An Interview with Tecoria Jones on Radical Family Engagement
On November 30, 2020, as part of Be Strong Families daily webinar series Staying Strong and Positive for Ourselves and Our Children, Be Strong Families President and CEO Katthe Wolf interviewed Tecoria Jones about radical family engagement. What works to engage families? What are the barriers? What would radical family engagement look and feel like to parents and agencies? Where is it happening now?
Tecoria is a mediator, circle keeper, consultant, and trainer in Adverse Childhood Experiences and the Strengthening Families™ Protective Factors framework. She is a mother of four and has been a parent advocate in multiple family-serving systems for the past 15 years. Tecoria serves on the Children’s Trust Alliance’s National Birth Parent National Network and Birth & Foster Parent Partnership. Locally, she is chair of PRISMA Children’s Hospital Family Advisory Council as well as her local elementary school’s School Improvement Council and is also a cohort member of the Family Voices Parent Council working with South Carolina Department of Social Services workgroups. Her lived experience includes time in foster, kinship and congregate care as a child and also receiving what she says were lifesaving/life-changing child welfare services as a parent.
Tecoria commits to parents, family, and communities authentically with a deep and nuanced understanding of the effects of trauma and the resilience of hope. She is a powerhouse on the topic of Radical Family Engagement, having consulted with the federal Office of Early Childhood Development in the Administration of Children and Families as they were coining the term and planning for a weeklong conference on the topic in October of 2020. She also was part of keynoting the closing plenary at the Together for Families National Conference that same month.
The conversations between Katthe and Tecoria was both inspirational and aspirational. Tecoria utilized her personal experiences and her involvement as a parent advocate to discuss what's needed to bring the concept to reality in implementation. Per usual, Katthe encouraged "where the rubber meets the road" real talk about how race, privilege, equity, and structural inequality are played out in human services' relationship-building and service provision.
In the following clip, Tecoria talks about what Radical Family Engagement means to her in theory and in practice, and if you’re interested in watching the full interview, you can watch it here!
Getting diverse perspectives on radical family engagement as part of the Staying Strong and Positive for Ourselves and Our Children webinar series was catalyzed by Melissa Lim Brodowski's presentation on October 20, 2020. Here, she highlighted the weeklong Radical Family Engagement conference that the federal Office of Early Childhood Development in the Administration for Children and Families was hosting to spark national conversation and practice change so that radical family engagement becomes part of the landscape of education and early childhood systems.
Article by: Andrew Hitchcock