The Well-Being Support Ecosystem

For Others is thrilled to introduce its bold approach to end the child welfare crisis in America, called the Well-Being Support Ecosystem. The title was decided after Jared Brown, our Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, spent months asking pointed questions and researching every detail about child welfare. Today, he sits down to answer all our questions about the Well-Being Support Ecosystem, how it works, and how For Others (and you!) gets to do its part.

Jared, to kick us off, please give us a summary of the Well-Being Support Ecosystem.

A Well-Being Support Ecosystem mimics what we see in nature. We believe ecosystems are God’s design for the world, but whether you’re a person of faith or not, we can all agree that ecosystems are nature’s way of thriving. Families and communities are ecosystems of their own. Healthy ecosystems have 4 categories that work together: provisions, which are basic needs; regulations, which are measurable guidelines; support like technology, funding, or services; and culture, which includes nonmaterial needs like community, environment, and public spaces. Culture elevates the other three and leads to hope, dignity, and choice.

An unhealthy ecosystem indicates a disconnect between one or more of those categories. In other words, the ecosystem isn’t operating properly. We see this in families and communities all across the nation, but because every family and community is different, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The existing child welfare system can protect children from immediate danger, but it can’t address the crisis as a whole, and it certainly can’t sustainably meet long-term needs.

That’s where the Well-Being Support Ecosystem comes in. We use the term “well-being” because we surround the entirety of the child welfare crisis and consider the whole environment, which includes families and their children, social workers, nonprofits, service providers, you name it. In other words, while the state protects children in immediate need, we help children and families get support and agency to establish long-lasting stability and, eventually, thrive.

How does the Well-Being Support Ecosystem work?

Three different focus areas make up the Well-Being Support Ecosystem. Our number one priority is family preservation and reunification. Over half of cases involving child removal are preventable if we help these families before their kids are taken away. We use the 13 social determinants of health to determine where the family is in crisis, why they’re in crisis, and how to move them to stability. Beyond that, we help them achieve agency to reach and maintain a state of thriving. In cases where a removal does happen, our end goal becomes reunification with the same emphasis on regaining agency, stability, and eventually thriving.

The second focus area is to recruit and retain ideal family placements. If a child must be removed, they need a home located close by within their family or community. – The most ideal is kinship placement, which keeps children within their family and connected to their culture, including heritage, ethnicity, community, and language. The next best family is one within the same zip code. This allows children to stay in the same school, same community, and often in the same culture. Compared to going to a stranger’s house far away, ideal family placements keep a child close to home in the care of familiar people.

The third focus area, essential for carrying out the first two, is community empowerment. By uniting families, state government, service providers, social workers, nonprofits, volunteers, and more, we create a holistic support system. No one organization has a solution for the child welfare crisis. But if all of us surround vulnerable children and families with our unique skills and resources, we become a Well-Being Support Ecosystem that addresses every aspect of the crisis.

What role does For Others play in this ecosystem approach?

The “ecosystems” of families, communities, and states already exist. We don’t create new ecosystems. Instead, we create the right circumstances for the ecosystems to thrive. For Others’ mission is to raise awareness and empower best-in-class organizations to end the child welfare crisis. Practically, that looks like making not just the general population aware, but also making organizations aware of each other. We’re finding the right stakeholders to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors, and once that happens, we empower those connections. We help get them in touch, facilitate collaboration, and provide support or funding to get those collaborations off the ground.

The “Well-Being Support Ecosystem” is specific. Why did you choose to call it that?

“Welfare” is a part of “well-being”, but it’s not the whole picture. Welfare looks at the immediate, physical protection of kids. Well-being looks at the entire family, including the child. In addition to their physical state, how do we help them emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and socially? In other words, well-being is more holistic.

Using “ecosystem” in reference to child welfare isn’t new, either. We’re standing on the shoulders of decades of work. The “support” aspect is what makes this approach uniquely effective. We acknowledge none of us can do this on our own. There are too many needs, and no one has a single solution that will solve everything. We need to do this together, which leads us to the name “Well-Being Support Ecosystem.”

What convinced you that the Well-Being Support Ecosystem is the best model to end the child welfare crisis in America?

It came down to the difference between welfare and well-being. Hearing governments and social workers ask, “How do we see the welfare system become a well-being system?” I have a belief that it won’t on its own. Systems established in the 1800s like child welfare are naturally resistant to change because they’ve been around so long. From there I started asking questions and defining things. Once I started reading about naturally occurring ecosystems, I realized, “This is what we need.” We’re not asking the government to shift; we’re coming around them to be more effective and address what they can’t. We can only end this crisis with collective impact, and that’s what the Well-Being Support Ecosystem is all about.

Here at For Others, we’re thankful to have team members like Jared who devote so much time, energy, and passion to ending the child welfare crisis in America. If you want to join us on mission, consider making a donation today!