Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare

Transforming how systems interact with children and families of color

This project is no longer active, but we believe that the outcomes and resources generated through the work are still of value.

What We Work For

The Alliance boldly identifies policies and practices (both intended and unintended) that harm children and families of color and promote anti-racist intersectional policies that will result in better outcomes for children and families of color.

How We Do It

We rely on tools such as research, policy, and practice to understand and educate others on the legacy of racism that the child welfare system continues to operate from today; to imagine the possibilities if we shifted the foundation of child and family well-being to an anti-racist one; to mobilize policymakers, practitioners, researchers, advocates, and constituents who value equitable and just systems of care that promotes healing; and to create a universal system which works first and foremost for children, youth, and families impacted by the historic impact of racism and oppression.

We create innovative solutions and mobilize public system practitioners, advocates, constituents, and leaders to develop and share knowledge with the field and use this network to increase overall awareness about how public systems contribute to racial disproportionality and disparity. Most of all, we open the lines of communication between Alliance members and those whose work can most dramatically impact racial disparities in this country, starting a dialogue and ultimately effecting change in communities, systems, and policies.

We recognize deep systemic racial bias in this country, and, with our network of devoted partners, work together to dismantle entrenched inequities and set a course for a future where racial and ethnic equity and justice is assured.

Approach Partners Trainings

The Alliance for Racial Equity provides national leadership in support of improved outcomes for children and families of color involved with the nation’s child welfare systems. Since our start in 2004, we have developed a network of child welfare and juvenile justice administrators, advocates, policymakers, researchers, and constituents who are directly impacted by structural and institutional biases.

We work to eradicate systemic bias and inequity in all intervening public systems through a coordinated effort with our partners. This work is achieved by:

Sharing information and knowledge about barriers and successes with stakeholders in the field.

Providing data and analysis to the field relevant for local and national action to promote racial equity.

Creating resources, like inSIGHT: A Workshop on Implicit Racial Bias for Child Protection (our curriculum on implicit racial bias), for frontline staff working directly with young people and our Institutional Analysis (a diagnostic process to reveal and address the disconnect between what a child or youth and their family need to be safe, and how institutions are organized to act.