Recommendations for systemic change to support connectedness within Alaska Native child welfare.

BACKGROUND: Ongoing child removal of Indigenous children within child welfare systems is problematic. Alaska Native youth are disproportionately affected by the trauma of separation from important connectedness relationships. OBJECTIVE: To take previous research a step further by identifying relational and systemic changes that need to happen in the Alaska child welfare system so that connectedness is supported for child and collective wellbeing. METHODS: This article summarizes connectedness concepts and directly links knowledge bearers' stories to recommended changes at the direct, agency, and governmental practice levels. RESULTS: Children and youth need to build, maintain, and repair connectedness relationships, especially when child welfare is involved. Authentically engaging youth and listening to lived experience as a relational action can lead to transformational changes that benefit the children and the collective network they are connected to. CONCLUSION: Our intention is to shift child welfare to a child wellbeing paradigm that is relationally guided by direct recipients of the system.

Increasing Native Research Leadership Through an Early Career Development Program.

Inequities impact American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian populations across various health conditions; in particular, many Native communities bear a disproportionate burden of substance use disorder. Such inequities persist despite concerted efforts of communities and significant research directed toward prevention and intervention. One factor hampering these efforts is the underrepresentation of researchers who are themselves Native and uniquely equipped to respond to the needs of their communities. This paper describes the innovative Native Children's Research Exchange (NCRE) Scholars program, now entering its ninth year of successful career development support for emerging Native scholars. We summarize the history of NCRE Scholars, outline the mentoring and training approaches taken to meet the unique needs of early-career Native scholars, and present key progress of program alumni. The current cohort of Scholars provide first-person perspectives on how four key program elements have supported their career development to date. NCRE Scholars has been an effective approach for supporting the next generation of Native research leaders and for helping to build an essential mass of Native researchers prepared to respond to Native community health priority needs.

A Connectedness Framework: Breaking the Cycle of Child Removal for Black and Indigenous Children.

Recent anti-racist, equity, and social justice discourse in child welfare has centered on a restructured, reimagined, or abolished system. We add our scholarship and recommendations to this discourse by focusing on Alaska Native and African American children because these two populations have had an ongoing disproportionate number of children in out-of-home care. We provide an overview of the history that implicates western-based colonial policies and practices. We have also identified how a system invested in child removal is problematic and discuss what attempts have been made to change child welfare. We propose a framework to guide systems change within child welfare that is rooted in connectedness. The hope is that the application of this framework can improve outcomes for children and families of color.