My Journey Through Child Welfare: From Sister to System Reformer

Abstract

This autoethnographic manuscript traces the author’s lifelong journey through the U.S. child welfare system—from growing up as a sister in a foster family to becoming a system reformer shaping state policy and practice. Drawing on decades of professional experience in county and state child welfare administration, the narrative foregrounds connections—to family, kin, place, culture, and story—as both a personal lifeline and an ethical cornerstone for child welfare and nonprofit practice. Through concrete initiatives such as “The Adoption Option,” “Families for Kids,” and statewide Family Finding, the manuscript illustrates how centering children’s relational ties can transform foster care, adoption, and permanency planning away from practices that sever identity toward approaches that honor belonging, openness, and children’s voice in their own journeys. Interweaving intimate stories of love and loss with reflections on policy debates, organizational culture, and collaboration between governments and nonprofits, the piece advances practice-oriented recommendations for expanding adoptive eligibility, elevating lived experience in leadership, and designing child welfare systems that treat connection—not removal, compliance, or data systems—as the guiding principle for decisions affecting children and families.