Anti-Racism, Disproportionality and System Change
Here at VT-CWTP, we are committed to advancing justice with our thoughts, words, and actions. As we support Vermont’s child welfare workforce and caregivers to promote safety, permanency, and well-being for children and youth in families experiencing adversity, advancing justice remains central and constant. As we “bend toward justice”, we each must continue to integrate new information and ways of being and doing. We must change, individually and collectively.
“Change is the only constant in life.” – Heraclitus (Greek philosopher)
Change is constant, but it is not fast or easy. The bigger more important the change, the more people and perspectives it involves, the slower and more difficult it becomes. That is why VT-CWTP partners with the child welfare workforce and foster, kin, and adoptive caregivers to facilitate not only individual and group growth and change, but also complex system change.
A priority focus for child welfare system change is racial justice. Black families in this country, for example, experience disproportionate surveillance by police and child welfare agencies, support and resources, and burdens related to historical, generational, individual, family, and community trauma. These long-standing systemic inequities have led Black families to be disproportionately involved with, and impacted by, the child welfare system. Consequently, we commit to anti-racist system change, bending the arc toward racial justice.
