In this episode, host Valerie Frost sits down with Dr. Melissa Merrick, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), to talk about what it means to lead today as we all navigate through uncertainty. She emphasizes the importance of having courage, maintaining a clear vision, and being deeply committed to families.

With a background in clinical work, public health, and national leadership at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Melissa brings a unique lens to the family well-being movement. Melissa and PCAA are working harder than ever to keep prevention front and center as programs across the country face changing policies and uncertain funding. This is not an afterthought for her, but a foundational strategy for lasting change.

Valerie and Melissa explore how PCAA is navigating this moment with both resilience and vision, how the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative has shaped her leadership, and what it looks like to build systems that are not just reactive, but rooted in hope, healing, and partnership.

This conversation is a timely reminder that leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about showing up whole, even when things feel uncertain.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Melissa would like to share with you.

• 2025 National Conference Recap
• The Shift: Voices of Prevention — A podcast by Prevent Child Abuse America

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this re-release of one of our most impactful episodes, host Valerie Frost revisits her conversation with Adam Ballout, public defender and co-founder of the F.I.R.S.T. (Family Intervention Response to Stop Trauma) Legal Clinic in Washington State. The clinic provides a groundbreaking model of early legal advocacy, partnering with healthcare and community organizations to support mothers facing substance use challenges—helping to keep families intact before the trauma of separation takes hold.

This episode goes straight to the heart of the child protection system, challenging the assumption that termination of parental rights and adoption should always be considered success. Instead, Adam offers a powerful alternative: that keeping families together is true success.

Listeners will learn how early intervention and a holistic, family-centered approach—with legal advocates and parent allies involved from birth—can dramatically improve outcomes. The F.I.R.S.T. Clinic has kept mothers and infants together in 83% of their cases, offering a hopeful example of a prevention-focused child welfare system.

This conversation is both deeply personal and systemic, exploring how compassionate legal advocacy can disrupt cycles of trauma and create a more just, dignified future for families.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Adam would like to share with you.

• The First Clinic – Family Intervention Response To Stop Trauma
• The F.I.R.S.T. Legal Clinic: A New Frontier of Partnerships to Stop Trauma
• Being Gina - Institute for Family
• Family First: A group of Washington lawyers works to keep infants with their mothers

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this episode, host Valerie Frost speaks with Daniela Molina, lived experience leader and financial empowerment coach at the Liberation Family Resource Center in Richmond, Virginia. Liberation is part of the Family Resource Center cohort within the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative, and it exemplifies what it means to be truly embedded in the community.

Daniela shares how Liberation uses a two-generation approach to create a trusted and consistent presence for families. Liberation not only meets immediate needs like food, housing, and financial coaching, they create long-term leadership and empowerment with the families in their community. In a powerful story that begins with a child referring their own mother to the center, we hear how deep trust and psychological safety can open doors that traditional systems often miss.

Daniela and Valerie explore how building authentic, trauma-informed relationships helps families feel safe enough to return, not just for support, but to give back, lead, and create change. This episode lifts up why community-rooted Family Resource Centers are at the core of transformational support.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Daniela would like to share with you.

• Liberation Family Resource Center
• Thriving Families, Safer Children | familiesforwardva
• Family Resource Centers: Working with African American Families
• NFSN | Standards of Quality

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In recognition of five years of the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative, this episode highlights the power of youth and adult partnership. Valerie sits down with Alayna Leonard, a youth advocate and former member of Indiana’s Commission for Improving the Status of Children, and Sam Garman, a national youth engagement consultant with Cetera. Together, they share the story of how authentic, sustained engagement through the TFSC Youth Learning Action Network led to real policy change, culminating in a new law in Indiana that requires youth to be included in public policy decision-making.

What began as a cohort focused on relationship-building evolved into a movement, with adult allies becoming champions for youth leadership across systems. This conversation lifts up the core TFSC principle of partnering with people with lived experience and shows what’s possible when we truly support, not just involve, young people.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Alayna and Sam would like to share with you.

• CitizenPortal.ai - Indiana Commission strengthens youth engagement with House Bill 1098
• CISC: Youth, Family, and Caregiver Engagement

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this episode, Valerie Frost talks with Dr. David Sanders, Executive Vice President of Systems Improvement at Casey Family Programs and one of the early visionaries behind the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative.

As the initiative marks its fifth anniversary, David reflects on the bold idea that sparked it: the belief that we must shift from a system centered on child removal to one that supports families and promotes child and community wellbeing. Together, David and Valerie explore how the dominant intervention in child protection for the past 40 years, family separation, has shaped the system, and why a different path is both possible and necessary.

David shares how real change requires more than individual will, it demands a reimagining of parenting, policy, and prevention. He highlights the foundational principles of the Thriving Families initiative, including partnering with people with lived expertise, addressing racial equity, and centering community-based solutions.

This episode is ultimately about systems change, the courage to confront outdated practices, and the ongoing work of building something better, for all families.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Dr. Sanders would like to share with you.

• Sharing Power – Casey Family Programs
• Engagement of Co-Designers – Casey Family Programs
• Child Welfare Co-Design – Casey Family Programs
• Lifting Up Voices - Casey Family Programs

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this episode, Valerie talks with Dr. Jessica Pryce. Jessica is a Research Faculty member at Florida State University and the author of the book Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services. In addition to being a researcher and author, Jessica is a nationally recognized thought leader on child welfare workforce development. The framework in her book documents stories and lessons for moving from being an agent of the system to becoming an advocate and activist.

Jessica’s book is a reflection and a call to action written from the perspective of a Black woman working in child welfare. She introduces us to a powerful framework she describes as the agent–advocate–activist journey. For the purposes of OUR show, the perspective I wanted to bring to this conversation is how Jessica sees the experience of people impacted by the system as data that can transform us and the system.

Ultimately, this episode is about power, discomfort, and the courage it takes to evolve.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Community In-Site Blog - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Dr. Pryce would like to share with you.

• To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation | TED Jessica Pryce
• Publications — Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets
• Sharing Power | Shifting Mindsets

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this re-release of one of our most resonant Season One episodes, we revisit the conversation with Jay Dugger, Chief Judge of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in Hampton, Virginia. Host Valerie Frost wanted to bring this episode back because the story continues to matter. Judges hold a lot of power within their communities and Judge Dugger is a great example of how judicial influence can advance family well-being.

In the original episode, Season One hosts Tecoria and Elliott sat down with Judge Dugger to explore the critical role judges can play in transforming child welfare. Judge Dugger, speaking in his personal capacity, shared how collaborative leadership and proximity to families helped reduce the number of children in foster care in Hampton from 300 to about 80, with only one child in residential treatment.

He offers a powerful view of how judges, often seen as decision-makers from the bench, can also step into community spaces to help lead upstream solutions. His reflections underscore how judges can convene, center family voice, and act as changemakers in the family well-being movement.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to better understand the influence of judicial leadership in shaping systems that support, not separate, families.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Judge Dugger would like to share with you.

• A Model for Collaboration and Results - The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• UMW Honors 2024 Alumni Award Recipients at Reunion Weekend - Giving to Mary Washington

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com

In this episode, Valerie sits down with Carol Mitchell, a seasoned attorney, social justice advocate, and founder of the Institute for Black Justice (IBJ). With over 20 years of public sector leadership experience, Carol is dedicated to transforming how systems recognize and support Black fathers as essential caregivers and partners in family well-being.

Based in Washington State, IBJ is committed to uplifting Black families by addressing systemic bias and promoting policies that center Black fathers’ dignity and leadership within family and community life. For example, the BABAS Program empowers dads to successfully navigate systemic challenges, achieve reunification with their children, and build healthy, enduring parent-child relationships.

This episode explores the often-overlooked role of fathers, especially Black fathers, in caregiving and systems change. Carol and Valerie discuss the historical and cultural pressures shaping fatherhood, and why naming and centering fathers in child welfare and family support systems is critical for true justice and healing.

Tune in to hear powerful stories from Carol’s advocacy work and discover practical ways child welfare leaders and others can shift their approach to engage fathers authentically and respectfully.

Check Out Community In-Site's Blog!! You can go to the website to listen to episodes, read the blog, access information and resources, and subscribe to the email newsletter. Podcasts Archive - Thriving Families

Here are some additional resources Carol would like to share with you.

• Learn more and register for IBJ's Summer Freedom Symposium. 2025 Freedom Summer Symposium
• Institute for Black Justice Services
• Carol Mitchell, M.A., J.D. | LinkedIn
• Institute for Black Justice Facebook

We appreciate you spreading awareness by sharing this episode with your friends, family, and colleagues who care about family well-being.

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team

Please email us if you want to connect with the creative team or find out how to engage with the family well-being movement. comminsite@gmail.com