Across North Carolina, a powerful shift is happening in child welfare. Families are no longer being invited to the table simply to “share their stories.” They are helping design the table itself.
Through the collective work of the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Advisory Council (CWFAC), Positive Childhood Alliance North Carolina (PCANC), and the North Carolina Department of Social Services (NCDSS) is advancing a bold premise:
Grounded in the North Carolina Child Welfare Family Leadership Model, CWFAC is helping move our system from transactional engagement to shared decision-making and true co-creation.
The Core Principles Driving CWFAC’s Work
Through the NC Family Leadership Framework, CWFAC advances three foundational principles:
- Lived Expertise = Professional Expertise
Navigating the child welfare system produces insight that cannot be replicated through formal training alone. Together, PCANC and NC DSS are supporting this principle by integrating lived expertise into:
- Strategic planning
- Prevention frameworks
- Training curricula
- Policy review
- Continuous quality improvement
Families are not validating ideas after they are formed. They are forming them.
- Shared Power & Shared Accountability
True leadership requires systems change and shared power. Not just relational goodwill. CWFAC members are:
- Included on advisory bodies
- Integrated into policy discussions
- Invited into design and implementation teams
Shared power also means shared responsibility. Families are not symbolic or token participants; they are co-owners of outcomes.
- Trauma-Informed & Strengths-Based Practice
CWFAC leadership is rooted in lived understanding:
- The impact of trauma on families and communities
- The importance of psychological safety
- The power of strengths-based language
- The role of relationships in healing and resilience
This ensures that engagement does not retraumatize families, and that leadership spaces honor dignity, growth, and possibility. PCANC reinforces this message that when adults experience supportive relationships and needed supports, children and communities thrive.
Who Are the CWFAC Leaders?
CWFAC Leaders are parents, kinship providers, foster and adoptive families, and youth who have lived in foster care. They are people whose direct experience with North Carolina’s child welfare system positions them not just as participants, but as leaders shaping its future.
They are:
- Parents who have worked toward reunification
- Kinship caregivers who stepped in to keep children connected to family
- Caregivers who have navigated foster care or permanency processes
- Individuals who have experienced system involvement firsthand and chose to transform that experience into leadership
They are invited and choose to serve because their experiences are powerful and they believe they can make a difference.
CWFAC Leaders represent diverse regions, backgrounds, cultures, and pathways through the system. Their leadership is grounded in:
- Real-time knowledge of how policies effect homes
- Understanding of barriers families face
- Insight into what helps families thrive
- A commitment to making the system better for the next family
Importantly, CWFAC Leaders are not positioned as “representatives of all families.” Instead, they bring authentic perspective from where they sit, recognizing there is not one single truth, but many valid lived experiences that inform better decision-making.
Their leadership is supported through:
- Orientation and ongoing development
- Trauma-informed facilitation practices
- Clear roles and expectations
- Compensation for their time and expertise
- Opportunities for growth into advisory and policy spaces
They are partners in redesigning what is possible.
From Transactional Engagement to Co-Creation
Historically, systems have engaged families in ways that feel transactional:
- A survey is sent.
- A focus group is held.
- A story is shared.
- A report is written.
And then families rarely see what changed. Through this coordinated effort between CWFAC, PCANC, and NC DSS, that dynamic is shifting.
Instead of asking families to simply react to decisions already made, CWFAC members:
- Serve on multiple advisory, design and policy teams
- Contribute to training development
- Inform evaluation efforts
- Help shape statewide priorities
This is not consultation after decisions are made. This is leadership embedded at the decision-making level.
This Is More Than a Council. What started as a council is becoming something much more. This is not advisory participation. Not a checkbox. Not feedback offered after decisions are already made. This is transformation in motion.
It’s a system learning to trust the wisdom of lived experience. Counties reimagining how families shape policy, funding, and practice from the very beginning. Professionals recognizing that expertise is not confined to credentials, but forged through experience, resilience, and deep love for one’s children.
It is families stepping forward not as clients, but as leaders. Agencies choosing shared power over control. An Alliance rising, where families, agencies, and communities build the future together.
This is shared leadership in action. Accountability you can feel. The shift from voice to power. And this is how stronger systems, and positive childhoods, take root. And this is only the beginning. IF we believe!
Understanding the North Carolina Family Leadership Model
North Carolina’s Family Leadership Model creates a clear pathway for family voice to move from participation to partnership to policy influence.
At its core, the model is built on four structural components:
- Foundation: Family-Centered Practice
Quality engagement between workers and families sets the groundwork for safety, permanency, and well-being. Without authentic relationship-based practice at the front lines, family leadership cannot grow.
- Tier One: Family Leadership Exploration
Families with lived experience begin engaging through trainings, support groups, and opportunities like Community Cafés or forums to have their voice heard. This tier builds awareness, confidence, and connection.
- Tier Two: Family Leadership Development
Families collaborate locally with county agencies, contributing to programming, training, and decision-making. Their perspectives can shape how services are delivered.
- Tier Three: Family Leadership Council
At the highest tier, Family Partners advise the state on policies, practices, and federal/state planning. This is where leadership directly informs system change.
CWFAC operates in this third tier while also helping strengthen the tiers below it. Importantly, CWFAC does not exist in isolation.
Why This Matters for North Carolina
When lived expertise is positioned as leadership:
- Policies reflect real-world complexity.
- Training becomes grounded in experience.
- Services become more effective and responsive.
- Trust between communities and agencies grows.
- Accountability becomes shared rather than imposed.
CWFAC provides leadership in motion. PCANC provides strategic alignment: connecting prevention efforts, the Science of the Positive, protective factors, and human connection across systems. NC DSS provides institutional commitment and policy integration. Together, they represent a commitment to the belief that families are not just stakeholders on the sidelines. They should be co-creators of the system that serves them.
Positive Childhood Start With All of Us
Moving from feedback to co-creation is not easy. It requires shifting mindsets, redefining expertise, supporting families and building leadership pathways in order to practice shared decision-making
North Carolina is demonstrating that it is possible AND scalable. And this work grows stronger when more partners step in.
If you are a county DSS leader, a community-based organization, a policymaker, a practitioner, a family member with lived experience, or a community member interested in learning more about the role we all play in strengthening families, please consider joining the Positive Childhood Alliance.
When families are trusted as leaders, agencies share power, and prevention and positive childhood frameworks shape our systems, children, families, and communities grow stronger.
Lived expertise is leadership. And leadership builds positive childhoods.
Want to learn more? Contact Beth Moore at bmoore@positivechildhoodalliancenc.org.