Prevention Mindset Institute

What is the Prevention Mindset Institute?

The FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child-Abuse Prevention (FRIENDS) initiated the Prevention Mindset Institute (PMI) to identify strategies showing promise for shifting mindsets toward prevention. FRIENDS’ goal is to share knowledge with selected state teams, learn from participants, and disseminate our findings with others in child welfare and prevention. Our vision is that systems shift from intervening with families after bad things have happened, to putting significant energy and resources into prevention and early intervention.

What is Primary Prevention?

Primary prevention looks like communities focused on family strengthening, which may include family resource/success centers, schools teaching social-emotional health, concrete supports provided when families are struggling with housing, utilities, food, or other necessities, among many other strategies. The shift to prevention offers families the opportunity to overcome challenges, is not viewing poverty as neglect, advances kinship care, makes most child removals unnecessary, and promotes the best possible outcomes for our nation’s children.

Child protection interventions have disproportionately impacted Black, brown, Indigenous, and other families of color. The data demand immediate reflection and action to stop these inequities and to build a more just approach to serving all families.

The PMI is a group of national partners, parents, and state teams committed to child welfare systems transformation. The selected states have set ambitious goals to create more prevention-focused and equitable environments that support child and family well-being. They are partnering with communities, identifying critical stakeholders, addressing policy and structural changes, and tracking progress towards successful outcomes.

Please see the tabs below for an overview and the 2020 – 2021 PMI Summary Report for greater detail on PMI activities and expected outcomes identified by the first cohort of states. A second cohort was selected in March 2022 and will be participating in the PMI through early 2024.


Podcasts

Prevention Mindset Institute Episode 1: Shifting Minds; Changing Systems

Since 2020, FRIENDS National Center for CBCAP has convened the Prevention Mindset Institute (PMI). The PMI consists of 2 cohorts of a total of 11 states. State teams are typically the CBCAP lead, a member representing the child protection system, a parent leader and a community partner. The state teams join with national partners from the Alliance of Children’s Trust Funds, Action4Child Protection, Mining for Gold LLC, the Prevention Institute, and prevention advocate Alex Morales to work together to strategize to shift work done on behalf of children and families to be more focused on prevention. In this episode, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council (PAC) members Valerie Lebanion and Michael Cupeles talk with CBCAP State Leads, Sasha Rasco from Texas and Nicole Sillaman from Ohio about their participation in the Prevention Mindset Institute.

Hosts

Michael Cupeles, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Valerie Lebanion, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Participants

Sasha Rasco, Chief Community Wellbeing Officer, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

Nicole Sillaman, Executive Director, Ohio Children’s Trust Fund

Joanne Hodgeman, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member


Prevention Mindset Institute Episode 2: Shifting Minds; Changing Systems continued – Parents join the conversation

Since 2020, FRIENDS National Center for CBCAP has convened the Prevention Mindset Institute (PMI). The PMI consists of 2 cohorts of a total of 11 states. State teams are typically the CBCAP lead, a member representing the child protection system, a parent leader and a community partner. The state teams join with national partners from the Alliance of Children’s Trust Funds, Action4Child Protection, Mining for Gold LLC, the Prevention Institute, and prevention advocate Alex Morales to work together to strategize to shift work done on behalf of children and families to be more focused on prevention. In this podcast episode, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council (PAC) members Valerie Lebanion and Michael Cupeles talk with PAC member, Joanne Hodgeman, joining Valerie and Michael to reflect on Ohio and Texas’ work.

Hosts

Michael Cupeles, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Valerie Lebanion, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Participants

Sasha Rasco, Chief Community Wellbeing Officer, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

Nicole Sillaman, Executive Director, Ohio Children’s Trust Fund

Joanne Hodgeman, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member


Prevention Mindset Institute Episode 3: Shifting Mindsets by Revising Laws – One state’s journey to assure poverty is not misconstrued as neglect

In this episode, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council (PAC) members Paula Bibb-Samuels and Michael Cupeles talk with Margaret Perkins, from the Kentucky Division of Prevention and Community Well-Being of the Department for Community-Based Services and Valerie Lebanion, a parent leader in Kentucky’s Community Collaborations for Children initiative and a FRIENDS PAC member.

Margaret, Valerie, and our hosts discuss Kentucky’s prevention mindset shift including unraveling the story of Kentucky’s bold move – a revision of their neglect statute. Why? To ensure that poverty is not misconstrued as child neglect.

The episode concludes with FRIENDS PAC members Joanne Hodgeman, Matthew Porter, and David Armstrong joining the conversation.

Hosts

Paula Bibbs-Samuels, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Michael Cupeles, FRIENDS National Parent Advisory Council Member

Participants

Margaret Perkins, Primary Prevention Branch Manager, Division of Prevention and Community Well-Being, Kentucky Department for Community Based Services

Valerie Lebanion, State Parent Leader for the Kentucky Community Collaborations for Children


Prevention Mindset Institute Episode 4: Open, Courageous, Transparent – two child welfare directors reflect on doing right by families

Tune in to our latest podcast episode where we delve into the transformative journey of child welfare systems with leaders from Michigan and the District of Columbia. Hosted by FRIENDS PAC members, Paula Bibb-Samuels from Texas and David Armstrong from New Jersey, alongside esteemed guests Demetrius Starling and Robert L Matthews, this episode is a deep dive into the shift towards a prevention mindset in child protection.

Listen as Demetrius Starling,the Senior Deputy Director of Children Services Administration in Michigan, shares insights into leading prevention efforts, including initiatives likeCBCAP, while Robert L Matthews, Director of the Child Family Services Agency in Washington, DC, offers perspectives on family strengthening and prevention strategies in his jurisdiction.

Through compelling narratives and real-world experiences, our guests reveal the challenges and triumphs of transforming entrenched systems, resistant to change. Discover how they bravely engage with those impacted by these systems, forging collaborative pathways towards co-created solutions. Join us as we explore the power of bold leadership and community engagement in reshaping the future of child welfare.  The episode concludes with reflections from PAC member Michael Cupeles.

PMI Brochure

Click here to download this content in a printable version. 

Values and Principles

Values and Principles – Prevention Mindset Institute

FRIENDS has convened national experts in prevention, including Action4Child Protection, the Children’s Trust Fund Alliance, Mining for Gold, the Prevention Institute, and FRIENDS’ Parent Advisory Council to join with six teams from states who are leaders in work to develop ambitious and promising strategies for a new kind of child welfare system. The state teams are comprised of CBCAP state agency leads, state child welfare leadership, and other state partners.  Together this group forms the Prevention Mindset Institute (PMI).  The group will convene virtually and in-person over the next year to support and influence efforts towards building a child wellbeing system that focuses on engaging with families in order to identify and provide supports that strengthen them and their communities. 

PMI participants recognize that a clear set of values and principles illustrate what is important to a group of people and their mission. Values convey the beliefs participants share as they embark on this work. Principles are those crucial concepts and actions essential for moving the work forward guided by our values. Together, they provide critical information for bringing others into the collaboration, navigating conflicts, and remaining focused on outcomes.

Prevention Mindset Institute participants articulate these values and principles for building a new system: 

VALUES

  • Families are the experts of their own experience. Children are best cared for in their own families with resources and supports accessible, as needed, to remain safely intact. 
  • Respect that learning and knowledge comes from a variety of methods and sources, both empirical and experiential, and there is equal value in both. 
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of historically marginalized groups must be at the heart of the work. Diversity is defined broadly to include all aspects of identity including race, ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression, and ability. 
  • Listening more than talking is a key component of effective and meaningful change. 
  • Trust both in the good intentions of those who have declared a commitment to the work; and acknowledgment that there is work to do to rebuild trust in many communities.  
  • Optimism: Change is possible. 
  • Humility: Seek and be open to learning that may result in our own mindset shifts. 
  • Steadfastness: We are committed to long-term sustainable mindset shifts and systems change, even when situations demanding immediate response may momentarily slow the broader commitment to change. 
  • Patience: Change does not come quickly.
  • Persistence: We are trying to shift entrenched beliefs and recognize that the old way of doing things may not be optimal. 
  • Creativity: We are willing to consider actions we may not have tried before and are open to experiencing the learning opportunities provided when we don’t get the results we intended.
  • Collaboration: Pooling our knowledge, leveraging our differences, and co-creating the definition of success will bring about better results than any of us could achieve alone. 

PRINCIPLES

  • Primary Prevention: Utilizing a public health approach to identify the supports, policies, and structures in communities that help families be their strongest. All families should have access to the resources and supports that enhance the social determinants of health and historically marginalized groups should have a voice in community planning efforts.
  • Courageous Honesty: Listening deeply to other perspectives about our work and needed changes in our system. 
  • Inclusion: Including the voices of those who will be most impacted by the change, especially caregivers and youth who have been involved in the systems we seek to change. This means sharing power, resources, and information, and using language that is easily understood and accessible.
  • Investing Time: Investing time to come to a shared understanding of key terms and concepts. 
  • Data-Driven: Integrating evaluation of our efforts from the beginning so that we can clearly identify our successes and what needs modification. 
  • Flexibility: Knowing that the work must be dynamic, we are intentional, reflective, and willing to make changes when our analysis of the data or our partners’ perspectives on the data indicates we should. 
  • Commitment to Racial Justice: Recognizing that in the child-serving system there are disparities in experience, how individual families are treated, and outcomes of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. A mindset shift must have equity and racial justice at the center; this will be facilitated, in part, by equitable inclusion of representative perspectives.
  • Trauma-Informed: Integrating our knowledge about the impact of trauma, we actively resist retraumatization, and support actions and programs that promote healing. 
  • Reduce Stigma: Acknowledging that a barrier to families seeking support sooner is the stigma associated with asking for We see reducing this stigma as a component of our work.
  • Contribution to a growing body of work: Articulating our lessons learned not only to benefit the states participating in the Institute but to contribute to the growing body of work transforming child welfare systems into child wellbeing systems. 

 

References for what shared values and principles offer to systems change collaboratives and organizations:

Hsieh, Tony. (May 24, 2010).  How Zappos Infuses Culture Using Core Values. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-zappos-infuses-culture-using-core-values

Stanleigh, M. (June 16, 2011). How to Make Your Organization’s Values and Principles More Effective. Business Improvement Architects. https://bia.ca/how-to-make-your-organizations-values-and-principles-more-effective/

 Stroh, David Peter. (2015). Systems Thinking for Social Change:  A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results, Chelsea Green Publishing, (pps. 84 and 201).

Click here to download this content in a printable version.  

PMI Newsletters

National Experts partnering in the work include:

Indiana

Kentucky

Maine

Michigan

Oregon

Washington

The current cohort will meet in-person in Baltimore in August of 2022 with various speakers, partners, staff and mentors to further their work together.  More information about their outcomes and progress will be shared in the fall of 2022.

Alabama

California

Ohio

Texas

Wyoming

2020-2021 PMI Summary Report

What does it take to shift mindsets across multiple, interconnected systems? Can mindsets be shifted within decades-old child-welfare systems—systems that wield enormous reach and power? What would motivate change? The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has promoted the reorientation of child welfare agencies toward a prevention mindset, and the Prevention Mindset Institute (PMI) was formed to assist states in making such a change. In 2020, six states (Alabama, California, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Wyoming) embarked on furthering their systems change efforts through the PMI.  To learn more about their progress, setbacks, victories, and goals, see the 2020-2021 PMI Summary Report:

2020-2021 PMI Summary Report
2020-2021 PMI Summary Attachments

We and selected third parties use cookies or similar technologies for technical purposes and, with your consent, for other purposes. You can consent to the use of such technologies by using the “Accept” button, by closing this notice, by scrolling this page, by interacting with any link or button outside of this notice or by continuing to browse otherwise.