CHILD WELFARE SOLUTIONS
Building the relational infrastructure that keeps families strong
Be Strong Families partners with child welfare agencies, state systems, and community organizations to create conditions that keep families together and children thriving. Our work spans 10+ jurisdictions — from prevention to reunification to youth leadership.
10+
Jurisdictions Nationwide
97%
of parents report increased confidence after Cafés
3,800+
Parents served via reunification workshops
150+
Youth leaders engaged annually
Decades of research demonstrate that the quality of relationships between parents, caseworkers, foster parents, and caregivers is one of the strongest predictors of child welfare outcomes.
“It gives people real tools — new skills they can use right away.” –Parent Participant
For families navigating system involvement — often marked by isolation, mistrust, and crisis — relationships are not a "soft" outcome. They are the mechanism through which everything else becomes possible.
Be Strong Families brings evidence-based, relationship-centered approaches to prevention, family engagement, worker development, and youth leadership. We work alongside agencies — not above them — to design and sustain approaches that strengthen families from the inside out.
Relationships are the engine of change in child welfare.
OUR FOUNDATION
Why relationships matter:
When caseworkers build trusting relationships with families, parents are more likely to engage and achieve reunification.
When birth parents and foster caregivers collaborate, children experience greater stability and stronger emotional outcomes.
Children feel safer when the adults in their lives function as a unified team, even across the complicated boundaries of child welfare involvement.
Building Protective Factors reduces risk and promotes long-term family strength.
Our Signature Child Welfare Work
WHAT WE DO
PREVENTION & ENGAGEMENT
Parent Cafés for Prevention & Child Welfare-Involved Families
Structured, peer-led conversations grounded in Protective Factors that reduce isolation and strengthen families — whether they're at risk of system involvement or already navigating it. Available in English and Spanish.
IL DCFS: 245+ Cafés in 2025
97% report increased confidence and connection
REUNIFICATION
Fast Track to Getting Your Kids Back
A six-session workshop series co-designed with parents to support reunification — helping families understand and navigate the system, build productive relationships with caseworkers, and work effectively alongside foster caregivers.
767 workshops delivered
3,800+ parents served over 5 years
WELL-BEING
Shared Parenting Workshops
Bringing birth parents and foster caregivers together to build mutual understanding, collaborative relationships, and a shared commitment to children's well-being. These workshops reduce conflict, increase trust, and create more stable placements.
YOUTH VOICE
Leadership Support for Youth in Foster Care
Regional and statewide Youth Advisory Boards, plus affinity groups for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ youth, ensuring their lived experience shapes policy and practice at the system level.
150+ youth leaders engaged annually
WORKFORCE
Building Worker Skills to Engage & Support Families
Customized professional development in trauma-informed family engagement, Protective Factors integration, reflective supervision, and shared parenting support — for frontline staff and supervisors across child welfare agencies.
88% report strong relevance to their work
84% gain immediately applicable skills
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
DEEP PARTNERSHIP IN ACTION
557
Events hosted in FY25
37
Partner agencies collaborated with
3,874
Total event participants in FY25
900+
Participants attended 2+ events
Be Strong Families grew out of a primary child abuse prevention initiative — Strengthening Families Illinois — entirely funded by IL DCFS between 2007 and 2012. That relationship never ended.
Since 2012, BSF has held a $765,000/year annual fee-for-service contract to build Protective Factors with Child Welfare-involved families across Illinois — delivering 425+ direct service training workshops annually at partner organizations statewide.
In addition to direct service work, Be Strong Families manages the IDCFS Youth Advisory Board, convening and coordinating 5 affinity groups as well as regional and statewide meetings for youth in foster care.
What’s available under the IDCFS contract at no cost to partner agencies:
Parents with Child Welfare Involvement
Parent Cafés
Living the Protective Factors Playbook Series
Get on the Fast Track to Getting Your Kids Back
Social Connections workshops
Visitation support
Caregiver & caseworker relationship workshops
Foster Parents & Youth
Foster Parent Cafés
Trauma-Informed Parenting
Maintaining Family Connectedness
Using Lifebooks
Vicarious Trauma & Resilience
Youth & Emerging Adult Cafés
#WoWTalk Cafés
Wake Up! To Your Potential Leadership Training
Professional Development
20+ workshop options
Online or in-person, up to 30 participants
Family Engagement
Protective Factors & Prevention
Trauma & Resilience
Youth-Adult Partnerships
Communication & Facilitation
No referral needed. Agencies set the schedule. All events available in English and Spanish.
Child welfare partnerships across the country
WHERE WE WORK
Be Strong Families has partnered with child welfare systems in more than 10 jurisdictions nationwide.
NEW JERSEY
NJ Department of Children and Families
Parent Cafés embedded across Family Success Centers in every county as part of the state's prevention strategy. In 2022, BSF began a major expansion to integrate Parent Cafés into NJ's 59 county-based Family Success Centers.
Certified 16 NJ-based trainers for local sustainability
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS)
15+ years partnering with Community Umbrella Agencies to support child welfare-involved and at-risk families across the city.
TEXAS
TX Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)
Since 2022, BSF has delivered 4–6 in-person Parent Café Trainings per year across multiple locations statewide, plus online Parent Café training.
50+ community-based agencies implementing Parent Cafés
NEW YORK
NYC Administration for Children's Services (ACS)
Parent Cafés and Vitality Cafés offered across 30 Family Enrichment Centers, supporting families involved in or at risk of entering the child welfare system.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Child and Family Services / Child Welfare Training Academy
Partnership beginning in 2015 with a Child Welfare Practice Innovation Conference. Beginning in 2017, BSF trained the CFS Child Welfare Training Academy to deliver multiple BSF curricula, including the Shared Parenting Series.
CALIFORNIA
LA DCFS & Santa Clara Department of Social Services
Prevention-focused Café series and programming reaching thousands of parents across multiple languages, serving families involved in or at risk of child welfare involvement.
What our participants & partners say
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“These workshops have been really helpful and have assisted me through my journey towards bringing my babies back home.”
— Parent with Child Welfare involvement
-
“Be Strong Families help bring people together with different backgrounds and build a community.”
— Workshop participant
-
“I'm truly grateful for the opportunity for growth and support while navigating such a life-changing period in life.”
— Workshop participant
We work alongside agencies and organizations to design, implement, and sustain relationship-centered approaches.
How we partner with systems
We customize to your context
Whether you’re a state agency, a community umbrella organization, or a county prevention program, we design the right mix of services for your population, your goals, and your system’s culture.
We center parent and youth voice
Parents co-designed our reunification workshops. Youth Advisory Boards shape policy. We don't design programs for families — we design them with families.
We build for sustainability
BSF trains local trainers, certifies agency staff, and builds internal capacity — so the work continues and grows after the initial contract. New Jersey’s 16 certified local trainers are a model for this approach.
We work across the whole system
A child welfare system is only as strong as every relationship within it. We work with birth parents, foster caregivers, frontline workers, supervisors, and youth — because alignment across all of those relationships is what produces lasting change.
We measure what matters
We evaluate every training, workshop, and Café. We track participant growth in the five Protective Factors, gather real-time feedback, and use data to continuously improve. We share results with our partners transparently.
Available in English and Spanish
All trainings, workshops, and Cafés are available in both English and Spanish. No referral is needed — agencies set the schedule and choose workshops that best support their participants' needs.
Let’s explore how BSF can work in your system.
Whether you’re building a prevention strategy, strengthening reunification outcomes, or developing your workforce, we'd love to talk.