The leader of a prominent foster care reform group – who spent time as a child in foster care herself, a searing experience that she’s said shaped her work as a congressional policy adviser – has been appointed to a senior role in President Joe Biden’s administration, according to tweets and website updates today from her organization, Foster America.

Youth Advocate Programs, which in recent years has secured a high-quality research result and a big philanthropic bet, has now locked in a long-term succession plan within its ranks. 

The Harrisburg, Penn.-based

The conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published a set of recommended “lessons learned” about child welfare practice during coronavirus, while taking issue with several child welfare positions the Trump administration had during the pandemic.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that is certain to roll back protections cemented in the last days of the Trump administration for faith-based, federally-funded child welfare providers that wish to follow religion in choosing who to work with.

Montana’s new Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, has named a new leader to run the state’s largest agency, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which among other things oversees child welfare and family services.

Jennifer Jones will be the new chief strategy officer for Prevent Child Abuse America, leaving her position as director of the Change in Mind Institute at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

Last week, the lights went out on a year that most people would just as soon have wiped from their memories. But there is nothing particularly special about the turn from night to morning on January 1 – America remains in a battle with an invisible enemy that has claimed nearly 350,000 lives, and unresolved issues around racism and law enforcement, as 2021 gets underway. 

Team Biden has already started to fill in White House leadership amidst what promises to be the most awkward transition in modern history.

A leading philanthropy this week announced the next group of organizations to receive training aimed at encouraging juvenile justice professionals to embrace and spread the principles of positive youth development.

In the view of the reformers, frontline staff should be less concerned with sternly enforcing rules to keep kids in line and more about building on the strengths and assets that they and their families bring to the table.