Cultural Brokers

The Problem
Millions of children in the U.S. undergo child maltreatment investigations. In fact, an American child is estimated to have a 37% chance of being the subject of a child maltreatment investigation before reaching the age of 18. This risk increases to 53% for Black children. Investigations from Child Protective Services (CPS) officials are often highly stressful and traumatizing for children and their families — even if allegations are not substantiated. Every year an average of nearly 17K children are removed from their families’ custody and placed in foster care only to be reunited within 10 days. Many referrals to CPS involve families whose challenges arise from poverty, as well as the systemic factors that make escaping poverty difficult for families, and often do not justify family separation or termination of parental rights.

The Solution
Cultural Brokers works with African-American families that are involved with or at risk of being involved with the child welfare system. They train community-based advocates (cultural brokers) to serve as an additional point of contact for those referred to CPS, reducing unnecessary involvement from the state. These brokers are hired with an eye toward people with ‘lived experience’ — not necessarily through their own involvement with CPS, but due to a sufficient understanding of and empathy for the families whom they serve, allowing them to be effective communicators and mediators. Cultural Brokers’ multi-pronged solution covers three specific areas:Joint crisis and non-crisis response in partnership with CPS: Cultural Brokers’ culturally congruent workers act as mediators between families and CPS workers, communicating directly with and advocating for the family, and where possible, connecting the family with resources including housing, clothing, food, sobriety support, and more.

1. Joint crisis and non-crisis response in partnership with CPS: Cultural Brokers’ culturally congruent workers act as mediators between families and CPS workers, communicating directly with and advocating for the family, and where possible, connecting the family with resources including housing, clothing, food, sobriety support, and more.
2. Prioritizing kinship care: When children’s safety and welfare are sufficiently at risk and the government must remove children from their current homes, Cultural Brokers uses its trained, culturally congruent workers to effectively work with families to find other family members who are appropriate custodians for those children. This kin-first approach reduces placement in traditional foster homes and group homes.
3. Focusing on family reunification: In cases where children must be removed, Cultural Brokers’ works with the parents whose children have been removed, helping to create a situation where the state will find it appropriate to reunify those children with their parents.