The Casebook Blog

Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence. Despite my 13-plus year career in the child welfare sector, I was never a clinician. I managed clinicians in an administrative capacity for a large number of those years and as such, a good deal of the information stuck with me. Yet, I could always count on my beloved clinicians to remind me that a fellow clinician, I was not. In truth, the relationship worked great. I leveraged the sum of my administrative ability to put the right clinician in the right place and armed with the right tools to make a difference in the lives of the children we served. Now, I had it better than many of my administrative peers with other organizations because I could truly say I belonged to an organization dedicated to following the evidence of what works. Looking back at my career now, I don’t know how any organization could do anything other than heed the evidence given what is at stake. If I can borrow a few minutes of your time, I’d like to share with you what I believe to be the moral responsibility of child welfare agencies nationwide to follow the evidence, wherever it may lead them. There is No Debate About Evidence Based Practices Now, to be clear there is certainly a good and robust clinical debate about which EBPs were the most effective. Personally, I’d like to weigh in from time to time just to rustle the jimmies of the clinicians that an administrator has an opinion. Yet, for the most part I let clinical services do what they were designed to do. So when I say there is no debate about EBPs, what I really mean is that there is no debate on whether not the evidence should guide our decisions. Relying on good luck, fortune, and whatever clinical approach pops into your head at the moment seems criminally negligent given the young lives that we are asked to steward. On a good day the American foster care system must seem like a cruel game of Frogger to the youth that must endure and if they knew how many of the adults responsible for their care were guessing about their future they’d have another reason, among many, to be angry. The Moral Responsibility to Follow the Evidence If there is not evidence to support your approach or you are not actively gathering the evidence to evaluate your approach, then you don’t belong in the field. I’m amazed at how we take the most vulnerable youth in America and accept the notion that guessing and doing our best is sufficient. NASA doesn’t operate that way, billion dollar multinational corporations don’t operate that way and It confused me as to why some organizations would do anything other than follow the evidence. Keep in mind, this is not a knock on the actual clinicians as they can only be armed with the tools that administrators give them or allow them to use. In a previous life, I was, still am, a United States Marine. When the artillery is attempting to locate and destroy a target, there will be a variety of adjustments called out in between rounds. However, when artillery is locked on target, the call to “fire for effect” is given and all hell reigns down upon that unfortunate location. In the United States of America, when we find evidence for what works to transform the lives of most vulnerable children, there should be a nationwide call to fire for effect. Doing anything else is simply morally irresponsible. I do realize that I get to say that with ease as I’m no longer in that field, but through the power of writing I can at least sound out the call to action. So please subscribe to our blog below or follow us on Linkedin and let us all cry out “fire for effect” together for public and private agencies to follow the evidence.

Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could. Certainly, there are success stories in every state agency and private provider that spur every worker or therapist to give it their very best just one more time. As with any industry, child welfare recruits a myriad of employees with varying motivations. Yet, by and large, you find people who genuinely care about the welfare of our most vulnerable citizens. The Difference of a Day in Foster Care First and foremost, let’s set the stage for those frontline workers doing the best they can right now. You use every tool at your disposal, care greatly about the kids you serve, and the work follows you home more often than not. A national call for child welfare agencies to stop doing the best they can is also a call to equip you with everything you need to do the job well. The right tool backed by the evidence in your hands is a powerful agent of change in this nation. Agency leaders, policy makers, and decision makers must stop settling for the best that they can do on your behalf. If you were to survey frontline foster care and adoption workers throughout this nation on how many foster homes they needed to care for the number of children in the child welfare system, the answer would be a unanimous “more.” Follow that question by asking when you need them and the answer would likely be a unanimous “yesterday.” In many cases, the deficiency is not in the number of foster homes, but in the quality of foster homes and who they are willing to take. There is rarely a shortage of homes looking to love and serve a newborn infant or neglected toddler. Their angry 15-year-old sibling is a much harder placement. When a sibling group of 5 enters the child welfare system, the priority is to keep them together. The only problem is finding a home that has room for 5 children is difficult. Remarkably, there are homes that are willing to take such difficult and numerous placements, but they seem to always be in the pipeline. They are in the recruiting process or nearly finished with their homestudy and agency workers know with certitude that they will be an amazing parent to these children. Yet, when a child comes into care, they need the right placement to be ready today and not next week when the foster parent trainer returns from their much needed vacation. The Best Means Using the Best Evidence Everyone is doing the best they can to get these families ready in time, but coming up a little slow or a little late in America’s child welfare system can have cascading consequences for children. One wrong placement turns into another, then another, then another, and months or years can go by before siblings are ever reunited under the same roof. Doing the best one can wouldn’t be so tragic if there were not agencies who have followed the evidence, unlocked the funding, and dedicated themselves to performance based measures. There are enough indicators and enough agencies leading the way that following the trail of evidence seems morally responsible given what is at stake. Emanating out of Massachusetts General Hospital, Think:Kids is an organization that takes an evidenced based collaborative problem solving approach to working with challenging kids. While they have undoubtedly done the best they could, they promote the outcomes over the effort. Following the evidence, their approach leads to an 86% average reduction in physical restraints, a 74% reduction in the use of seclusion and 71% fewer self inflicted injuries in youth. Opening an “old school” orphanage in the face of such overwhelming data would almost seem criminal. Yet, we have no doubt that even the founders of orphanages of the past were indeed doing the best they could.