What Happens When Child Welfare Leads With Humanity and a "We" Approach with Renee Bernhard | Ep 27
Description
In this episode of Rights and Remedies, I speak with Renee Bernhard, co-founder and executive director of Be The Source, a nonprofit transforming child welfare support across Colorado.
Renee is a former foster parent with a deep commitment to supporting families and children experiencing child welfare. She co-founded Be The Source (formerly Foster Source) to improve foster parent retention and advocate for the needs of foster and kinship families. Renee also speaks nationally and internationally about vital caregiver supports and believes lived experience should be the biggest influence in policy and practice.
We explore the emotional complexity of foster care, including what happened when Renee’s foster child’s biological mother broke protocol and handed her a bouquet of flowers on Mother’s Day. That single moment became the foundation for Renee’s vulnerable, relationship-first philosophy, and the core of her organization’s work.
Be The Source now offers trauma-informed training, tangible support like car seats and rent assistance, equine therapy, and mental health care for foster and kinship families, including biological children of foster parents.
And for the first time, they're expanding these same services to birth parents, creating a model of shared support where everyone shows up for the child.
If you work in family law, child advocacy, or the broader legal ecosystem, this episode offers a powerful look at what’s possible when the system embraces we over us versus them.
Learn more or donate:
🔗 bethesourceco.org
Follow Be The Source on Facebook, Instagram and X. (or the Spanish Facebook Page)
United States
