Building Lived Expertise Leadership in Child Welfare Research
Kudos to research organizations highlighting lived experience expertise as plus in their research job announcements!
Note: I completed this blog in Spring, so there are certainly new and interesting examples beyond the ones I share here! So please comment if you have another example from your own organization or a colleague!
One major challenge for enacting sustainable, systemic change in the realm of child welfare is the building of broad and deep leadership committed to making change. One charismatic leader on the national level cannot make long term change in local communities. Further, leaders who have not been personally impacted by the child welfare system cannot possibly imagine and enact all of the changes needed. As such, more and more leaders are acknowledging that they need to bring Lived Experience Leaders into the fold – nourishing and developing the leadership potential and skills of people with lived experience, so that they can move from consultants to leaders. This idea reminds us of what Ella Baker spoke about 50 years ago when she said, "I have always thought that what is needed is the development of people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others." Young people and parents who have been impacted by child welfare systems must be included in this wave of new leadership.
Researchers can be part of this expansion of number and depth of leadership. Hiring researchers, scientists, and analysts with lived experience should be a priority. This was an opportunity I didn’t exercise in my past positions, but I am heartened and excited to see it happening now with major child welfare research organizations.
In this recent ASPE brief on partnering with lived experience experts, authors offered guidance of a continuum of levels for co-partnering with engagement for staffing as the highest level of engagement involved:
Lived experience perspectives were leveraged and incorporated into federal research, policymaking, and practice in multiple ways, including through the engagement of individuals with lived experience as (1) storytellers, (2) advisors, (3) grantees, (4) partners, and (5) staff (exhibit 3). These roles are roughly ordered by ascending level of engagement involved.
There’s good information in the brief, however I do caution about considering this a linear, ascending continuum. We have all seen examples of how child welfare organizations turn well-intentioned philosophies into a checklist item. An organization shouldn’t consider hiring a lived experience expert as staff as a token or as a solution in and of itself —one and done. One person can’t represent all perspectives; systems change will require partnering and more partnering to succeed.
But certainly, hiring of staff in all research positions has value contributing to the diversity of staff and experience. Of course, many with lived experience choose not to include their lived experiences on resumes or mention it in an interview – in fact, they may have been advised that doing so is unprofessional. Indeed, there is stigma associated with having been involved with state systems. And I certainly leave that to the individual to decide – if and when to share such personal aspects of their life. However, I think an employer can make it comfortable for applicant to speak of their lived experience and what it would bring to the research workplace. One way to do this is to explicitly mention lived experience in organizational materials, recruitment literature, and in job ads. Indeed, I have been curious about highlighting lived experience as a desired qualification in job announcements. Not a scientific sampling but I regularly review daily job search for child welfare research postings on sites like LinkedIn. I appreciate that LinkedIn might not be the best forum for equitable opportunities, but many research firms in child welfare repost and share their openings there. Kudos to those I did see, and hope others will follow suit and/or share examples of the language they use in the postings I have not seen. I am hoping for some easy add-ons to position announcements from other firms will push us all along. In child welfare, it’s always easier to be second!
Examples:
American Institute for Research (AIR) included a statement encouraging persons with lived experience to apply:
AIR is seeking a researcher who values diversity, equity, and inclusion. The ideal candidate is committed to a strengths-based perspective as well as mitigating the impacts of both personal and systemic biases, in both research and local or state-level implementation of programs, services, or systems. In addition to research expertise, we have preference for a candidate that also possesses expertise based in practitioner and/or training/technical assistance experience. Candidates with relevant lived experience, including personal involvement with justice or youth- and family-serving systems (e.g., child welfare, homelessness, mental health, etc.), are encouraged to apply.
Evident Change had a broad equity statement in their listing, and also included a yes/no question in their online application asking applicants about lived experience:
We are a team with a variety of backgrounds. We employ social workers, those with research and analytics experience, and others who have grown their skills through educational study, personal interest, and learning. What we share is a commitment to our mission. We want people who bring diverse perspectives, backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences to the work we do. Diverse staff help make our efforts to improve systems more informed and effective.
In the online application, Evident Change includes a question:
Do you have lived experience working in or being a client of a social service system (child welfare, foster care, juvenile justice, etc.)? * (Yes/No dropdown)
Action Research, Brooklyn, NY: SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE – MONITORING 4/22/2022
In April 2022 Child Maltreatment listserv announcement for Research Assistant, Tim Ross (Action Research) said: We are open to candidates that want to work remotely (we are based in New York City and have a preference for candidates in the eastern time zone, but Action Researchers are located in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and as far west as Seattle). All candidates meeting the requirements for this position are encouraged to apply, including candidates with diverse backgrounds and those with lived experience.
I did not see the same language used in the announcement, but Action Research includes a very strong statement on their career webpage about equity and having broad staff experience:
Action Research seeks an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual with a background in child welfare applied research and/or analysis, a passion for child and family services, and outstanding analytic skills to work as a Senior Research Associate focused exclusively on our work to support system-level child welfare reform efforts initiated by federal class action litigation. This is a rare opportunity for someone who seeks to contribute to major structural reforms of a large child welfare system as part of a nationally recognized team of experts. Ideal candidates will have: • A passion for improving outcomes for vulnerable children, young people, and families – you recognize that contact with the child welfare system has long and lasting impacts on children and families, and are committed to advancing work to keep children safe, stable, and in families; • Experience using data to generate actionable insights – you know how to use data as a powerful tool to provide insight and inform change; • Strong leadership skills – you have a history of managing significant projects that have multiple internal and external partners; • Great attention to detail – you recognize the importance of getting it right, and are comfortable operating on a team where we check and recheck our work; and • Comfort working both independently and as part of a team – while you can advance a project on your own, you are excited to collaborate with others; you know when to ask for support from your colleagues. We are committed to inclusion, embrace diversity as an organization, and believe these values are essential to our work. The American child welfare system has a history of disproportionately impacting families of color, low-income communities, and LGBTQ youth. As an organization that seeks to make child welfare systems more responsive to clients and more effective in its services and operations, our staff must reflect diverse backgrounds, experiences, and cultures.
Kaye Implementation and Evaluation makes a similar statement in a job for data analyst (08-15-22):
Kaye Implementation & Evaluation values diversity and lived experience. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected status under applicable law.
Think of US, a newer innovation/research company, was looking for a Vice President of Engineering. They request direct experience in the following:
5+ years developing scalable systems. Current stack includes C#/.NET with an openness for other languages
Leading a team on a redesign or creation of new major products and features at scale including offsite developer teams
Building and running scalable and reliable systems including deploying production software on common cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS & GCP)
Optimizing and managing data, including understanding of security and compliance
Product Minded: You can turn complex business requirements into working software that our customers love to use.
A positive and collaborative demeanor, combined with the ability to coach, mentor, and delegate; passionate about coaching team members and helping them grow
Strong problem solving, advanced design, and development skills
Life-Long Learner: you stay up to date with technology trends, spend time learning new technologies, and share your learnings with your team.
Deep commitment to our mission and nuanced understanding of systemic, structural racism and inequity
Lived experience and/or proximity to Child Welfare, whether as former foster youth, kinship family or other, is a plus
6. And lastly, I do like the broad statement included by the University of Washington School of Social Work (Posted 11/12/21) for Research Scientist 3:
Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives, and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.
I also commend nine of the major Beltway research companies that have committed to Evidence and Equity Collaborative (https://evidenceandequitycollab.org/). As stated in their website:
The first collaboration of its kind within the policy research field, the Evidence and Equity Collaborative brings together market leaders Abt Associates, American Institutes for Research (AIR), Mathematica, MDRC, NORC at the University of Chicago, the RAND Corporation, RTI International, the Urban Institute, and Westat for an initiative outside their usual roles as business competitors. As members of the Evidence and Equity Collaborative, these nine organizations representing more than 20,000 employees, are joining forces to support diversity in their workplaces, strengthen inclusive practices in policy research, and build a foundation for equitable analysis ready to inform policymaking across the nation.
Watching to see how these principles turn into actions.
Here, on LinkedIn or other platforms, please share your successes with job announcements. Diversifying staff with lived experts, as you see in my examples, can just be addition of just a few words to a job ad!
