The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and the Council on Accreditation have released the following statement on efforts of the Biden administration to reunify families separated at the border:

The Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border had a profound impact on the well-being of children and families and will have long-term effects on their health, both physical and behavioral, over their lifetimes. The Biden administration’s move to create a task force to reunify children and their parents is an important and welcome first step in the right direction. With the parents of an estimated 628 migrant children still missing, there is no time to waste in finding these parents and reuniting them with their children, some as young as infants.

In his congressional testimony, Dr. Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University noted, ‘Sudden, forcible separation of children from their parents is deeply traumatic for both the child and the parent. This triggers a massive biological stress response inside the child, which remains activated until the parent returns and provides comfort.’

This action is only a first step. The Alliance and COA has spoken out actively about family separation policies in recent years, and will continue to do so by calling for immediate action to appropriately locate every child and do all in their power to reunify families safely, providing them with the supports they need for healing.

 

The 2021 CYD Standards are now live at coanet.org/cyd-standards/.
 
Standards assignments will begin February 2nd. Please reach out to your Accreditation Coordinator with any questions.

Background

The new CYD standards come on the heels of valuable feedback from stakeholders like you. All of our edits were done with a single goal in mind: to increase the value of accreditation by focusing on those practices and activities that will have the greatest impact on the children and youth COA-accredited programs work with. 
 
The 2021 revision focuses on the standards that promote the development of effective, programs and their capacity to provide quality experiences that help children and youth thrive. In service of that, we have refocused the standards to 1) give you more time to devote to those practices that have a more direct impact on children and youth, and 2) allow you to spend less time compiling evidence and more time improving practice. This means a:

A PDF summary of the standards changes can be found here.
 
Thank you for your continued dedication to best practice, and for being a part of the COA community.

Questions? Please contact Tobi Harrington Murch at tmurch -(at)- coanet.org. 

From President Biden’s clear call for unity to poet laureate Amanda Gorman’s impassioned reading of her poem “The Hill We Climb,” this morning’s inauguration ceremony delivered the unifying message our country desperately needs to move forward to create a just and equitable society where all people and communities flourish. 

Today, on his first day in office, President Biden signed 17 executive orders on issues ranging from the COVID-19 crisis and the economy, to climate change and racial justice. We were pleased to see an executive order on advancing racial equity and supporting underserved communities. This order creates a whole-of-government initiative to advance racial equity, directing federal agencies to undertake a baseline review of the state of equity within their agencies, launches an equitable data working group, and directs agencies to engage with communities who have been historically underrepresented, underserved, and discriminated against in federal policies. Importantly, this executive order revokes the previous administration’s order that limited the ability of federal government agencies, contractors, and grantees from implementing critical diversity and inclusion training. The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities co-led a letter, signed by 41 other organizations, opposing the original Trump executive order in October of 2020.

We also applaud actions taken today to prevent workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, the extension of the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until at least March 31, and the extension of the pause on student loan payments until at least Sept. 30. At a time when our economy is struggling, these actions will provide needed relief and begin to move our country in the right direction. While these are only first steps on so many critical issues, they represent the actions required to power us forward…together.

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities is merging with the Council on Accreditation to form a new organization that will convene and catalyze a dynamic, inclusive, multifaceted network of human and social services organizations and passionate allies committed to achieving greater impact in communities across our country. 

The inauguration and President Biden’s address this morning has led to feelings of hope and optimism as we work together to create this new collaborative and unified organization. Our job now is to rally and inspire our community of social heroes and essential workers. Our responsibility, as a social sector, must be to continue efforts to work together to address the larger needs in our nation. 

Today, more than ever, we look forward to engaging our network and harnessing the power of the social sector to create a brighter bolder future.   

Sincerely, 

Jody Levison-Johnson
President and CEO
Alliance and COA

January 7, 2021 – Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of the newly merged Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance) and the Council on Accreditation (COA) issued the following statement in response to the violent protests that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol and one tragic death in Washington, D.C. yesterday:

“The violent protests that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol represent a sad and appalling stain on our nation’s history and a travesty of our democratic ideals.

“We stand for a free, just and civil society that represents the voices of all people. That, in fact, is the hallmark of our democracy.

“All people have the right to be heard and in our democracy one way that is exercised is through our right to vote. The people have spoken through their votes, the states have ratified those votes and the courts have upheld those decisions. It is now time for the President and Congress to ensure their commitment to a peaceful transfer of power occurs. This is essential to upholding our democracy and everything we stand for as Americans– equity, a free and non-violent exchange of ideas, and the right and ability for all people and communities to thrive.”

An update from Jody Levison-Johnson, COA President & CEO

January 6, 2021

Hello all…

As we welcome a new year and begin to move forward from the challenges of a year that looked dramatically different than any of us could have imagined, I remain hopeful for what 2021 will hold for us all.  That is why I wanted to start the year off by sharing an update on the merger between the Council on Accreditation (COA) and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance).

I am happy to share that at the end of 2020, the merger was approved by the boards of both organizations and by a majority of voting members of the Alliance. The vote capped a year-long exploration and four-month due diligence process overseen by both organizations.

While we continue to finalize the details of the merger, I will serve as president and CEO of both COA and the Alliance, and Susan Dreyfus will serve as senior advisor to me. Once finalized, I will serve as the President and CEO of the new organization, which will be headquartered in Washington, D.C.

More information will be coming soon about the offerings and pathways to engagement the new organization will provide for human and social service organizations, foundations, state associations, government entities, and all of those who make up the human and social service field and sector.

I look forward to continuing to engage with each of you in our quest to create a rigorous and responsive force that catalyzes the voices of the social sector and allows us to be both current and forward-looking.  I will be holding a virtual Town Hall meeting later this month, so please be on the lookout for an invitation in the coming days. I look forward to seeing you there.  As always, you can continue to view the most recent status updates on the COA and Alliance websites, including our most recent press release.

Thank you for your continued partnership, and here’s to an exciting year ahead and new beginnings.

***

November 20, 2020

Greetings,

I wanted to reach out and share some news regarding the potential merger between the Council on Accreditation (COA) and the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance). I am excited to share that both the COA and Alliance Boards voted unanimously to move forward with our potential merger.

Now that we have reached unanimous votes from both Boards, we will begin finalizing documentation, proceeding with the vote of the Alliance membership, and planning for integration and implementation – pending membership approval. 

This new organization will be unifying, intrepid, just, and purposeful. It will take our field and sector to new heights and allow us to contribute in deeply meaningful ways to support people, organizations, and communities to thrive. As always, please feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns.

 

Jody Levison-Johnson, PhD, LCSW

COA President & CEO

 

***

August 25, 2020

We are pleased to share that the Council on Accreditation (COA)’s Board of Directors voted to move forward with plans to explore a merger with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities! The Alliance has always been a close partner, and was one of our founding organizations, together with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA). To learn more, visit the press release here, or watch the message from Jody Levison-Johnson, COA’s President & CEO, below.

Transcript

Hello. I am Jody Levison-Johnson, the President and CEO of the Council on Accreditation.

I wanted to connect and share some news in one of the most personal ways possible right now.

These are unique and challenging times, and in this environment, I think each of us is learning that we need to find new ways of working – whether that be a shift to remote work, putting on a mask or other PPE, or changing the services we provide.

As you know, the Council on Accreditation has been doing the same. Our shift to remote work and virtual reviews are just two examples of how we are consistently adapting, looking forward, thinking about what’s on the horizon, and creating new and effective ways to respond.

Right now, what is going on around us requires us to innovate at a rapid pace. Fortunately, COA has been considering ways to innovate since my arrival in March of 2019. We have been thinking long and hard about the ways we can better support our accredited organizations and the broader field and sector.

With that as our backdrop – with a focus on what we can do to more deeply and meaningfully support you and strengthen your ability to improve the lives of those you serve – I am excited to announce that our Board of Directors has voted to move forward with a due diligence process to explore coming together with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities to form a new organization.

Many of you know the Alliance. In fact, they were one of COA’s founding organizations, back in 1977.

This exploration is the culmination of many months of extensive discussion about how we collectively could be so much more and recognizing that we MUST be so much more in order to meet your needs–to help you meet the pressing demands of our world today.

Human and social service organizations – whether public or private – must demonstrate excellence and achieve results. Accreditation is an integral part of it…and it is only a part. We can, through coming together, support our organizations and the field in so many more ways.

This is entirely consistent with what drew me to COA and with the vision of what we need to be. Coming together will allow us to create new pathways to engagement, add value to accreditation, and create an array of ways to help organizations of all sizes and levels of sophistication to have access to supports that were previously not available.

I also want to assure you that we will maintain the independence of accreditation in this new organization. Our focus will always be to ensure the relevance of accreditation standards to the work you’re doing, the rigor of our accreditation processes, and the results you are able to achieve on behalf of the people and communities you all represent.

We look forward to sharing more about this opportunity going forward.

Thank you.

Questions? Comments? Please reach out to us here.

Regina Dyton

By Regina Dyton

Since the nation witnessed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of members of law enforcement, it has been hard to contain the sorrow and  anger. As he called out for his deceased mother, he spoke to every mother across this nation who has struggled to keep her child safe. As a Black mother of an incarcerated son, I am tired and scared to stand witness to yet another generation of children and grandchildren who must learn to navigate the racial prejudices that infuse our systems. 

And, while it is clear that this issue extends far beyond law enforcement, any dialogue about how we move forward must acknowledge the fact that systemic racism across all of our systems is interconnected and interwoven.

What child of an African American mother hasn’t heard the phrase: “I’m beating you now so the cops don’t kill you later.” Too many Black and brown parents believe that teaching our children compliance without question can save our sons from being taken from us by police through imprisonment, permanent injury, disability or outright murder, like the knee to the neck that took George Floyd. “That boy better learn to listen!” 

It is with anguish and desperation that we seek to impart submission into our children early on. In doing so, we prepare our children for servitude while others prepare their children for leadership.   

A 2015 Pew Research survey found that Black parents are more than twice as likely as white and Latino parents to use corporal punishment on a regular basis. Many believe it is a tradition that has its roots in slavery, with enslaved Black mothers and fathers preferring to beat their child rather than allow the slave owner and his overseers to beat them. I find it appalling, but understandable on some level, that descendants of one of the cruelest examples of slavery in world history would pass the beatings on. 

This is clearly also one of the root causes for the disparities we see in the child welfare system. There is no question that racial bias exists in Child Protection Services. A parent of color is more likely to be reported for abuse or neglect, that report is more likely to be substantiated, and that child more likely to enter the foster care system.

In fact, according to The Imprint’s Foster Care Capacity website, while African Americans make up 9.8% of the population in Connecticut, they represent 22.5% of the population of youth in foster care. 

Once in that system, that child is more likely to be exposed to situations and environments leading him to trouble with the juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system is too often a road to the adult criminal justice system. Every step on that road is life threatening. 

Challenging the negative definitions and images we have been given of ourselves and working to heal internalized racism is one critical step to reducing the number of children of color fed into child protective services.

That is one of the key goals of the St Francis Hospital and Medical Center/Trinity Health of New England’s participation in the Child Safety Forward initiative. Funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Child Safety Forward is a demonstration initiative across five sites to develop multidisciplinary strategies and responses to address fatalities or near-death injuries as a result of child abuse and neglect. Our site is primarily focused across the Hartford, Connecticut, region.

The challenges we face include socioeconomic conditions across our region that include poverty, racially segregated communities, and inadequacies in data collection and reporting that have led to a reactionary rather than proactive approaches to child safety. Ultimately, we hope to utilize a population health approach to reduce the rate of repeated child injuries and fatalities in Hartford, which is currently two times the national average.

The effort will include a collaborative approach involving grassroots neighborhood organizations, caregivers, health professionals, researchers, foundations, state agencies and others to eliminate health disparities in communities served by St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. And, it will include a conversation across communities about the systemic racism that impacts families of color and how we can engage all voices and all lived experiences to bridge the gaps and disparities that have resulted.

These issues may not be solved overnight. But I am encouraged that the dialogue is real, that the voices speaking out are loud are multi-cultural and united in the call for change.

For every Black mother of a newborn who, like me, whispered into my baby’s ear, “I will not lose you to the police, I will not lose you to prison, I will not lose you to the law enforcement system,” know you are heard.

Child abuse and neglect is not inevitable. It is our responsibility as a society to tackle these hard issues and ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow up in an America that represents equity, inclusion, diversity and most of all, hope.

Regina S. Dyton is director of community health and well-being for Trinity Health of New England and project director of the Child Safety Forward Initiative in Connecticut. This article originally appeared in The Imprint on Dec. 6, 2020.

COA would like to congratulate Alternative Family Services (AFS), a Resource Family Agency and mental health service provider serving Northern California, as winner of the 2020 Innovative Practices Award for its “Enhanced Visitation Model: Foster Care” program!

The Innovative Practices Award identifies, documents, and celebrates examples of successful approaches to management and service delivery practices adopted by our accredited organizations. Too often great ideas are kept in-house, without recognizing their potential to create change beyond. The purpose of the Innovative Practices Award is to amplify the effect of one great idea by elevating it to the national stage and offering it as a resource for direct service providers, leadership, researchers, and advocates across the full spectrum of human services. 

This year, innovation is more important than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged every sector of our society, but it has presented special obstacles for the human and social services field. 2020 has also reinforced the urgent need for better equity, diversity, and inclusion. With that in mind, COA requested that Innovative Practices Award submissions address one or both topics.

This year’s evaluation process began with a preliminary round of submissions in which applicants provided a one-page synopsis of their innovative practice. Four finalists were selected to move forward and submitted their full case studies, which were reviewed by a team of expert judges. The community got to weigh in, as well, with hundreds of public votes making up 5% of each submission’s final score.

You can view the case study of the Enhanced Visitation Model program here.

ABOUT THE ENHANCED VISITATION MODEL PROGRAM

Visitation frequency between parent and child is one of the strongest predictors of successful family reunification within the foster care system. The initial response to the COVID pandemic for many agencies and institutions charged with overseeing family visitation was to restrict face to face services. Even as government and private agencies have begun to reinstitute face-to-face visitation, it is clear that the pandemic will ebb and flow. If visitation is going to be available to all families, some families will need to practice social distancing or utilize virtual technologies during visitation in order to contain contagion and meet foster parent fears and demands for safety. Families involved in the foster care system are often distrustful of how resources are allocated and rules are applied. When restrictions are placed upon parents’ right to visit their child, it is imperative that the process be transparent and equitable. To accomplish its purpose, the visitation experience must also be positive and encourage healthy interaction.

AFS’ Enhanced Visitation Model incorporates risk assessment and visit planning tools to assist staff in developing transparent and equitable visitation plans for all families. They have coupled this with replicable visitation activities or venues that can safely provide a continuum of healthy visit experiences regardless of risk level. Three levels of visitation service delivery address the special needs of families required to adhere to community, social distancing, or quarantine requirements. AFS’ Enhanced Visitation Model is designed to inspire clients and parents to play and communicate freely while minimizing the potential for client and family re-traumatization that can be caused by difficult to enforce rules and restrictive visitation environments. Their Enhanced Visitation Model is intentionally easy to replicate. They hope their model inspires and encourages family visitation providers to address the challenges of the COVID19 environment with innovative and creative visitation practices for all the families they serve.

Learn more about Alternative Family Services at afs4kids.org.

COA is looking for providers, agency leaders, and subject matter experts in the fields of behavioral health and child welfare to sit on two standards development panels that will be convening virtually this fall. The goal of these advisory panels is to review and revise applicable COA accreditation standards to ensure they continue to promote current trends and best practices in their respective fields.   

COA is currently focused on revising its suite of behavioral health standards to reflect current practice in office-based opioid treatment, recovery housing, trends in child and adolescent behavioral health, and sobering centers.  For more information on the many ways you can support this ongoing work please contact Melissa Dury.   

The child welfare revisions are focused on two main areas: (1) ensuring that COA’s standards for treatment foster care align with current practice in the field, and (2) ensuring that COA’s standards for family support and preservation reflect current practice in prevention services, focusing on alignment with the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA).  For more information on how to support this work please contact Lucia Hsiao or Susan Russell-Smith.

Within Our Reach released a new report today entitled “Transforming Child Welfare Systems to a 21st Century Model that Strengthens and Supports Families and Communities: Innovations from the Field,” authored by Teri Covington, former director of the Within Our Reach office and funded through support from Casey Family Programs (CFP).

Within Our Reach is an office of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities that was established to further the recommendations of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities (CECANF). In a 2016 report, the commission called for fundamental reforms in the child welfare system including: “A comprehensive public health approach premised on the importance of strong, integrated, and collective responsibility and coordinated action and measurement across agencies and states and within our communities.”

Significant progress has been made in the four years since the commission’s report toward transforming child welfare into 21st century child and family well-being systems that focus on preventing child abuse and neglect and strengthening families. 

Over the past several years, a number of convenings have taken place featuring transformational leaders across the child welfare ecosystem. Organized by CFP, in partnership with the U.S. Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) and American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), these convenings have helped coalesce leaders around a common vision and an improved understanding of a public health approach to child welfare.

This recently released report provides a framework and description of a prevention-aligned, public health approach to child welfare and provides some examples of innovations states and communities are implementing in their efforts to become a 21st century model of child welfare. Many of these innovations are based on the recommendations of CECANF and the frameworks being developed through the CFP convenings.

Some of the examples of community and state efforts towards a more family-supportive, public health approach to child welfare include: 1) Establishment of a network of Family Resource Centers (FRCs) in San Francisco, CA that provide a community-based resource hub for families needing to access formal and informal supports that promote health and well-being; 2) A Maricopa County, AZ effort to establish the Safe Babies Court Team™ approach first developed by the national organization, Zero to Three, that transforms child welfare into the practice of child “well-being” by using the science of early childhood development; 3) The Housing Opportunities Made to Enhance Stability (HOMES) initiative in Milwaukee, WI, which promotes stable, healthy, and affordable homes that provide a foundation for well-being and prosperity for children, families and communities.

Access the full report.

Over the past few months, COVID-19 has forced many challenges and changes to the forefront. Our ability to meet them depends on the strength of our community.  

In that spirit, COA reached out to our Sponsoring Organizations to cover something that hasn’t been in the news as much lately: how those in the human and social service community have been navigating the pandemic. The resulting article includes a wealth of information, inspiration, and lessons learned. From how agencies navigated shifting priorities to how they formed coalitions, from how they facilitated communication to how they are advocating for change, you can read all about it here.  

We want to offer huge thanks to those who participated—the National Council for Behavioral Health, the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, the Association of Children’s Residential Centers, Child Welfare League of America, and Children’s Home Society. It is inspiring to see that spite of all the uncertainty, many in the human and social services community have come together to continue to support those in need. After all, the most vulnerable members of society have also been the hardest hit by the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What have you learned in your community? What resources have been or would be helpful? What challenges still lie ahead? Share it with us here.  

Thank you for all that you do and continue to do during these challenging times.