Elevating Stories That Matter
January 15, 2025
RHF supports innovative efforts to give parents and young people with system experience a platform to voice their concerns, hold leaders accountable, and reshape public perceptions about child welfare as they advocate to end harmful practices that disrupt families.
Story Labs
RHF supported three Story Labs in 2024, including a January event in Rochester focused on the intersection of school discipline and child welfare. The Solutions Not Suspensions statewide campaign aims to address harmful practices that disengage students from getting an education.
Transforming Systems
The Narrowing the Front Door to NYC’s Child Welfare System Coalition (NTFD) is led by people with lived experience, nonprofit leaders, scholars, and legal advocates focused on shrinking the scope and scale of child welfare interventions while increasing direct investment in under-resourced families and communities.
In 2024, NTFD hosted multiple forums, including a three-part series co-convened with three NYC foster care agencies. These events educated frontline workers about the history of child welfare and the harm caused by family separation and pressed agency staff and leadership to prioritize family supports over punitive measures.
The group also worked with the City’s administration to secure funding to establish an accountability council.
Additionally, NTFD led efforts to raise awareness about essential tools, like direct cash assistance to vulnerable families that are most likely to come to the attention of child welfare authorities due to conditions of poverty too often misinterpreted as child neglect.
Penalized for Their Prescriptions
The Imprint, an independent daily news outlet of Fostering Media Connections, conducts in-depth investigative reporting that sparks national conversations about critical child welfare issues.
A two-part series, published in December 2024, chronicled the troubling experiences of maternal patients who were subjected to non-consensual hospital drug testing. This practice often leads to CPS investigations and, in some cases, the loss of custody of their children.
The coverage addressed common misconceptions about medication-assisted treatment and ongoing discriminatory policies that violate patient rights, disrupting bonding between mothers and their newborn babies. Additionally, Imprint’s newsletter and weekly podcast also feature expert interviews, research findings, and proposed solutions to drive system reform.