Becoming Responsible For Her Body – Remembering Ma
Welcome to Audio Nuggets, right here in the cypher. We invite you to join us in experiencing this season’s anchor, “Becoming Responsible For Her Body–Remembering Ma”.
How do I share the depth and magnitude of our relationship? To keep making her proud. There are two purposes in this episode: to thank you, the people, and to show what it looks like to be responsible for my mother’s body. In learning and practicing what “meeting a moment” truly means, there is persistent loss, pain, and gain happening at the same time.
I can feel her legacy in me. For the family beyond blood and law, and my family family, THANK YOU. Special acknowledgements: BGT and Jasmine Wali for their remarkable gifts of love. And lastly, I could never forget my fearless TEAM MFG, FOR HOLDIN’ IT DOWN! The gratitude for my team runs deep.
Season’s greetings to all. We will be back in 2025. Just as fierce as always, right here in the cypher!
A Families Fight for Parental Rights with Shrounda Selivanoff: Part Two
This is episode two of a two-part conversation with Shrounda Selivanoff. We are continuing our ongoing series on Termination of Parental Rights. If you haven’t already, please listen to the first episode where Shrounda and I talk about her family’s experience of TPR and how they had to fight to maintain custody of her grandson and protect her son’s rights from being terminated.
In this episode, we talk mostly about House Bill 1747, which was passed in Washington state in 2022. Most fundamentally, the law requires the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to rule out guardianship before considering Termination of Parental Rights and adoption. While this is largely a policy conversation, we gourd it in what matters the most, which is family, and belonging, and our right to be connected.
The Impact of Paid Family Leave on Child Maltreatment
On today’s episode, Dr. Jenny Tanis of the Hope College School of Social Work and Dr. Sacha Klein of the Michigan State University School of Social Work join to talk about their research into the impact of state paid family leave policies on infant maltreatment.
The United States is among the few developed countries without paid family leave as a national policy. But four states have long had local leave policies in place: California, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. Tanis and Klein wanted to see what, if any, impact this had on infant maltreatment in those states compared to trends in other states.
Headlines and The Interstate Compact with Marina Nitze
On this week’s episode we discuss the Trump transition process, the last months of the Biden administration, and recommend some interesting reads from The Imprint and elsewhere this month, including Sara Tiano’s two-part series on the intersection of addiction treatment and child welfare actions such as investigation, removal and reunification.
Marina Nitze of the Child Welfare Playbook joins us to talk about the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC), a longstanding process aimed at ensuring that foster youth who are moved to a new state are protected. We talked to Nitze about the Playbook’s discussions on ICPC, what gaps exist in the system and what states are doing to improve it.
In this inspiring episode of the Resilient Voices & Beyond Podcast, Michael D. Davis-Thomas sits down with the dynamic and compassionate Stephanie M.V. Popper to explore the profound resilience required to turn life’s adversities into opportunities for growth. Stephanie shares her deeply personal journey, transitioning from a challenging childhood into becoming a powerful advocate and a future clinical social worker. Her work as the Community Program Coordinator at Allaire Community Farm highlights how unique, therapeutic environments—like those involving rescued animals—can foster healing and hope for at-risk youth, veterans with PTSD, and families battling cancer.
A Practice for Minimizing Decision Fatigue
In this journal episode I talk about the impact that decision overload can have on us, particularly for those of us who are introverts, and how I keep my energy for the most important things. When you take a minute to think about the quantity of decisions we make every day, week, month, and year it can be staggering. And considering the weight of some of these decisions, it becomes clear that there is real value in auditing where we spend our mental and emotional energy.
Moving From Insight to Action with Tecoria and Elliott: Season 1 Reflections
In this special episode, hosts Tecoria and Elliott revisit episodes that left a lasting impact on them and reflect on the most insightful insights from the conversation. They return to moments with Clare Anderson, Shawn Mitchell and Currey Cook, Judge Jay Dugger, and Jennifer Holman and Jeanine Morales. Listen in to how they dive deeper into the takeaways that shaped their perspectives. From exploring economic supports and youth voice to examining judicial leadership and the power of lived experience, this episode sheds light on some of the key themes that defined the season. It’s more than just a recap—it’s a call to action, urging you to join the movement in prioritizing family well-being. Whether you’re hearing these conversations for the first time or revisiting them, this episode is a must-listen for anyone who is ready to learn how they can advance the family well-being movement.
A Families Fight for Parental Rights with Shrounda Selivanoff: Part One
In this episode we return to our ongoing series on Termination of Parental Rights. This is part one of a two-part conversation with Shrounda Selivanoff. Shrounda is the Chief of Parent Representation Initiatives with the Washington State Office of Public Defense. She has a long history as an effective policy director and respected advocate for parental rights. She also brings her own personal experience of CPS, child welfare, and TPR as a mother and a grandmother. In part on of our conversation, Shrounda shares her story of fighting for her son’s rights as a parent and for her grandson’s right to know and be connected to his family. In part two of our conversation we’ll dive into the policy she worked in WA and the implications it has in the ongoing conversation about a world without TPR.
Getting Unstuck: How to Move from Idea to Action
This week’s journal picks up on the main theme of last week’s episode with Jalaycia Lewis. So many of us have great ideas for things we want to do or create but we tend to get stuck in the idea phase. In order to have the impact we want, we have to get out of ideation and into action, but this is difficult, and we need some simple tools. I talk about the importance of acknowledging that we are stuck, why we are stuck, and three simple steps we can take to get us moving towards action. I also talk about the benefits of using speech acts and generative communication to help us continue to take action so we can bring our ideas into reality.
How the Child Welfare System Affects Parents, with Shanta Trivedi
For our final episode of Season 9, we welcome Shanta Trivedi, who is both an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and the Faculty Director of the University’s Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts.
We have regularly covered the harmful effects which the child welfare system has on children, but this week, we welcome Shanta to discuss the effects on parents. The broken system tends to penalize disadvantaged parents for behaviors that every parent has had. This can largely be attributed to poverty being conflated with neglect, and can often carry undertones of classism and racism. Shanta explains why many current policies don’t work, and her ideal solutions to solve these issues.
The Best of InnerViews, Season 1 Recap
In this special “Best of Season 1” episode of InnerViews, host Ivory Bennett revisits powerful moments from this year’s episodes. From healing generational trauma to empowering resilience in the face of adversity, Ivory highlights transformative insights from each guest. Join us for a reflection on themes of healing, self-discovery, and empowerment, celebrating the voices that made Season 1 unforgettable. Tune in for an inspiring recap and a glimpse of the exciting 2025 season ahead!
The most dangerous phrase in the language is “We’ve always done it this way.”
In this enlightening episode of the “Resilient Voices & Beyond” podcast, host Michael D. Davis-Thomas engages with Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston, the visionary leader of the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF). Commissioner Gaston shares her compelling journey from her brief experience in foster care to spearheading significant reforms in the U.S. child welfare system.
Imagination Factory: Live Coaching with Jalaycia Lewis
This is a particularly exciting episode because we are doing something a little bit different. Today’s guest is Jalaycia Lewis who is part of the Imagination Factory community and someone I’ve been coaching for the past 6 months or so. Like so many of us, Jalaycia has ideas and dreams for what she wants to do in the world. She wants her work to align with her values, what she loves, what she’s good at, and how she wants to create a more just world. For her, that is an idea she calls The Social Recipe, which is an organization she’s wanted to start for years.
In this episode you are going to drop into a live coaching session with me and Jalaycia
Guaranteed Income as a Child Welfare Intervention
On this week’s episode, Brightpoint CEO Mike Shaver and University of Illinois School of Social Work researcher Will Schneider join to discuss Empower Parenting with Resource, a test of the impact of guaranteed income as a component of how child welfare systems engage parents. Empower will provide hundreds of system-involved parents with cash assistance as part of a randomized control trial.
When CPS Is at the Door, with Jim Mason, Kathleen Creamer, and Martin Guggenheim
This week, we have the privilege of hosting not one, not two, but three guests! We speak with Jim Mason, the president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, Kathleen Creamer, the managing attorney at Community Legal Services’ Family Advocacy Unit, and Martin Guggenheim, the founder and retired co-director of New York University School of Law’s Family Defense Clinic.
These longtime experts in their fields spend some time with us today discussing best practices for parents and important things to know if CPS shows up at your family’s door.
Am I Enough, Am I Doing Enough?
In this week’s journal episode, I share a simple exercise that my coach, Brendalyn King shared with me. Since then, I have shared this with a number of people I work with, and they typically resonate with it and find it valuable. This came to me at a time in my process where I was questioning the impact of my work and if I was doing enough and doing “the right” things. I think this is an experience that most of us have felt throughout our lives and careers. The exercise helps us to identify where those feelings are coming from and how we can remind ourselves that we are always enough, and we can trust our future to emerge.
If you haven’t listened to the episode with Brendalyn, I would highly recommend doing so. She is an incredibly skillful coach and absolutely amazing person.
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