CWLA 2022 National Conference The Fierce Urgency of Now: Collective Action to Ensure Children and Families Flourish March 27, 2022

We are living in challenging times. There is a fierce sense of urgency and demand for institutions to make bold changes to better serve all children and families, especially those who are Black, Brown, and Indigenous. Child welfare is not exempt from these calls for change. As professionals and volunteers working in a high-stakes field, we have learned from the events of this past year that we can and must do business differently. We need to find bold ways to make the type of changes required to reach the vision of CWLA’s National Blueprint for Excellence in Child Welfare (National Blueprint) “that all children will grow up safely, in families who are loving, with everything they need to flourish–and with connections to their culture, ethnicity, race, and language.”