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Finding Common Ground

Finding Common Ground

By: ROC Vox Podcast Network
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Summary

 Many families feel like they're treading water, especially those living with autism and other developmental differences. As your hosts, we get it, and we know this frustration all too well.

In response, we've created tried-and-true strategies that help everyday people achieve extraordinary things. Even those who might have doubted themselves can borrow our confidence, follow one of our "blueprints," and with a supportive community cheering them on, make the impossible happen.

Each success inspires those coming up behind us, creating a ripple effect of positive change—Which is why we'll never run out of content!Our podcast tackles tough issues head-on with unfiltered conversations focused on solutions.

We won't avoid "the elephant in the room"—in fact, we'll invite it to dinner! Our unique format appeals to people from across the globe, offering strategies that turn efforts for one into advocacy for the greater good. We breakdown topics like innovative housing, effective self-advocacy, and healthcare complexities, guided by our audience on what to cover next.

Each episode offers fresh perspectives, featuring many guests you won't find on mainstream platforms. We intentionally invite differing viewpoints because finding common ground with those we see as obstacles is the surest way to create new and innovative solutions.

Join our Supporter's Club and check out our merch. Let’s ensure the A/I/DD community's voice is heard. If you want to dig deeper, schedule a session with us. We happily work one-on-one, develop trainings, and offer public speaking engagements to assist individuals and organizations in promoting things like inclusivity and equity.

Join our community, plant seeds of positive change, and before you know it, you'll be moving mountains with us! Want to support our mission and access exclusive content? Join our Supporter's Club and check out our merch.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/finding-common-ground--6199849/support.©2026 ROC Vox Recording & Production Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • Garbage Bags to Graduate School: From Invisible to Unstoppable

    Garbage Bags to Graduate School: From Invisible to Unstoppable
    May 7 2026
    If foster care is supposed to make children feel safe, why do so many still feel unseen, unheard, as they’re shuffled from home to home?

    Beth LaFontaine knows that answer, not from theory, but from lived experience. She moved through 19 foster placements, carried her belongings in garbage bags, and learned early that survival often meant staying quiet, guarded, and unseen. But her story doesn’t stay there.

    In this conversation, Beth shares what it actually feels like inside the foster care system, the grief that follows you, the moments that shape you, and the people who can change everything simply by choosing to see you.

    “I wasn’t just a behavior. I was a child who needed to be understood.”

    “We don’t need better suitcases. We need better systems.”

    “There is so much grief, and not enough space to name it.”

    You’ll hear about the quiet power of one teacher who saw beyond the chaos, the long shadow of broken trust, and why so many well-intended systems miss what matters most. But this isn’t just a story about what’s broken. It’s about what’s possible.

    From high school dropout to licensed clinical social worker, from surviving the system to working to change it, Beth is now helping bring voices together, foster youth, caregivers, and professionals, to build something better.

    There’s honesty here. There’s hard truth. And there’s hope. Because being seen can change everything.

    Please visit https://FCGadvocacy.org to learn more about the solutions we are working on! The Foster Care Collective is one of areas of focus and information will be updated on our homepage as we continue this important initiative. Also check out our stories of success and some of the ways we can help you move the needle on what matters most to you.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/finding-common-ground--6199849/support.

    Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production Studios in Rochester, NY. Learn more at rocvox.com.
    Show More Show Less
    45 mins
  • What does it really look like from inside the foster care system?

    What does it really look like from inside the foster care system?
    Apr 17 2026
    In this episode of Finding Common Ground, we take a deep dive into foster care with Genevieve Rose Traversy, a Foster Care Recruiter with Lutheran Services Carolinas.
    A third-generation foster child and teen mom, Genevieve could have repeated the cycle. She didn’t.
    We often celebrate when a child is removed from a dangerous home. But our attention can’t stop there, as if the solution is complete. As Genevieve shared,
    “We talk a lot about saving kids. We don’t always talk about what happens after.”
    For Genevieve, this isn’t theory. She lived it.
    “When you grow up in the system, you see the gaps differently, and you carry them with you.”
    Now she’s working inside the system that didn’t always meet her needs, using that perspective to create better outcomes for children today. Because
    “Lived experience doesn’t just give you a voice. It gives you a responsibility.”
    📖 Read her story:
    Focus on the Family – Faces of Foster Care
    https://www.focusonthefamily.com/pro-life/faces-of-foster-care/
    🔗 Connect with Genevieve:
    TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@genevieverosetraversy
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genevieverosetraversy
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevieve-traversy/
    #FindingCommonGround, #PodcastWithPurpose, #ChangingTheWayAdvocacysDone, #EmpowermentAdvocacy, #UnfilteredConversations, #FocusedOnSolutions, #InviteTheElephantToDinner, #FosterCare, #FosterCareAwareness, #FosterCareSystem, #ChildWelfare, #ChildAdvocacy, #TraumaInformed, #TraumaInformedCare, #LivedExperience, #BreakTheCycle, #CycleBreaker, #VoicesThatMatter, #YouthInCare, #FormerFosterYouth, #FosterCareJourney, #SocialImpact, #AdvocateForChildren, #SupportFosterYouth


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/finding-common-ground--6199849/support.

    Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production Studios in Rochester, NY. Learn more at rocvox.com.
    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • When Intense Supports Are So Heavy, How Do You Not Sink?

    When Intense Supports Are So Heavy, How Do You Not Sink?
    Apr 11 2026
    What happens when exhaustion turns into something darker than burnout, when a parent begins having thoughts they never imagined they’d think?

    In this raw, unflinching conversation with Jillian Eisloeffel, the mom behind Bobby’s World, we go beyond surface-level stories of resilience and into the reality most people never say out loud. Jillian shares what it’s like to raise a child with profound needs inside a system that was supposed to help, but instead leaves families isolated, misunderstood, and fighting to stay afloat.

    This episode strips away the platitudes and faces the truth of parenting in survival mode:

    The moments you feel yourself disappearing inside your own life

    The kind of exhaustion no amount of sleep fixes

    The silence that surrounds families when the system gets it wrong

    Even when you understand that behavior is information, someone still has to decode it. And more often than not, that someone is the parent, carrying it 24/7 while the system struggles to keep up.

    Through connection, honesty, and one mother’s refusal to keep pretending, Jillian found a path back, first to herself, then to others walking the same invisible line. Today, she’s helping lead the National Council on Severe Autism in New York State, giving voice to families who have been living this reality in the dark for far too long.

    This isn’t an episode about hope that glosses over pain. It’s about finding language for what you’ve been feeling, and realizing you are not alone. If you’ve ever sat in the quiet and wondered how much more you can carry, this conversation is where you’ll finally hear someone say it out loud.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/finding-common-ground--6199849/support.

    Recorded at ROC Vox Recording & Production Studios in Rochester, NY. Learn more at rocvox.com.
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
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