The one-hour conversation brought together leaders across child welfare, community organizations, and public systems to reflect on a central question: What does it take for families to truly thrive?
What emerged was both a clear through-line and a call to action—pointing toward a future where systems are designed not just to respond to challenges, but to strengthen families from the start. Read more about our five key takeaways below.
Participants emphasized that thriving is rooted in connection, trust, stability, and care. Families need strong relationships, a sense of belonging, and communities that help them feel supported before, during, and after moments of need. This reinforced an important idea:
“Thriving families aren’t the result of programs or policies alone… they grow from connection, hope, joy, and love.”
Foster America’s work is grounded in this belief: systems should help create the conditions for families to be supported by strong relationships, connected communities, and the resources they need to thrive.
Across the summit, speakers highlighted what becomes possible when families can access voluntary, community-based support instead of default system intervention. Through OPT-In for Families, jurisdictions are building new pathways for families whose needs may first appear through calls to child protection, but do not require an investigation. In Colorado, the 211 Warmline offers an alternative path for families and mandated reporters to connect with a community navigator and access support through 211. In Washington, Grow the Green is helping communities use data and lived experience to understand how more families can remain safely supported at home.
Together, these efforts show that when families are connected to support earlier, better outcomes are possible—for families and for systems alike.
A key message from the session was that innovation isn’t just about creating new programs—it’s about changing how we work.
That includes designing solutions alongside people with lived experience, building trust through meaningful and respectful engagement, and creating spaces where communities feel safe to share openly.
“The innovations we’re making are not just in what we’re doing, but how we’re approaching change.”
Speakers described solutions shaped by parent leaders, lived experts, community partners, public agencies, and local leaders working together. In Colorado, more than half of the Reimagining Committee are lived experts, and that leadership shaped not only the idea for the Warmline, but how it works in practice. In Washington, parent leaders helped design the Grow the Green learning arc, bringing lived experience into how data is understood and used.
Across every example, one thing was clear: systems change happens through relationships. Bringing together families, communities, public agencies, and partners creates the conditions for more aligned, responsive support.
“The work of systems change for families will truly take all of us.”
For example, Grow the Green brings together DCYF, parent leaders, community partners, and researchers to use data in context. OPT-In is connecting public agencies, community partners, and lived expert advisory council members to design new pathways for support. The Fiscal Leadership Circle is helping leaders align funding, agencies, and strategy so existing resources can move toward family support. The work of systems change requires trust, but it also requires coordination, shared learning, and the infrastructure to make support accessible.
As Foster America marks its 10th anniversary, the Summit reflected both progress and perspective. Real change takes time. It requires patience, persistence, partnership, and a shared commitment to doing things differently. But across communities, we are beginning to see meaningful shifts in how families are supported.
The next chapter will take all of us: leaders willing to rethink how systems respond, communities shaping solutions rooted in trust, funders investing in long-term change, and partners helping move ideas into action. Foster America will continue bringing people together, sharing what we are learning, and learning alongside partners, communities, and the people most directly impacted. Whether you stay connected, join future conversations, carry these ideas into your own work, or invest in family- and community-led change, you have a role to play in building systems where every family has what they need to thrive.
In 2026, Foster America marks a decade of building an alternative to a child welfare system rooted in crisis—and proving that families thrive when support comes early, with dignity, and led by community.
