Kim Dvorechak, National Association of Counsel for Children executive director and FJI Communications Workgroup member describes how children’s lawyers can examine and improve their practice.
We will all remember the spring of 2020. Months of pandemic and then protest—a time of isolation, fear, upheaval, and reckoning. It was a season that forced each of us to re-examine almost every facet of our personal and professional lives, from our households to our jobs to our roles in systems and society. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed child welfare professionals to a small yet potent dose of the disruption, separation, and uncertainty the children and parents we serve experience every day. And the killing of George Floyd and calls for racial justice necessitate that we undertake a systemic analysis of the root causes of inequities and dismantle the pathways to racial disparity and disproportionality. To create a more equitable child welfare system, we must lean into this discomfort, begin to grapple with uncomfortable truths, and make critical choices that disrupt the status quo.