CIP Talks provide inspiration on how the legal community can work with partners to better serve vulnerable families and help improve child welfare outcomes. If we are serious about serving children and families more effectively, we must fully invest in coordinated strategies and jointly own the outcomes we achieve. The Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for Courts focuses on building the capacity of court improvement programs to improve child welfare practice in the courts and legal community. For more information, check this out.
To view past CIP Talks, see the videos below.
Coming Soon To CIP Talks
Katie Albright
Attorney/CEO, Safe
"The Prevention Lessons of Mary Ellen Wilson."
Resources Mentioned in the Katie Albright Q&A:
- https://www.wsipp.wa.gov/BenefitCost
- https://www.casey.org/family-resource-centers/
- https://www.casey.org/family-resource-centers-appendix/
CIP Talks Q&A-Katie Albright
Vivek Sankaran
Director, Child Advocacy Law Clinic, University of Michigan Law School
"Compassion: The foundation for all reasonable efforts to reunify children with their parents."
CIP Talks Q&A-Vivek Sankaran
Judge William Thorne
Retired State & Tribal Judge
"After Saftey: The Next Step to Success."
CIP Talks Q&A-Judge William Thorne
Kathleen Creamer
Managing Attorney, Family Advocacy Unit, Community Legal Services
"Why Multi-Disciplinary Parent Representation is Beneficial to All."
CIP Talks Q&A-Kathleen Creamer
Christopher Church
USC School of Law, Staff Attorney
"How attorneys and judges can help reduce the need for foster care and family separation."
Monique Mitchell
Executive Director of Life Transitions International, Director of Translational Research & Curriculum Development at The Dougy Center
“What every judge and attorney needs to know about the trauma of removal”
Sheldon Spotted Elk
Director, Indian Child Welfare, Casey Family Programs
“Family Justice in Indian Country”
CIP Talks Q&A-Sheldon Spotted Elk
Angela Vigil
Partner and Executive Director of the Pro Bono Practice, Baker & McKenzie LLP
“Why every child in foster care would benefit from high quality legal representation”
Jey Rajaraman
Chief Counsel, Family Representation Project, Legal Services of New Jersey
“How parent attorneys can help promote parent and child well-being through family time and work with resource parents”
Jerry Milner
Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children, Youth and Families
“Imagine a New Child Welfare System”
“How Judges and Attorneys Help Strengthen Families”
On February 28, 2018, the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) hosted the first ever Court Improvement Program (CIP) Talks, an event designed by the Children’s Bureau in collaboration with the Capacity Building Center for Courts. David Kelly of the Children’s Bureau moderated the event, and hopes that the talks will spark conversation across the country.
"How Judges and Attorneys Help Strengthen Families” featured succinct talks by ten nationally recognized child welfare experts discussing the roles that courts and attorneys play in keeping families healthy, strong, and together. The talks were livecast out to more than 700 recipients in the US and 8 other countries. A number of jurisdictions received CLE credit for the event, and parties engaged in robust discussion during the viewing parties and through the Virtual Lobby.
The Talks prompted viewers to think about the work in new or different ways and to consider new and innovative approaches to work together to strengthen families, by:
- helping reduce the number of unnecessary removals;
- engaging parents, children and youth;
- improving case planning and ensuring effective service provision;
- promoting kinship care;
- increasing and enhancing family/parenting time; and
- advancing child and parent well-being
The CIP Talks began with words by Jerry Milner, Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children, Youth and Families. The Associate Commissioner as well as Director Carlyn Hicks of the Mission First Legal Aid Office, Mississippi College School of Law also contributed to CourTalks, a NCSC podcast dealing with today’s judicial issues.
Other speakers included
- Hon. Michael Nash (Ret.) of the Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection; Hon. Cindy Lederman, 11th Judicial Circuit Court, Juvenile Division, Florida
- And Hon. Carrie Garrow
- Chief Judge, St. Regis Mohawk Nation, New York
The talks are available here in their whole recorded form to assist courts across the country in adopting new practices to help families.
