The Shift: Voices of Prevention — A podcast by Prevent Child Abuse America
How do we create a future where every family is safe, supported, and filled with hope? The Shift explores bold, upstream solutions to the public health challenges facing children and families today.
Hosted by Prevent Child Abuse America, each episode features transformative conversations with experts, changemakers, and people with lived experience. Together, we dive into prevention strategies, policy breakthroughs, and the systemic shifts that have the power to change lives.
Part of PCA America’s movement to make family well-being the new normal, The Shift amplifies the voices and ideas shaping a brighter, more hopeful future for all families.
Subscribe to The Shift wherever you get your podcasts.
Guest ideas or feedback? Email us at theshift@preventchildabuse.org
The Shift: Voices of Prevention — A podcast by Prevent Child Abuse America
Ep. 10: Keith Bostick | PCA America 2023 National Conference Podcast
Subscribe for more episodes
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 president of Black Administrators in Child Welfare, or BACW, and current Deputy Director of Broward County Human Services, Keith D. Bostik. Keith, welcome to the show. Good morning, Nathan. How are you? Good, I'm good. And I'm thrilled that you were presenting here at PCA America's National Conference. And at the center of your work is transformation of child welfare practices to eliminate inequities around racism and to foster accountability. Accountable institutions, accountable systems, accountable leaders. When we talk about accountability, what are we talking about in terms of our systems, our leaders?
SPEAKER_02:Well, thanks for asking the question, Nathan, and I'm excited to be here. When we talk about accountability with leaders, I think that we have to begin with that place and space about are they, are leaders fully recognizing their audience? That could be their staff, and then more importantly, that could be the recipients of services. When we talk about the design of systems, oftentimes systems have been structured uh without the input of the recipients of services. Um I have come to learn very keenly that, you know, there's nothing about us without us, and that oftentimes these systems are structured on past historical efforts and structures that are etched and are boxy and not very fluid and flexible, but with child welfare and with human services, and especially as we be, you know, talk more and more about prevention, it's gonna have to require, I mean, it's gonna require fluidity. It's gonna require what I describe as kind of an amoeba approach, because our families are different, and so they come differently, and so there will be different needs. When we talk about accountability, it is about also being bold and courageous. Uh leaders have to be bold and courageous in this in the space of child welfare, the space of human services. And when I talk about boldness, I'm talking about having the courage to do something different, to think differently, to reimagine what could possibly happen and not set limits.
SPEAKER_01:First and foremost, I love when you talk about courage. You know, the courage to meet people where they're at, right, is a big thing. The courage to meet providers and systems where they're at, in their readiness, as you talked about to change hearts and minds, it does take a lot because you have to go backward. Now, what does the readiness look like for this conversation? What does the appetite look like for this conversation?
SPEAKER_02:Great question. I think the starting line, you know, changes. Uh, I think historically in this country, the starting line around accountability, the starting line around race, the starting line around equity changes. Um, you'll have to recognize that we were just we're just three years past, you know, the murder of George Floyd. And this country was at a swift pace of looking at how do we rectify these kinds of challenges and understanding that in order to move forward, you have to actually look backwards and to understand history and to understand individuals' cultures and to not prejudge and to then have an openness to have some serv and volley kinds of conversations around, you know, what is right and and what is meaningful to others. I think we've seen a significant shift in that. You know, everything from our political structures to our laws and some of our our policies that have become a little bit more restrictive in the conversation around race. It's not doesn't mean that we we haven't solved the chasm between race and culture and what it means for individuals who are recipients of services or who find themselves in need of um supports. Uh we also live in a country where there are over half a million children in the child welfare system and uh there are certain races and cultures that are disproportionately represented there. And in order to solve that, you're gonna have to understand what is meaningful and what matters to uh individuals in that particular culture. If you really want to talk about change, it has to happen with a co-design framework. That co-design is that, Nathan, I need you, who happens to be a parent of a child who happens to have entered into the foster care system. I need you shoulder to shoulder with me to help map out what prevention might look like.
SPEAKER_01:When we uh talk about systems change and we look down, what does a change system look like to you? What does it feel like to you?
SPEAKER_02:What it looks like to me is a sustained movement. And when I talk about a sustained movement, it is it is beyond the conversation. It is actually putting some building blocks together. You know, an example I just gave to you about the parent um needing to be shoulder to shoulder. When we talk about a change system, that building block has to start from I have to have a willingness to do that. I have to believe that this person who you just asked me to sit shoulder to shoulder with, from a system standpoint, I have to believe that they have something to contribute. Because if I don't begin there, then I have devalued that. And so in doing so, I have to be very intentional about that engagement. An example is Nathan, I can't set a set of meeting with you without asking you what's a good time for you. You know, I could set a one o'clock meeting today for us to engage so I can hear about through your lens what reimagination would look like. But if at one o'clock you're at your job that you can't afford to have any time off, then I then then I have not been supportive of this partnership. Maybe I should say, well, tell me Nathan, what works for you. Nathan, you may say, well, 6:30, um, but we're gonna need some child care. I gotta be willing to be open and to do that. And so when I talk about it's it's intentionality from the start, but I have to also now know a little bit about Nathan and know a little bit about your culture to understand that childcare is extremely important in our conversations around engagement and around trust. And then we have to take a look at when we talk about building blocks. Let's just stay there with trust. Too often, systems have done things to people. And oftentimes those things that have been done to people, and once again, some systems start with this heart of, I think I'm doing well. I'm helping people. But if we haven't had the conversation, then you're starting at a different place. But too often it is those those communities and those families have been done to versus done with. An example is that if I show up at your place, Nathan, and I say, Hi Nathan, I'm Keith Bostick, and I'm from the Department of Children and Family Service, and I'm here to help you. In some situations, that could be an oxymoron, because my history around help from systems like you have been harm and trauma. And so trust and engagement. So I think when we talk about what transformation looks like, it is first establishing that trust, establishing that engagement, that intentionality, understanding, and having a joint share vision about what success is gonna look like. Because my success and your success may be, may be different and look different. But it doesn't mean we can't both get there. Then I think we have to then convince or shift hearts and minds. Um you will continually continually hear me talk about mindset and heart space, shifting hearts and minds, because I start with what you believe is gonna drive your will, and your will is gonna drive your practice. So if I don't believe that change can occur, then my willingness to do, as I call my will a meter, is gonna be extremely low. So therefore, my practice, my actions may be delayed, my my courage may be a little bit delayed, and my effort to engage others to this work.
SPEAKER_00:There has to be other people brought to the conversation. Keith, I am so glad you made time for me today. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been an absolute pleasure. Well, thank you so much, Nathan. Keep up your good work. And stay tuned for more interviews from PCA America's National Conference Podcast.