The Shift: Voices of Prevention — A podcast by Prevent Child Abuse America

Ep. 5: Mia Crockett and Nicole Cunningham | PCA America 2023 National Conference Podcast

• Prevent Child Abuse America

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the official broadcast of PCAA America's National Conference. I'm Nathan Fink, and I'll be your host for the next four days as we embark on this transformative journey and hear from experts in prevention, and together discover innovative family-focused policies, cutting-edge research programs, and practices that help drive the field toward upstream thinking so every child has the opportunity to grow up safe and nurtured. As Prevent Child Abuse America's first in-person meeting of state chapters and home visiting networks, policy and community partners, and other collaborators since 2019, the 2023 conference offers nearly 90 sessions, three keynote speakers, workshops, symposia, and presentations focusing on effective prevention strategies with nationally recognized experts and leaders. So tune in to hear from professionals, advocates, and innovators in child abuse and neglect prevention because each day is an opportunity to build foundations for our future. Hello and welcome to the PCA America National Conference Podcast. I'm thrilled to be here with the CEO of Families Forward Virginia, Mia Crockett, and the Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse Oregon, Nicole Cunningham. Mia and Nicole, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having us. We're so excited to share and be here. Yeah, it's so great to be here with you, Nathan. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, we all represent chapters of PCA. You've got Virginia, obviously, Oregon, and me with New Hampshire. What does this mean to you to gather like this, to hear this many keynotes, to be in this many sessions regarding this work?

SPEAKER_00:

Honestly, it's it's really an incredible experience because of the fact that it helps us to really see like the real breadth of what prevention looks like in this country. Being someone who works in prevention, right, and being someone who works in a small, a small prevention chapter, right? Prevent Child Abuse Oregon is very small. I think that there's a lot of isolation that comes with that sometimes. And having this connection to all of you, to all of the chapters, the network, the, you know, Prevent Child Abuse America office, but also all of the partners who have shown up here today, all of the other folks who are bringing their perspective, it just reminds you, right? Like this is so much bigger than any one of us alone. And the actual experience of seeing that play out with 1,200 people is remarkable. And it it just reminds you why you care about prevention, you know?

SPEAKER_02:

It's like Absolutely. I would say, just to piggyback on that, it's almost like being at a family reunion. You got all your cousins, everyone's doing things for the family, and the family being prevention, and then we all come together and it's just like, oh my God, where have you been? What have you been up to? Going to some of the sessions and just feeling that energy from everyone has been amazing. Like I've been so plugged in and so connected with not only the work that we do in Virginia, but then how that work cascades to other states like Oregon and with you in New Hampshire, and it's just been like threading a quilt. When all the pieces come together, you've got this beautiful tapestry, and that's kind of how I see this conference.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, you could have said funeral, but you went with reunion, not like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, because funerals do bring people together, but nothing's dead here. We're living and thriving, and we want our families to live and thrive. I love that. That is a sense to angel status, okay?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. This is Mia's show. I'm just I'm just experiencing it. You know, you're both relatively new, and I think this idea, you know, we talk a lot about the protective factors. We talk a lot about connection and resilience. And those, I mean, they're all woven together, but the idea of connection to other chapters is so wildly important. Um, so I want, you know, to hear what are some of the things, you know, for both of you that you're seeing that you would love to see migrate across to your states. Funding strategy.

SPEAKER_02:

I think if there was a way to kind of get more conversations between the states about how are you getting funded, how are your programs being supported, how did you navigate the financial structures that exist because every state's different, and then you've got the political realm that's also pretty tricky. And so I think the more that we can have those type of cross-learning conversations, that'd be really helpful.

SPEAKER_00:

I would add too that I think there's a lot of value in learning how other state chapters are talking about prevention with their partners and being able to advance it at, like, let's say, the policy level, for example. I think we understand that this country is uh very different from state to state, that there's all of these different approaches to thinking about um kids and families and how we center them within, you know, policy and within our programming and all of that. But it can be really difficult to speak to it in a way that resonates for people across geography, across political divides. And so having that connection to the chapters to really think through what are we saying together about prevention, right?

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's helpful for understanding and then tying those things together. I mean, understanding your funding stream too, because it takes money to build conversations to get in front of people. Now, in your own right, as you mentioned, you focus on different things in your states because you have unique challenges, meaning you have unique focuses. What are some of the focuses that you're engaging in with your population?

SPEAKER_00:

So Prevent Child Abuse Oregon is a little different from some of the other chapters in that we don't provide almost any direct service. We have a parenting professional consultation series that is provided through a licensed psychologist who is incredible, um, Dr. Amy King. And so that's kind of our one programmatic piece that right now is boots on the ground, if you will. The rest of our work is focused on systems. We are really focused right now on taking all of the pieces that exist in Oregon. We have so many incredible prevention conversations happening. We have partners in the sexual and domestic violence fields, in the suicide prevention field. We have, you know, folks who are doing um housing and food security and all those pieces, right, that are so disconnected from each other and not often working together, right? So that is our number one priority actually at PCA Oregon is what are we able to do to help create some connective tissue between those different things and really lean into this comprehensive, like whole person, whole child, whole family in the context of their community approach.

SPEAKER_02:

So I love that idea of the whole connective tissue um analogy. So in Virginia, we are really looking at how do we elevate the parent and the family and put them in the center of all that we're doing. So at Families For Virginia, we do have three home visiting models that are under our purview, and then we still have our prevention set of services as well. And we're also net direct service, so we're kind of like three layers up. So we're the people that help the people that actually help the people. So a lot of times we are coordinated across different state agencies, our health department, our department of social services are our two main partners across the state, and then of course, non-traditional partners, and we've opened up um seven FRCs because what we are learning is folks in Virginia need to be more access to resources, needs to be coordinated, and it needs to be where they live, work, and play in their communities. And so with our home visiting models, we know that we can only reach with so many families at any given point in time. But with the FRC initiative, we can go out, go broader and deeper to neighborhoods to see neighborhood level interventions and success stories there. So that's kind of how we are really trying to build and reach families in in Virginia.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, for every success, there's places that we want to have further success, more opportunities. Where are you seeing opportunities to deepen the work? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_02:

I think in Virginia, deepening the work means touching more families. And we just know there's a huge delta. So every time we was like, this could be a strategy that could work. We're going to try all the strategies. I was like, there's m more than one path to wellness and well-being and family strengthening. So it's up to us as a state organization to create as many paths as possible so families can get what they need when they need it. And that's the whole idea of equity. Is being able to provide space for people to live how they want to live, where they want to live, how they want to live, and if they need resources, just get it. How can we just it should be that simple? As I think about the opportunity to go broader and deeper, that's it. That's what keeps me up at night. How many more families can we touch tomorrow than we did today?

SPEAKER_01:

What they need when they need it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

I love this question. I think in Oregon, the places that we are really focusing on being able to kind of go deeper and fill the gaps and fill the need right where we see it, is really in that space of connecting what already exists, truly. There is so much work in Oregon that is already well established, right? That already has a really great reach, a really great opportunity to get connected with families and being able to support them. But we're not, we're very siloed, right? We're not connected in the way that we all want to be and that we're talking about. And so I actually was thinking about this with the new theory of change that we um just had the opportunity to present on at this conference. Um that theory of change is really offering, I think, a great template for us to think more broadly and creatively about what prevention really is so that we can cast a wider net and justify and build and create that buy-in, right, for those partners that we want to bring to the table. That's where we're at in Oregon in terms of like we need to create the connections internally, and we also are focused on how do we create funding streams and access to resources for prevention in general. And the keyword is sustainable. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Because you can give me money for one time. I need money for the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Like And what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. How do we create policy, right, that actually creates puts things into statute. Yes. Shall.

SPEAKER_02:

You shall have services for the people. Right. And so moved. Making sure that our legislators. Yes. Knock, knock, is done. Yes, that's it.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's making sure they understand why those policies are important, right? Like that's we're trying to elevate prevention so that people fund it. Because we can't do effective work if our programs and our people and our staff, right, are just absolutely at their capacity all the time. We have to really think about we as people first and preventionists second.

SPEAKER_01:

I know you've been in these roles now for over a year, maybe going on two years, but it I do want to say welcome to the family. Because these conversations, I think, are the ones that really take root. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate it. And I can't guarantee I'm going to take anything out.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And stay tuned for more interviews from PCA America's National Conference Podcast.