A Vision for Child Welfare Reform

Produced by Our Children Oregon with leadership from OCO social work intern, Marris Alden, MSW Candidate, this issue brief provides a longitudinal environmental scan of efforts to reform complements the work of Oregon’s Vision for Transformation and Our Children Oregon’s issue brief Safe, Supported, and Cherished: Child Welfare System Reform in Oregon (published summer 2021) by assigning specific metrics to indicate progress in Child Welfare Division reform implementation efforts.

Our brief asks: Is the Vision for Transformation building guiding principles towards actual system reform and supporting the Division’s Theory of Change?

This brief also explores the long-standing disparities in out-of-home placement rates for Black and Indigenous children in answering this question. Policy and practice recommendations support that multisystemic reform is sustainable, community-led, and creates an Oregon where all children can thrive, regardless of the identities they hold.