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On this month’s headlines edition of the podcast, we discuss an upcoming appeal in Michigan around the constitutionality of some terminations of parental rights, as well as a trial starting in Oregon and a new lawsuit filed against Louisiana. We also cover the very steep decline in foster care entries in Texas since the passage of a law that sharpened the definition of neglect in the state, a music studio helping incarcerated youth, and a fourth path to permanency begins in Kansas.

n this week's episode I start with the journal prompt, am I biased? This was prompted by some of the feedback to our most recent episodes on Termination of Parental Rights. I thought I would let you all into my process of how I try to approach feedback that is critical or raises questions about my intentions. Rather than defending anything that is being said on the show my hope is to ask myself some questions about what I can learn from the feedback. You'll have to listen to the episode to hear my answer to the prompt.

This week, Kathleen Creamer is returning to the EPPiC Broadcast. Kathleen is the managing attorney of the Family Advocacy Unit at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia. This week, Kathleen gives us an overview of many topics under discussions at the ABA Center on Children and the Law’s recent National Conference on Parent Representation, which featured panels from many of the top scholars, lawyers, and authors in the world of child welfare reform.

Join host Ivory Bennett in an insightful conversation with Saunya Jones as they explore the complexities of healing from trauma, neglect, and abuse within the foster care system.

In this episode, host April Dinwoodie shares her very personal journey of sadness, grief, and loss connected to adoption and family separation.

Welcome to Community In-Site, a podcast about the family well-being movement. Episode 1 highlights Valerie Frost’s story of how she became not only an advocate for families but one of the leaders of the Thriving Families, Safer Children site in Kentucky. Hosts Tecoria and Elliott talk to Valerie about her lived experience, the lessons being learned so far from the site work in Kentucky, and Valerie’s vision for what success could look like over the next 5, 10, 15 years.

This week's episode continues our series of conversations about Termination of Parent Rights. I wanted to talk to Vivek Sankaran because he has a unique depth of knowledge to bring to the thought experiment that we've been bringing to these episodes, which is to imagine what if TPR was no longer an option. Vivek directs the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. We talked about TPR from the perspective of its morality, necessity, and constitutionality. We started the conversation with Vivek's earliest experiences as an attorney representing children and how he came to see the need to represent parents. We end the conversation with Vivek talking about a case that he is taking to the Michigan Supreme Court and the implications it could have if successful.

Announcing the Community In-Site podcast with hosts Elliott Hinkle and Tecoria Jones.

Join host Ivory Bennett on InnerViews as she delves into the complex intersections of trauma, health, and empowerment with special guest Dalyce Wilson. From the societal protection of predators to the health of Black women, Ivory and Dalyce explore topics such as sexual assault, trauma's impact on diseases like T1D, mental and emotional well-being, and the healing journey. Discover the power of forgiveness, the resilience of the human spirit, and actionable steps toward reclaiming self after trauma.

This week, we're rewinding to a a conversation with Ernestine Gray from April 2023. This week, we talk with former judge Ernestine Gray, who served for 35 years in the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court in Louisiana. During her tenure, the Orleans Juvenile Court went from what the New York Times described as “the worst juvenile court in the nation” to a model that other juvenile courts looked to for best practices. Ernestine tells us about her many years of striving to improve the child welfare system in her parish, and how she’s worked to improve the lives of the parents and children who came into her courtroom.

Some of our child clients have been talking to John and Jim about adoption, which inspired an episode about how we think of adoption as children's attorneys.

Criminologist Alex Piquero, who led the Bureau of Justice Statistics early in the Biden administration, joined us to discuss what the best available data shows about trends in youth crime before, during and after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also discussed the media’s coverage of youth crime, and what Piquero’s research shows are the most effective ways to prevent and deter youth from committing crimes.