Podcast: Changing the Odds: Building an Aligned and Comprehensive Prevention Ecosystem with Jennifer Jones

Jennifer Jones – “We must disrupt the status quo and advance equitable access to opportunities and environments that all families need to thrive.”

Host: Luke Waldo

39,325 reports of suspected child neglect were made to Wisconsin Child Protective Services. In other words, every single day, 108 people across Wisconsin felt worried enough about a child to take the time to report them with the belief that they or their family would receive some support or intervention to ensure that the child was safe and well. Of those nearly 40,000 reports, 88% were unsubstantiated for maltreatment. In fact, over 26,000 or two out of every three reports of neglect were screened out, which means that they don’t receive any form of service or response to the concerns that the person that reported them had for them in the first place. These are often reports of struggles with economic insecurity, as 85% of families investigated by child protective services are living at or below 200% of the federal poverty line.

So the question becomes, how might we create a better alternative to reporting overloaded families to child protective services so that they receive the targeted support and resources that they need to thrive? How might we empower teachers, police officers, social workers, doctors, and nurses who are on the front lines of supporting overloaded families to build trust through referrals and connections to prevention services and resources, rather than suspicion through reports to Child Protective Services?