1. Oronde Miller Casey Family Programs
A Framework for Addressing Disproportionality in Child Welfare: The Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Reducing Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes for Children and Families of Color in the Child Welfare System
Oronde Miller
Casey Family Programs
Disproportionality Teleconference Slides
July 26, 2005

2. The Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Reducing Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes: An Overview
What is a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC)?
The BSC Process
What makes a BSC different?
What is the BSC Framework for Change?
Defining Success

3. What is a Breakthrough Series Collaborative?
A Continuous Quality Improvement Method
Uses small, rapid tests (PDSAs) to create change
Measures results on an ongoing basis
A Systems Improvement Method
Focuses on achieving improvements in a specific topic in child welfare
Grounds work in a specific structure (Framework for Change) to address all parts of the system
A Collaboration among committed teams
Generates new and better ideas quickly
Creates opportunities to assess similar strategies in different agencies and with different populations

4. Develop Framework and Measures
The Breakthrough Series Collaborative Process: Reducing Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes for Children and Families of Color in the Child Welfare System
Select Participants
Select Topic
Prototyping/ Pre-work P S A D P S A D
Develop Framework and Measures
Expert Meeting
LS 1
LS 2
LS 3
Supports
Extranet Phone Assessments Monthly Reports
Adapted from © 2001 Institute for Healthcare Improvement

5. What Makes a BSC Different?
Anyone can have and test ideas grounded in the framework.
Consensus is NOT needed
Changes happen at all levels (not just the top)
All Framework components must be addressed
Ideas are stolen shamelessly
Successes are spread quickly
Measurement is for improvement
Rapid Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles are used
SPREAD is based on successful tests of change 3 3 3

6. What is the BSC Framework for Change?
Developed to guide the work of teams participating in this Breakthrough Series Collaborative.
Describes the key components that child welfare systems must address to reduce and ultimately eliminate these racial disparities.
Not prescriptive, but instead identifies eight principles to guide action and seven key component areas that if addressed in policy, programming, practice and training are likely to lead to positive outcomes.

7. Guiding Assumptions: What factors contribute to racial disproportionality and disparate outcomes?
Multiple disadvantages that are social, political, economic, and attitudinal in nature.
Relevant factors include poverty, classism, racism, organizational culture, service strategies, and resources.
No significant racial differences in rates of child maltreatment, suggesting influence of race in institutional response and decision making… resulting in racial disproportionality. 3 3 3

8. Role of Structural Racism
Definition of Structural Racism:
…the complex ways in which historical oppression, culture, ideology, political economy, public policy and institutional practices interact to produce forms of racial sorting that reproduce and reinforce a hierarchy of color that privileges whiteness and marginalizes blackness.
Definition developed by The Aspen Institute. Retrieved online at: 3 3 3

9. Role of Structural Racism (cont.)
The Structural Racism lens allows us to see and understand:
the racial legacy of our past; [historical context]
how racism persists in our national policies, institutional practices, and cultural representations; [present-day manifestation]
how racism is transmitted and either amplified or mitigated through public, private, and community institutions; [role of institutions]
how individuals internalize and respond to racialized structures. [individual responses]
Taken from Structural Racism and Community Building; published by The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change. June p.12. 3 3 3

10. Key Principles Safety and Permanence Family-centered
Cultural competence
Minimum level of intrusion
Strengths-based framework
Continued connectedness to family and community
Open dialogue regarding race and racism
Continuous assessment
Advocacy
Cross-systems collaboration
Community partnerships 3 3 3

11. Seven Key Components
Design agency mission, vision, values, policies and protocols that support anti-racist practice.
Develop cross-system leadership to address issues related to disproportionality and disparity in outcomes for children and families of color in the child welfare system.
Collaborate with key stakeholders to support families in the context of their communities and tribes so as to safely divert them away from the child welfare system, whenever possible.
Agency partners with the community about child maltreatment, disproportionality, racism and culture to focus on how communities can develop strategies to build the protective capacity of neighborhoods, tribes, and families.
Train and educate the agency staff and stakeholders about institutional and structural racism and its impact on decision-making, policy and practice.
Use cultural values, beliefs and practices of families, communities and tribes to shape family assessment, case planning, case service design and the case decision making process.
Develop and use data in partnership with families, communities, universities, staff, courts and other stakeholders to assess agency success at key decision points in addressing disproportionality and disparate outcomes for children of color in the child welfare system. 3 3 3

12. Defining Success
Participating jurisdictions will contribute to the development of child welfare systems that are free of structural racism and benefit all children, families and communities by:
Engaging with a group of other jurisdictions in critical change activities.
Creating environments in which strategies can be developed and tested.
Developing a cadre of leaders across the country who are working toward solutions.
Creating and sustaining partnerships to advance the work.
Disseminating lessons learned. 3 3 3

13. Contact Information
Oronde A. Miller
Manager, Systems Improvement Methodology
Breakthrough Series Collaborative on
Reducing Disproportionality and Disparate Outcomes
for Children and Families of Color in the Child Welfare System
1808 Eye Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C
Phone: (202)
Fax: (202)
Web:
fostering families. fostering change. 3 3 3