Towards an Anti-Racist Framework for Child Welfare Practice

Purpose: Disparate outcomes among minority children within the child welfare system (CWS) have been researched and examined for years, yet disparity and disproportionality continue. Recently, policies have been implemented to address the disparities within the CWS to improve racial equity for children and families. However, these calls to action have often been muted. This project aimed to develop an Anti-Racist Framework that can be adapted to actively address disparities within the child welfare system.

Methods: The Anti-Racist Framework was developed to better understand, conceptualize, and address racial disparity within the child welfare system. Building upon previous work that addressed racial equity, this framework sought to build a comprehensive model that prioritizes community experiences of racism, moves organizations to action, and empowers stakeholders in leadership roles. Utilizing feedback from five child welfare leaders engaged in racial equity efforts and exploring their impressions of the important components of building an anti-racist, equitable CWS contributed to the development of the model. These leaders, representing several geographical areas, provided qualitative responses utilizing an online survey, with two providing feedback through a qualitative zoom interview. These responses were coded using an a priori thematic analysis.

Results: Several emerging patterns were identified as essential for an anti-racist framework. Strong, consistent leadership can create a space for change to occur by mobilizing frontline workers to prioritize the voice of families through meaningful engagement, while leadership fortitude diminishes the effects of confirmation biases. State legislation can create accountability for addressing disparity, making legislative leadership a strong strategy for promoting equity work. Ongoing training, peer accountability, and coaching are critical to confront biases, dismantle covert racism, and build anti-racist practices. The community plays a significant role, with on-going needs assessments and cross-system trainings essential to successfully addressing disparity. Successfully addressing racial inequities requires the community to engage and prioritize equity, making community involvement a critical support, particularly if legislative mandates are lacking. Programmatic changes such as funding to support training and the implementation of new policies is crucial to successfully promoting equity, with a multidimensional systemic approach focused on changes within the broader community leading to lasting changes.

Implications for practice: This framework is potentially a useful tool for agencies as they seek to reform their child welfare practice. Dismantling racist policies while prioritizing racial equity is revolutionary work. One of the guiding steps to addressing disparity and promoting equity is ongoing accountability and skill-building opportunities. Respondents indicated that courageous leadership propelled racial equity and inclusion efforts, while leadership fortitude, bravery in the face of adversity, sustained them. Cultivating leadership fortitude is important to sustaining this work as the pattern of an agency receiving a negative outcome and the media assigning blame is quite common. It is not always easy or popular to build an anti-racist organization, consistently defend it, and uphold it as fundamental to child welfare work. However, with effective and ongoing training and coaching along with robust community partnerships, the system can strengthen families, promote safety, and ultimately prioritize racial equity.