Building on Year One: From the Ground, Up

In our first year (March 2023–June 2024), more than 350 participants—including parents, youth with lived experience, Tribal leaders, social workers, service providers, attorneys, judges, foster parents, and community advocates came together in regional teams to identify the most pressing system challenges and co-create solutions.

Through a collaborative process rooted in community-based design and complexity science, participants explored four key areas: Permanency, Safety, Well-being, and Systemic Factors, and surfaced cross-cutting issues such as:

  • Strengthening Family and Community Connections to support permanency and stability for children

  • Expanding Preventive Services to address needs before crises occur

  • Improving Access to Mental Health, Housing, and Economic Supports for families

  • Reducing High Caseloads and Staff Turnover to improve consistency and quality of care

  • Ensuring Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness in all services

Participants developed actionable plans to address these challenges, grounded in local knowledge and tested practices already working in communities. You can read more about these efforts in our Year One Final Report.

What We Learned in Year One

Shaping California’s Program Improvement Plan (PIP)

The work of our region-based teams directly informed California’s Program Improvement Plan (PIP) for the federal Child and Family Services Review, which outlines two years of targeted actions to improve outcomes for children and families. California specifically highlights From the Ground, Up as an essential part of engaging stakeholders and mobilizing grassroots communities to shape system improvements.

A number of the solutions raised by From the Ground, Up regionally-based teams were incorporated into the PIP, including

  • Advancing a kin-first culture in California by utilizing the Center for Excellence in Family Finding;

  • Building on Child and Family Teams (CFTs) and Integrated Practice Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (IP-CANS) practices to improve family engagement;

  • Supporting implementation of cultural adaptations to services;

  • Increasing and improving harm reduction services offered throughout state Child Welfare Services;

  • Improving coordination of comprehensive services to meet the needs of children and families across the entire continuum of care;

  • Improving safety and risk management in conjunction with the implementation of Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA); 

  • Improving the incorporation of people with lived experience in CQI system improvement effort;

  • Improving initial and ongoing training to ensure that the child welfare workforce has the knowledge, skills, and values to serve children and families;

  • Supporting the workforce through improved recruitment, selection, and retention efforts; and

  • Increasing foster and adoptive recruitment efforts.