture and former child welfare director for Baltimore.  On this episode, the two friends discuss the new Biden administration and what should be front and center in its agenda for the field of child welfare. 

On this week’s podcast we discuss testing universal basic income for youth aging out of foster care, a Minnesota law aimed at addressing race disproportionality, and the new head of the U.S. Children’s Bureau. Lori Ross, the founder of FosterAdopt Connect, joins us to talk about the case of a high-needs youth who was almost pushed out of Missouri foster care onto the streets with no help, and the...

On this week’s episode we discuss some of the Biden administration’s early hires for key positions at the Administration for Children and Families, which oversees family support and child welfare in the federal government.  Michelle Caldeira, the senior vice president of College Bound Dorchester, joins us to discuss a plan to invest in a new trajectory for gang leaders in Boston as an antipoverty...

Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing  bonus episodes on Thursdays that will be conversations between The Imprint's publisher Daniel Heimpel and Molly Tierney, the child welfare lead at Accenture and former director of Baltimore's child welfare system.   On today's episode they discuss racial biases and the child welfare workforce with Karen Baynes-Dunning, acting president...

On this week’s episode we discuss new access to birth certificates for adoptees in New York with reporter Michael Fitzgerald, more job training efforts for system-involved teens and young adults in California and Nevada, and a national campaign to end the use of solitary confinement for youth.  Ned Breslin, CEO of Tennyson Center for Children, joins us to talk about Colorado’s Rewiring initiative...

On this week’s episode we discuss  the continuing spiral of Sequel, a for-profit provider of residential youth programs, Biden’s halt to Trump religious rules, a new slate of child allowance plans and more.  Gary Ivory, the new president of Youth Advocate Programs (often just called YAP) joins us to talk about what we know about serving young offenders without resorting to incarceration, his famou...

About 40,000 foster youth live in group homes and institutions. On this week’s podcast we talk to reporter Megan Conn about what’s going on with vaccination for the frontline staff at these places, some research of note on homelessness and employment, and a former foster youth who just became an NAACP Image Award nominee.  Chani Katzen Laufer and Jill Nagle of the Aviv Foundation join us to talk a...

On this week’s podcast, we highlight a law to dismantle and rebuild child protection in Iowa, closure of juvenile prisons in New York and a former foster youth gets a key spot in the Biden administration.  Christopher Scott and Lino Peña-Martinez of Connecticut’s Sun Scholars program join us to talk about their model of a central program that supports current and former foster youth on college cam...

On this week’s podcast, we share some thoughts on the earlygoing on child welfare and juvenile justice for the Biden Administration: initial actions, key hires, and the Family First Act.  David Finkelhor of the Crimes Against Children Research Center and Family Research Laboratory joins to discuss the most recent federal data on child abuse and neglect, and what it showed as America headed into th...

On this week’s podcast we discuss the departure of Jerry Milner from the Trump administration (will he be back under Biden?), more lawsuits, and what the newest data on child abuse and neglect shows.   Double feature! Celeste Bodner of FosterClub joins to discuss the $400 million in coronavirus aid headed to states to help current and former foster youth; and New Jersey child welfare commissioner...

Improving casework. Identifying and addressing racial disproportionality and disparity. Reducing the use of foster care. More knowledge about what works to prevent abuse and neglect. Whatever you think is the most pressing reform in child welfare, technology is a key facet of solving the problem. In December, The Imprint hosted an online discussion about technology’s critical role in improving the...

2020 was the first full year for the Foster Youth to Independence initiative (FYI), which helps secure stable housing and self-sufficiency services for young adults aging out of foster care.  This week’s podcast was recorded live on Zoom in early December, and features a discussion about FYI’s first year and what comes next as the initiative recently became enshrined into law. We’re joined by Ruth...

On this week’s podcast we discuss the child welfare package passed by Congress as part of the coronavirus relief deal, new studies on life after foster care, and a temporary fix in Ohio on kinship support.  We’re joined by Melissa Thompson, Melanie Jordan and Cam Lundstrom of the Office of Respondent Parent Counsel in Colorado for a sobering discussion on how the pandemic has impacted the cases of...

It’s been 11 weeks since we launched The Imprint Weekly Podcast. On this episode, Imprint Senior Editor John Kelly and producer Christine Ongjoco have put together a collection of clips from interviews with our first year of guests.  Thanks to everyone who listened, subscribed, or joined us on the podcast in 2020. Happy New Year to all!

On this week’s podcast we discuss the immediate fallout from The Imprint’s investigation into California’s use of out-of-state youth facilities, the rise in child welfare cases in Los Angeles during the pandemic, rapid testing regulations getting lifted and a big result for the workforce development program Year Up.  We’re joined by Nora McCarthy and Jeanette Vega of Rise, a New York City organiza...

On this week’s podcast, we discuss the major investigation of California’s use of an embattled for-profit to care for kids out of state, trendlines since New York “raised the age,” and a new foster youth film channel.  We’re joined by Campaign for Youth Justice CEO Marcy Mistrett to discuss the end of the campaign, which closes its doors this month, and the past 15 years in the fight to keep youth...

On this week’s podcast we discuss the potential legislative aftermath of a suicide in a Wisconsin juvenile facility, new Family First Act approvals, and how a rapid home-testing strategy could affect juvenile justice and child welfare systems.  We’re joined by renowned journalist Lisa Ling and Imprint Publisher Daniel Heimpel to discuss Ling’s recent documentary covering the crossroads of opioid a...

On this week’s podcast we discuss the soaring cost of incarceration in New York’s juvenile justice system, a landmark settlement on how child welfare agencies support disabled parents, and a new tutoring plan available for thousands of foster youth in the country.  We’re joined by Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran to talk about her state’s new plan to change mental health services for youth...

On this week’s podcast we cover a lawsuit over equal support for relative caregivers in Ohio, LGBTQ youth in foster care, how foster homes are doing during the coronavirus pandemic, and New Jersey’s stimulus relief for older youth in care. We’re joined by California State Assemblymember Ash Kalra about his California Racial Justice Act, which was recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom a...

On this week’s podcast we provide an overview of the Who Cares project, The Imprint’s annual data collection on foster youth and foster homes in America. We also discuss some local and state election results, and what’s going on with the Biden transition team.  We’re joined by Melissa Carter, executive director of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University, and Andy Barclay, statis...

On this week’s podcast we cover state and local ballot measures with big consequences for children and families, the Fulton v. City of Philadelphia Supreme Court case, and an interesting new program in Ohio aimed at preventing parents from relinquishing custody of their kids.  Our guest this week is Serita Cox, co-founder of iFoster, on how her organization fueled a partnership that produced thous...