Strategic Planning, Policy & Program Analysis, & Capacity Building

Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity: Developing a Multiyear, Action-Oriented Plan to Address Disparities in Child Welfare

In 2004, the five Casey organizations and Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) joined together to leverage their collective resources, knowledge, and experience to address racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities in the child-welfare system. Representatives from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and its direct-service agency, Casey Family Services, worked with Casey Family Programs, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and CSSP to form the Casey-CSSP Alliance for Racial Equity. The alliance launched an intensive, multiyear national campaign to achieve racial equity in child-welfare services. Metis Associates worked with the alliance’s design team to develop a strategic and business plan to guide its work.

The alliance created a governance structure and several committees from among its members, representatives of foster youth, and parents. It retained Metis Associates to develop an action-oriented, multiyear strategic plan—based on a well-conceived Structural Racism Theory of Change. Metis facilitated the work of the design team, which was tasked with developing the theory of change and making a series of recommendations as to the alliance’s budget, governance structure, and implementation. The resulting business plan formed the basis of the alliance’s work. Today, the alliance supports four demonstration sites across the country that have shown success at the local level to reduce disproportionality and disparities in child welfare. It has also worked with members of Congress to craft legislation supporting state and local efforts to deal with racism in the child-welfare system; and, it provides resources to help raise public awareness about this issue to better assist youth, parents, policy makers, and child-welfare administrators in their efforts to address the impact of racism on the system.