Claim OwnershipThe Proximity Process
Subscribed: 7Played: 83
Subscribe
© 2024 The Proximity Process
Description
This is a show about how child welfare transformation actually starts with personal transformation. Follow Matt Anderson, a former child welfare executive with 20 years of experience, as he goes deeper into his own process of becoming who he needs to be. Matt has conversations with creative disruptors who help us see how systems can harm and oppress people. Each episode is an invitation to go deeper into your own process of being in service of people rather than systems.
34 Episodes
Reverse
This episode is a follow up to the previous journal episode, Am I Biased? One of our ambitions with this show is to build community and engage the community in a conversation. So, the series of episodes about termination of parental rights led to some feedback that prompted the episode about my biases. And that episode prompted past guest Corey Best to send me a journal prompt that I used for this episode. I do have fears about addressing racism publicly, and I believe that I need to have con...
I'm super excited to bring you the first ever (but not the last) Ask Me Anything episode. We put out a call for questions and you all came through. We received more questions than we could get to in one episode. We also asked the Proximity Podcast Club if someone wanted to guest host. Again, lots of interest but there could only be one host. Kathleen Creamer is a parent defense attorney but has a real talent for hosting. Maybe she'll have her own show soon. Kathleen curated your questions, an...
In this week's episode I start with the journal prompt, am I biased? This was prompted by some of the feedback to our most recent episodes on Termination of Parental Rights. I thought I would let you all into my process of how I try to approach feedback that is critical or raises questions about my intentions. Rather than defending anything that is being said on the show my hope is to ask myself some questions about what I can learn from the feedback. You'll have to listen to the episod...
This week's episode continues our series of conversations about Termination of Parent Rights. I wanted to talk to Vivek Sankaran because he has a unique depth of knowledge to bring to the thought experiment that we've been bringing to these episodes, which is to imagine what if TPR was no longer an option. Vivek directs the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. We talked about TPR from the perspective of its morality, necess...
Today's guest, Mollie Warren, is the Director of Family and Children's Services in Boulder County, Colorado. I wanted to return to the conversation about Termination of Parental Rights with someone who is in a "practitioner" role and a position to make decisions about to the use of TPR on a regular basis. One of my goals in these conversations is to normalize a conversation about "what if TPR was no longer an option?" I think it's helpful if we can examine TPR from the perspective of what opp...
In today's journal episode I share some of the questions and ideas that came up on this week's Proximity Podcast Club conversation. The jumping off question this week was what shifts are happening for each of us as we think more deeply about prevention. In other words, what are we trying to prevent, how, and for whom? This led to a really dynamic conversation. We talked about why it is so important that we remain curios and flexible, particularly as leaders. We also talked about the role of t...
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. This is a perfect time to step back and ask ourselves, what is prevention? What values and narratives underpin our ideas of who and what we are preventing? In my conversation with Dr Melissa Merrick, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America, I wanted to understand prevention from the perspective of social justice. Dr Merrick and I talked about the shift that has been happening in both child welfare and the prevention field over...
Today's episode is a conversation I had with my friend and colleague, Mike Shaver, who is the CEO of Brightpoint in Illinois. Brightpoint began as Children Home & Aid in 1883 and is going through a significant shift in how they see their role in advancing justice for families. Mike and I talked about the leadership challenges and successes he's experienced throughout his career as he worked on major organizational change efforts. What we got into is valuable for anyone who is working with...
In this week's journal episode, I talk about a simple practice that I have used throughout my career to remain curious, adaptable, and in service of people. This is something that you can start doing today. This practice has helped me avoid falling into status quo and one I've observed it do the same for other leaders. The practice is to listen to people's experiences, learn from and trust their expertise, and take action together. I share some of my own experiences of how this practice has h...
I remember learning about the 2020 Vision in 2007 when I started working in child welfare. It was a new national initiative with the goal of reducing the number of kids in foster care by 50% by the year 2020. I was working with kids aging out and watching the impact of growing up in foster care play out in front of my eyes. I remember being inspired by this initiative and hopeful about its impact. Today's guest is Susan Smith who led the data team at Casey Family Programs for 16 years and was...
This week's episode is a journal entry that was prompted by the Proximity Podcast Club conversation. We were talking about a question posed to the group by Corey Best, who am I without the family policing system? This immediately got me thinking about a few fundamental questions that I talk about in this episode. What did the system provide me? What did the system cost me? Where does my security actually come from? Is there wisdom gained from sitting in the ambiguity that we wrestle wit...
Today's episode is a conversation with Kathleen Creamer that you don't want to miss. Kathleen is the Managing Attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia where she and her team use a holistic family defense model to help parents maintain custody of or reunite with their children. We center the conversation on the necessity of Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) as well as the constitutionality and morality of TPR. We also weave in some of the history of how these policies came to be...
This is part two of my conversation with Corey Best. You may want to go back and listen to episode one where Corey talks about growing up in DC, his son being born, and his experience of termination of parental rights (TPR). We end that conversation as Corey was hours away from reuniting with his son after 19 years. We pick up Today's episode with the first embrace that Corey shares with son and the experience of being together for a couple of days. From there the conversation moves to ...
This is part one of a two-part conversation with Corey Best. We cover a lot of ground in these conversations, but we center around Corey's relationship with his son who, until very recently, he hadn't seen or talked to in 19 years. We get into Corey's early years of growing up in DC, some of the pivotal people and experiences in his life, and the early part of his career. But the heart of the conversation is about Corey's relationship with his son (Corey aka Deuce) and the reunion they are ab...
This week is a journal episode. This episode was inspired by the recent Hill Briefing that was organized by the Repeal CAPTA Coalition. What came across so clearly in the briefing is that we don't have to wait for justice, we can act now to advance justice. Part of the proposal of the Repeal CAPTA Coalition is to shift funds from Title I of CAPTA to Title II and increase that amount to $500 million annually. This would put more money into community-based programs that are meeting the economic...
This week's episode is a recently released conversation I had as a guest on the Leaving Well with Naomi Hattaway podcast. Naomi is a skilled interviewer, and it was a joy to talk to her about my experience of leaving well, including the one regret that I had in the process. I think Naomi's work has a lot to offer the community we are building around The Proximity Process. I hope this is an opportunity to discover a new show that brings you value. Leaving Well is the art and practice of ...
On this episode I share some of my reflections on Shawn A Ginwright's book The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves. I talk about the first pivot, which is from lens to mirror. The way Shawn talks about this pivot speaks directly to how I have come to understand the proximity process. My reflections are related to how I understand this pivot, how I have seen this pivot play out in my own work, and how it is now informing my work at Proximity Design Studio. I also share some...
Today's episode is a conversation with my friend, colleague, and Podcast Club collaborator and co-host, Dr. Kimberly Offutt. We tell the origin story of how we decided to create the weekly Proximity Podcast Club. The story starts with Kim listening to episode one and calling me to say, "I feel like I was punched in the gut". Our conversation moves into why community building is part of the process and the value that it brings us. Of course, we also had to dive into Kim's process of how she is...
We are at the beginning of 2024 and many of us are thinking about resolutions, intentions, and goals. In this episode I talk about the early days of 2023 and how I set intention to handle some of the challenges and uncertainties of leaving my job. A conversation with a friend prompted an intention that shaped 2023. The intention is to be whole in who I am in all aspects of my life. My intention for 2024 is to build on 2023 and remain free to be me. At the end of the episode, I share four jour...
Tex is back as the guest host of today's episode. We decided that he would interview me again so we can dive a little deeper into my own process. We start the conversation with how we met 25 years ago and then reconnected a few years ago. When Tex found out I was going through a difficult time in my life he decided to pick up the phone and call me after 12 years of not being in contact. His decision to make that call changed both of our lives in a very real way and has led to a deeply meaning...
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States