The Banyan Connection

08/17/2025

"Support Over Separate: Rethinking 40 Years of Child Protection with David Sanders"

Casey Family Programs executive vice president for Systems Improvement, Dr. David Sanders, joined Valerie Frost on the Community In-Site podcast to talk about the Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative and reflect on the bold idea that sparked it: the belief that we must shift from a system centered on child removal to one that supports families and promotes child and community well-being.

Together, David and Valerie explore how the dominant intervention in child protection for the past 40 years, family separation, has shaped the system, and why a different path is both possible and necessary.

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3Jc4xyE
Spotify: https://bit.ly/3UqpGaN

05/11/2025

🎤 Real Talk. Real Impact. 🎤
Five amazing influencers who’ve been in foster care are taking the mic this National Foster Care Month and leading our May Online Meetup for young people in and from foster care.

🗓 May 21 4PM PT / 7PM ET
👥 For ages 14–24 with lived experience in foster care
📲 RSVP in the FosterClub App — we’re saving you a seat.

02/17/2025

The foster care community thrives on diversity and inclusivity. Learn how LGBTQ+ individuals and couples are making a difference in children's lives.

02/17/2025

We are grateful for the transformative advocacy of Marian Wright Edelman, founder and President Emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), one of the nation’s strongest voices for children and families. Ms. Edelman has spent her professional career advocating for Americans who face socio-economic disadvantage, and she has created groundbreaking programs to address that inequality, including the “Leave No Child Behind” mission, which ensures every child has a healthy and fair start in their very early years. 🖤💗💛💚

12/28/2024

“Everyone knew my situation. I took the bus to school. It was a fairly small bus, and all of us would talk. So the bus driver knew everything. She was an old lady, in her sixties. White hair. She heard me saying that I didn’t have money to go on my senior trip. So she parked the bus, went into to the dean’s office, and said: ‘Here’s $80, let the girl go on the trip.’ I had a science teacher, Ms. Bernard. She knew that we were homeless, so every once in awhile she’d pay me $20 to clean her classroom. Just so that I could do something for my birthday, or get myself pizza one night, stuff like that. Then our dean Ms. V would let me bring home extra food from the cafeteria, which wasn’t allowed. If it wasn’t for the educators in my life, I’d have gone off the rails, the way a lot of kids who have trouble at home do. I was just craving attention so much. My mom, I love her. But she's never been the best mental health wise, especially after everything she's gone through. I was also getting bullied, just relentlessly by kids in my class. I learned pretty quick that people paid attention to me academically, no other way. In high school my science teachers were really where it was at. Dr. Khan, especially. He was my marine biology teacher. It was my favorite class, because I’ve always loved marine biology. But we also talked about music a lot. That year everything was really up in the air for me: I’d just transferred schools, I was taking care of my little brother, our stepdad was domestically violent. That Christmas Dr. Khan gave me a present. Two presents, actually. The first present was cookies. He said: ‘I always talk to my wife about you, so she made you cookies.’ His wife baked things for a living, on the side. So these were like, real cookies. With sea salt on top. Then the second present was a CD with all the songs we’d ever talked about, mixed-together with videos of all my favorite animals. I do not like dolphins. I love whales. And I genuinely have a thing for sharks. So there’d be like a Blink 182 song, paired with a video of a hammerhead shark. On the card he wrote: ‘Remember, you can always talk to me.”

07/11/2022

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-derbyshire-62069327

Matt Taylor, who grew up in care, has won an award for his work on Frank Turner's album.

03/27/2022

Purpose and Description: May is National Foster Care Month and the theme this year is: Relative and Kin Connections: Keeping Families Strong, which aligns perfectly with FosterCare's advocacy efforts. The Children's Bureau's National Foster Care Month campaign recognizes the important role that memb...

10/05/2021

Teens in foster care not only face the complexity, trauma, and unknowns of the foster care system but also have to face stereotypes about themselves.

Teens in foster care are not the labels they’ve been given by others or the trauma they have experienced.

They are RESILIENT, FUNNY, MOTIVATED, KIND, CREATIVE, SMART, ARTISTIC.

For this reason, we are providing a platform for teens in foster care to share their stories IN THEIR OWN WORDS.

We invite you to listen to their stories and come alongside them as they use their voices to create change.

It's time we listen.

Learn more at www.everychildoregon.org/fosteryouth and follow us on social media to read their stories.

09/18/2021

Group homes for foster kids have to go before more youths are harmed.

08/13/2021

https://www.childwelfare.gov/more-tools-resources/podcast/episode-66/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR06427RLNoFsLW2pMTXtOvy8GH4pWwfqVBi_q5Pxs8bjMV661iabzZEQQU

Features insights and findings surrounding each of the three themes helping youth heal and deal with trauma, centering youth in their preparedness, and helping youth build a supportive network. This episode is the first in a two-part series.

07/22/2021

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CRZpTpFJmSl/?utm_medium=copy_link

togetherwerise • Original Audio

05/12/2021

Obed Joe • Rewind 2020 Part 5