Parent and youth voice are essential to meaningful conversations about how to improve the child welfare system. Through our public speaking training program, Rise&Shine, Rise prepares parents to influence child welfare policy and practice. Rise’s parent leaders present their perspectives and personal histories at convenings and trainings, speak on panels, and share their stories with other parents. In the last two years, Rise parents have presented to more than 1,500 professionals in New York City.
Rise’s Piazadora Footman and Lindsay Reilly presented on mental health and young moms at a Center for Family Representation panel discussion for lawyers and social workers. Together Pia and Lindsay read a selection of story excerpts by young mothers who grew up in foster care and were diagnosed with mental illnesses. Pia joined a panel with mental health experts to discuss her experience with parent-child video therapy.
Rise’s video, “I Hope My Judge Still Sees the Good in Me,” shares the experiences of five parents whose infants entered foster care. Developed in partnership with the Center for the Study of Social Policy and Harvard Center on the Developing Child to contribute to a joint effort to improve the experiences of infants in foster care, it can be used to sensitize child welfare staff, lawyers, judges and policymakers to the experiences of parents with … Read More
