Our Kids (past and future)
Our Kids started in January, 2020, when I accepted a year long assignment at Resolve Philly to cover the foster care system. Six years later, I'm still at it and don't want to stop. Here's what we accomplished so far and where I'm headed.
Wins
· I received a three-year Stoneleigh Fellowship, which was extended to a fourth year to capitalize on an opportunity to teach about child welfare reporting for the Poynter Institute.
· My reporting spurred Philadelphia to end the practice of taking Social Security benefits from youth in foster care. As a result of a story I wrote for Spotlight, Pa., legislation is now pending to accomplish the same thing across the entire state.
· A series I wrote for the Inquirer last year led to two City Council hearings and a new proposal to form a community-oriented committee to watchdog the Department of Human Services.
· I authored six reporting guides now used by journalists nationwide.
· As a Poynter adjunct, I teach national seminars on child welfare reporting, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Insita Group.
· In collaboration with the Berkeley Media Studies Group, I helped quantify inequities in traditional foster care coverage.
Our Kids Future
With financial support, I'll continue producing solutions-oriented coverage and media-led narrative change.
Narrative Change: I'm partnering with organizations such as the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) to address destructive phenomena like “foster care panics.” Panics occur when media rouses from its typical slumber around foster care and focuses on a child-related tragedy. In response, child welfare agencies retreat into defensive practice—unnecessarily separating families as a hedge against the unlikely event of another catastrophe. Research also shows panics needlessly separate children and families without improving child safety.
In 2026, I'll use the Our Kids’ guides to engage newsrooms nationwide, helping journalists avoid panic-driven coverage and adopt a more solutions-oriented, equity-focused approach.
Journalism I: I'll use a portion of funding acquired through Margins to Mainstream to commission, edit and co-publish solutions-oriented coverage of the child welfare system here and in general interest publications.
Journalism II: With help from MuckRock, I'll document problems and solutions in family court.
Background:
Family Court was built to be fast and flexible, a place where judges could move quickly to help kids. But speed costs. Hearings often last just minutes, with little fact-finding, loose evidentiary rules, poor lawyering for kids and families and weak due process protections.
Few people realize the depth of the problem, but the unvarnished truth is that if any U.S. resident walks into a convenience store right now and steals a pack of chewing gum, they’ll enjoy greater legal right to defend themselves than they will if a child welfare worker arrives at their home tonight and takes their children.
National advocates and legal scholars—from the American Bar Association to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges—mount occasional pushes for reform. The National Association of Council for Children, which trains and accredits child and family attorneys around the country, advocates for basic ethical and training standards to professionalize the family courts.
The problem is that the courts resist change and advocates have no evidence base to marshal. Why is this? Because dependency court operates almost entirely behind closed doors. It’s a system with enormous power over children and families and almost no public visibility, keeping journalists and the community alike from holding the system accountable.
The Ask:
To accomplish all this, I need financial support. If you're in, you can make a tax-deductible donation. Funders who donate $5,000 or more will be listed here. Our editorial independence policy is available for review. And anyone who wants to set up a meeting to speak with me directly can email me.