{"id":30987,"date":"2012-10-17T01:40:23","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T01:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/many-minds-move-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:06:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T22:06:43","slug":"muchas-mentes-pueden-mover-montanas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/many-minds-move-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Muchas mentes mueven monta\u00f1as: para no repetir los errores del pasado, debemos comprender de d\u00f3nde venimos."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-section light fresh-text single wp-block-fresh-text backgrounds-and-margins-aware-block margin-top margin-bottom\">\n <div class=\"container mx-auto px-5\">\n\n \n \n <!-- The CTA is moved up next to the title when in the Head Section style -->\n \n  <div class=\"callout\"><p>Recognizing where we have come from and what it takes to continue moving forward was the central theme of President and CEO William C. Bell\u2019s keynote address at the New York City Family Support Network Annual Conference: Many Minds Move Mountains. \u201cYou can only give what you have, but know that what you have is mighty, and what you have is powerful, and what you have when blended with what others have, can move mountains,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <!-- conversly to above, we need to not show the CTA here if it's the Head Section style -->\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"featured-video wp-block-featured-video\">\n  <div class=\"bg-warm-ceramic py-[128px] text-revolver\">\n    <div class=\"container mx-auto px-5\">\n\n      \n      <div class=\"embed\">\n        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Many minds move mountains\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/iCJ24aI0hiQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"content-section light fresh-text single wp-block-fresh-text backgrounds-and-margins-aware-block margin-top margin-bottom\">\n <div class=\"container mx-auto px-5\">\n\n \n   <h2>Transcript<\/h2>\n  \n <!-- The CTA is moved up next to the title when in the Head Section style -->\n \n  <div class=\"callout\"><p><!-- wp:paragraph --><strong>BERNADINE MEEKS:<\/strong>\u00a0 He walked in. He sat there. He listened to us. He never interrupted us. He let us vent as much as we wanted. He was so warm.\u00a0 He was so, you know, caring.\u00a0 He showed that, you know, I\u2019m here to hear, to listen.\u00a0 I\u2019m here to learn.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know everything.\u00a0 I\u2019m here for you.\u00a0 And when we started nagging, and they tried to set up the times, because we met at a conference a few years ago and he gave me his card and he wrote all of his information not knowing that I was going to keep him to his word.\u00a0 And we went through the calendar for about a year trying to make it work and here we are.\u00a0 I\u2019m telling you, it\u2019s like then he said this.\u00a0 When the word went out, the calls that I received.\u00a0 The people that wanted to talk to him, just wanted to be in his presence, just wanted to hear from him because of who he is \u2013 genuine.\u00a0 He was \u2026.\u00a0 Mr. Bell, honest with you, half of these people didn\u2019t come here because they wanted to come to the conference.\u00a0 They came because they respect you and you were there for them on many, many levels.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard many stories.\u00a0 Many people have spoken to me.\u00a0 So, we want to welcome you.\u00a0 Anita, you want to read his bio for me, please?<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><strong>ANITA:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, I was going to tell William earlier that when Bernadine first started talking about the conference, she knew that this conference was not going to happen unless William Bell was the keynote speaker, and it was really organized around William\u2019s availability to come to New York City, and so I know of two special people that this made it for a very special event but, so we\u2019re really happy for you to be here.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->William Bell is the president and CEO of the Casey Family Programs.\u00a0 He\u2019s a respected leader with more than 30 years of experience \u2013 he also started when he was three \u2013 of experience in the Human Services field.\u00a0 Prior to leading the foundation, he served as the agency\u2019s executive vice president for Child and Family Services.\u00a0 He had previously served as commissioner of the New York City Administration for Children Services and ACS.\u00a0 Dr. Bell will be presenting on the history of the Family Movement and the potential that families have as a powerful force of the Family Movement.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->He served as deputy commissioner of ACS\u2019s Division of Child Protection, deputy commissioner of Field Services and associate executive director of Miracle Makers, the largest minority-owned, not-for-profit Child and Family Service Organization in New York.\u00a0 He is on several boards including the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families.\u00a0 Dr. Bell is honored by New York City\u2019s Court-Appointed Special Advocates for his contributions and lifelong commitment to improving the lives of children in foster care.\u00a0 Dr. Bell earned his Ph.D. in Social Welfare and his MSW at Hunter College.\u00a0 It\u2019s my pleasure to welcome William.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><strong>WILLIAM C. BELL:<\/strong>\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 I found myself speechless sitting there listening to that introduction and, for me, who I am and who I have been throughout the years is consistent with what I think I gained from a woman named Alberta Williams, and that woman\u2019s my mom, who passed away in 2005.\u00a0 But one of the things this very religious woman taught me was you can only give what you have, and you need to be true to what you have and recognize the power in what you have.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Sometimes we are prone to comparing ourselves and our capacities to those of others and we believe that we cannot do as much because someone else seems like they can do more.\u00a0 And I would say to you that if you take nothing with you from this day, take with you the seeds that say you can always give what you have and what you have is powerful and mighty if you believe.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And I come to you today as the CEO of Casey Family Programs, the nation\u2019s largest operating foundation that is focused solely on safely reducing the number of children in foster care and building Communities of Hope for all children and families in this nation.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Since we were created and established by the late Jim Casey, who is the founder of UPS, United Parcel, who also created Annie E. Casey here on the East coast in Baltimore.\u00a0 Casey Family Programs has been about looking for the answer and influencing the answer to one critical question, and that question has been taken from a greeting of the Maasai people in Africa and that greeting which I became familiar with when I was still here as the commissioner of ACS.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->The greeting asks the question, \u201cKasserian ingera.\u201d\u00a0 And Kasserian ingera, translated, asks, \u201cHow are the children?\u201d And we have sought to answer that question.\u00a0 How are the children who are impacted by the foster care system?\u00a0 How are the children who are impacted by the mental health system?\u00a0 How are the children impacted by the juvenile justice system?\u00a0 How are the children who are in our public education system?\u00a0 How are the children?\u00a0 And when will we be able to truthfully and with conviction respond in the language of the Maasai, \u201cSapati ingera\u201d \u2013 all the children are well.\u00a0 That is, I think, the most prevailing question for all of us who seek to uplift the family support movement.\u00a0 You see, Casey believes that in order for children to be well, families have to be well.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And in order for families to be well, the communities in which they live have to be well.\u00a0 And this is a very different vision than one that has historically driven the social response systems in this great nation.\u00a0 The systems of Child Welfare, Mental Health, Juvenile Justice, and others have started to consider clients as people who need to be rescued for change through some external effort.\u00a0 At times, these historical approaches have created conflict; conflict that sometimes had to look at weighing the balance between the rights of children and the rights of parents.\u00a0 At times, these approaches have created situations where parents were viewed more as part of the problem than they were as part of the solution.\u00a0 I think somebody knows that of which I speak.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->But thankfully, we have come a long way from that mindset.\u00a0 But not far enough.\u00a0 The fact that we are here today is a testament for how far we have come, but it is also a testament of how far we need to go.\u00a0 And we are here not because the road has been easy.\u00a0 We\u2019re here not because the challenges have been few.\u00a0 But we\u2019re here because people would not stop.\u00a0 People like Bernadine Meeks who would not rest. People like many of you who are sitting in this audience today who said, it is not just for my child and my family, but it is for every other family who will ever go through what I have experienced \u2013 I will not rest until my change.\u00a0 You see, some of those people who refuse to quit are no longer with us like the late Bob Myers that Anita spoke about earlier.\u00a0 Bob was insistent, and persistent, because he knew that the way things were, were not the way that things had to be, and that the ability to change rests within each one of us.\u00a0 And so, for me, we must remain vigilant because we cannot go back.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->In order for us to ensure that we do not go back, in order for us to ensure that we don\u2019t repeat the failings of our past, we must understand where we\u2019ve come from.\u00a0 We must reflect on what it took to get us here and what it will take to keep us moving forward. Because you see, when we understand that here in America, the history of family engagement is rooted in a history of family disengagement, and that what we are seeking to overcome is a history that when it sought to address the needs of children who had come to the attention of society, they have come to the attention of society because society wanted to give them the tools and the training so that they could become profitable and productive members of society \u2013 so that they could be less like their parents.\u00a0 And in order to provide vulnerable children these tools, they were placed in asylums.\u00a0 They were indentured.\u00a0 They were apprenticed.\u00a0 They were bonded out to wealthy families.\u00a0 They were in essence rescued from their families.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->I don\u2019t know about you, but for me, if I didn\u2019t have my family \u2026.\u00a0 You see, we didn\u2019t come from much.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t always wear these.\u00a0 Matter of fact, for many years, I didn\u2019t own one of these; and this was a clip-on.\u00a0 But what we had was a deeply rooted belief in who we were as a people and that is the essence of family engagement.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->You see, you cannot create a social response program that seeks to prevent children from developing the bad habits of their parents.\u00a0 I am my father; my father who never lived in the same house with me; my father who never knew whether I liked black better than blue; my father who was able to provide financial assistance to another woman\u2019s children, but who failed to have resources when I showed up.\u00a0 \u201cBaby, you know your daddy loves you but he ain\u2019t got no money.\u201d But I am my father.\u00a0 I am my mother, who was the first social worker that I knew; who with her fifth-grade education believed that education was important for her children; who instilled in her children the sense that you could be more if you choose to be more in spite of the obstacles that may be in front of you, if you just don\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And so, when you take a child and you remove them from the influences of those from which they have come, you change the order of life.\u00a0 And we need to acknowledge that we have created systems that seek to change the order of life, and that in and of itself is unnatural.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->But when we begin to look at where we\u2019ve come from \u2026.\u00a0 You know, in the late 1800\u2019s, there was a movement in this country that began to take children \u2013 realizing that the institutions in which we placed our children were not doing what we needed them to do \u2013 and so we started to place them on trains called orphan trains and we sent them into rural America.\u00a0 Now, when I look at this, you can begin with, \u201cWell, why would you put them on a train to nowhere?\u201d\u00a0 But underneath that train to nowhere was a belief that institutions could not do what families could do.\u00a0 The only challenge I have with it is that it didn\u2019t begin with the families of the children.\u00a0 They were sent to other families.\u00a0 But nonetheless, they were then moving toward family-oriented responses.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->It wasn\u2019t until the 20th century in America that we began to move from this system of rescuing to this system of protecting.\u00a0 And, you know, in the White House conference on children in 1909 \u2013 Merry Christmas \u2013 one of the first recommendations to come out of that conference was a recommendation \u2013 I\u2019m sorry \u2013 one of the recommendations to come out of that conference was this need to look at family preservation.\u00a0 And that was in the beginning of the 20th century that we had started to slowly move down this path, and the leadership of the Children\u2019s Bureau was heading the way.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And here we are some 100 years later with that leadership now grown up, so to speak.\u00a0 We\u2019re now in the 21st century and we\u2019re just slowly moving toward a social response system that understands children need their families, and therefore serving children means serving their families, and serving families means working to improve the conditions in the community where those families live.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Today, we have practices such as Family Support Services and Family Team Meetings that are designed to do just that.\u00a0 And as we have moved over the course of time, not only here in New York City, but across this nation when we started the conversation with the nation that Casey Family Programs in 2005 about the need to change what we were doing with out-of-home care by the year 2020.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->In 2002, there were 523,000 children in foster care in America today at that time, separated from their families.\u00a0 Today, there are just over 390,000 children in foster care across this country, because people believed that we could do something different.\u00a0 But as we look closely at the system, we still find some of those same connections that families are not yet in the driver\u2019s seat as it comes to decision-making for their children.\u00a0 And as a result, we still see some decisions that are being made for families as opposed to with and by families.\u00a0 And far too often, we see that the families that are most affected by this are families who live in poor communities \u2013 families of color \u2013 African American families, Latino families, Native American families, and other minority families.\u00a0 And we still sometimes as a system believe that they need to be rescued from those who brought them into this world.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And the disproportionate impact of our policies and decision-making show that for Black youth, they are almost five times as likely as white youth to be detained for drug offenses despite similar usage.\u00a0 For Latino youth, they are twice as likely to be detained as their white peers, and similarly, Black children still make up \u2013 even with that introduction \u2013 still make up 34% of the children in foster care in this country; although they only make up 14% of the number of children.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->I believe that some of this has to do with the residue of our past; with the way that we see people who are not like us.\u00a0 And that is true for how Black people see people who are not like them.\u00a0 Or Latino people who see people who are not like them.\u00a0 Just as true it is for white people who see people who do not look like them.\u00a0 We have to begin to continue this change.\u00a0 But we still need to embrace the fact that intervention strategies for families will only be successful when they are rooted in a belief that families can raise their children.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->When they are rooted in a system where you have to go through one door if you have a mental health situation; you have to go through a different door if you have a juvenile justice situation; you have to go through a different door if you are income deficient.\u00a0 You see, I\u2019d like to change the labels that people throw on us.\u00a0 I don\u2019t call people poor because poor has a connotation of the mind about how you see yourself, and see, as I said, we didn\u2019t have much, but we were not poor.\u00a0 We simply did not have the income necessary to meet our financial obligations.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Imagine what the system would look like if I could get help for my behavior-challenged child before he committed a crime.\u00a0 Imagine what the system would look like if I could come into a room and sit down at a table and say, \u201cI have five children.\u00a0 One is hanging out with gangs.\u00a0 One is having challenges at school.\u00a0 One, like my great-aunt, seems to have some mental challenges.\u00a0 Can I get some help for all of those issues at this one table?\u201d\u00a0 Imagine what our system would look like.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And see, I\u2019m not suggesting that there\u2019s not a need to focus on individual actions or individual needs.\u00a0 Absolutely, we cannot solve mental health challenges with a child welfare package of services.\u00a0 We can\u2019t deal with the educational needs of kids in foster care by putting everything on the back of child welfare.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to have educational expertise integrated into the conversation.\u00a0 But we\u2019ve got to think differently.\u00a0 And I\u2019m thankful that we are moving in that direction because you see, we will only get there when we see children in the context of families.\u00a0 When we see families in the context of communities, and when we see any external intervention in the context of a family and community support network, that\u2019s the way we move.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And I\u2019m convinced that when we do this, we \u2013 there are no changes and challenges that would be too great for us.\u00a0 When we do this, there\u2019s no family that would be seen as being beyond hope.\u00a0 When we do this, it would be truly as your motto says: \u201cMany minds will move mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->You see, I\u2019m reminded of words of Dr. King in his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech when he said, \u201cThis is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of a mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And when we think about being able to transform the jangling discords \u2013 the things that separate us in this effort to change people\u2019s lives in America \u2026.\u00a0 I won\u2019t even get into the political landscape that we\u2019re dealing with right now.\u00a0 But when we seek to bring about real change, it is coming together that makes that change possible.\u00a0 And concluding that what Dr. King said, with this faith, we will be able to work together, to struggle together and to stand for freedom together, to stand for justice together.\u00a0 But it will only happen when leadership accepts the responsibility. And I like what Bernadine said, \u201cLeadership is best exemplified when one decides \u2018I can\u2019t do everything myself. I must bring others into the discussion.\u00a0 I must elevate the voices of parents into the discussion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Leadership says \u2013 and this is not as complicated as it looks \u2013 it simply says that we start with the child, the family and that we then decide how do we integrate each of our social response systems in the same conversation.\u00a0 That mental health is no longer having a separate conversation.\u00a0 Child welfare is no longer having a separate conversation.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Education is no longer having a separate conversation.\u00a0 Juvenile justice is no longer having a separate conversation.\u00a0 Because what this acknowledges is that while we may have a variety of different issues, when my child goes into a juvenile justice facility, he does not leave my family.\u00a0 He does not somehow get magically removed from my reality.\u00a0 He does not somehow get disconnected from his grandmother\u2019s needs.\u00a0 And somehow, we have to move to a place where we have a collective un-siloed conversation with families who are in need.\u00a0 Not just here in New York City but across this country.\u00a0 Somehow, we need to move to a place where we are no longer blaming people for their social condition.\u00a0 But we\u2019re engaging them in creating solutions and not having them to be dependent on government or not-for-profit organizations.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->This requires change at two levels: the practitioner level as well as the system level.\u00a0 And at the practitioner level, there are three underlying principles that we need to make sure we\u2019re in agreement in everything we do.\u00a0 If there are any practitioners in the audience, I suggest to you that service and support relationships must be based on equality and mutual respect.\u00a0When I walk into a room with a family \u2026 and I\u2019ve moved away from using the term, client. When I walk into the room with a family or a family member who\u2019s representing their family, I must see an equal.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Principle No. 2: external efforts must be directed toward answering a family\u2019s capacity to support the growth and development of all family members.\u00a0 And then thirdly, families must be viewed as a resource to themselves, to other family members, to program developers as well as to their own communities \u2013 together.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->The other area where we have to see the differences and move toward these changes is at a systems level and at the systems level, programs for families must affirm and strengthen families with cultural, racial and linguistic identities.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->At the Casey Family Programs, we do work in Indian country and so we work with tribes, which I think in this country are still struggling with the definition of sovereign nation.\u00a0 But there are over 500 sovereign nations that reside on the soil of the United States of America.\u00a0 And the other day, something occurred with a tribe in North Dakota, and Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs decided that it had to go into that sovereign nation and take over its child welfare services.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Now I asked myself, \u201cWhen would we presume, that because some child welfare atrocities occurred in Russia, that we would go into Russia and take over their child welfare services?\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s something about what we see when we approach challenges that draws a distinction between family support and government takeover.\u00a0 We need government support, but government needs to support the maturation of parents\u2019 capacities to take care of their kids and to make decisions for their families, and to support that decision-making capacity.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->Programs must be available and accessible in the communities where the families live.\u00a0 There are two overarching pieces.\u00a0 The first one is the primary responsibility of decision-making regarding successful family lies with the family, and not government or a not-for-profit agency.\u00a0 And the second is the ultimate measure for any society is how well it succeeds at ensuring the well-being and success of all of its families, especially its most vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And as I close again \u2026.\u00a0 We\u2019re moving in the right direction, and I would say to Bernadine and others in this room, your work has not been in vain.\u00a0 You have achieved more than you know, but as we move forward, it is also time for us to start building the bench strength for those who will come after us; who will keep this conversation going.\u00a0 The investments that Bob made were not just so that they could end when he left.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->The investments that my family\u2019s made in me \u2026.\u00a0 I\u2019m here today because I have older brothers and sisters in the state of Mississippi in the 40s and 50s who were committed to working in the fields of Mississippi; not going to school, but working the fields of Mississippi, so that their younger five sisters and brothers would be able to have an educational opportunity that they didn\u2019t have. I\u2019m here today because a group of my brothers and sisters who had to split their time between working in the fields and going to school \u2013 who didn\u2019t get the same educational opportunity as I did \u2013 did so because they were committed to ensure that their younger five brothers and sisters had educational opportunities that they didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And of that younger five brothers and sisters, because of those sacrifices, we had four college graduates. [Applause] We have two Ph.D.s.\u00a0 My sister who passed away last year was working on her Ph.D. She had a full scholarship to Meharry Medical School because of the investment that people made in our lives, and not just our families, but people in our communities.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->People \u2026.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what this represents \u2013 every vulnerable family in any community sits in that green box with all of this potential support sitting around here. The question is, \u201cHow do we use that support? How do we integrate those responses in a way that most effectively enhances the capacity of those in that green box to lead their own charge?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s where we move many mountains. That\u2019s where we build the structure that will carry us forward. That\u2019s where we can focus on building Communities of Hope.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->You see, Communities of Hope represents an opportunity where every child can achieve, not just some. Communities of Hope represents an opportunity where every family can look forward to getting a job, and not just some. Communities of Hope represents a situation where before a child gets abused and has to be removed, somebody steps in. Communities of Hope represents a willingness to say to someone who may even be embarrassed \u2013 because there\u2019s a mental health need in their family \u2013 to say, \u201cIt\u2019s OK, baby.\u201d Communities of Hope is a place where every child can feel safe. Communities of Hope is a place that recognizes that I\u2019m not separate from you.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->And it recognizes the words that Dr. King penned in his letter from a Birmingham jail when he said, \u201cMoreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. \u2026 Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny.\u00a0 Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph -->You can only give what you have, but know that what you have is mighty, and what you have is powerful, and what you have, when blended with what others have, can move mountains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n <!-- conversly to above, we need to not show the CTA here if it's the Head Section style -->\n  <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"call-to-action-banner wp-block-call-to-action-banner content-section light\">\n\n  <div class=\"bg-warm-ceramic text-center py-[48px] md:py-[150px]\">\n <div class=\"container mx-auto px-5\">\n  <div class=\"pb-8\">\n <span class=\"label\">\n Dr. William C. Bell\n <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"inline-block ml-[5px] print:hidden\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/wp-content\/themes\/casey-v2\/public\/build\/assets\/brush-stroke-preheader-post-BDcrNgUR.svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" \/>\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n  <h2>A voice of hope<\/h2>\n <div class=\"text-salt-box mt-7 mb-7 inline-block w-full sm:max-w-[720px] lg:w-[720px]\"><div class=\"my-6 text-salt-box print:my-0\">\n<p>Dr. Bell frequently shares his expertise and messages of hope in appearances before policymakers, child welfare leaders and others. Explore this collection for transcripts and videos of his speeches and public testimony.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n  <div>\n  <a class=\"btn font-bold\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/resources\/dr-william-c-bell-speeches-and-testimony\/\" target=\"\">Speeches and Testimony<\/a>\n  <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>William C. Bell pronuncia el discurso de apertura en la Conferencia Anual de la Red de Apoyo Familiar de la Ciudad de Nueva York: Muchas mentes mueven monta\u00f1as.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[272,267],"content_type":[199,197],"hidden-tags-misc":[],"audience":[317,318,498],"content_location":[329],"topic":[420,428,457],"class_list":["post-30987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-engagement","category-promote-shared-responsibility","content_type-speeches-and-testimony","content_type-video","audience-child-welfare-leader","audience-community-based-organization","audience-social-worker-direct-practitioner","content_location-national","topic-dr-william-c-bell","topic-government","topic-public-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.7 (Yoast SEO v28.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Many minds move mountains: To not repeat the failings of our past, we must understand where we\u2019ve come from - Casey Family Programs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"William C. Bell delivers the keynote address at the New York City Family Support Network Annual Conference: Many Minds Move Mountains.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/muchas-mentes-pueden-mover-montanas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Many minds move mountains: To not repeat the failings of our past, we must understand where we\u2019ve come from\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"William C. Bell delivers the keynote address at the New York City Family Support Network Annual Conference: Many Minds Move Mountains.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/muchas-mentes-pueden-mover-montanas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casey Family Programs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-17T01:40:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-15T22:06:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casey Communications\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casey Communications\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.casey.org\\\/many-minds-move-mountains\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.casey.org\\\/many-minds-move-mountains\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Casey Communications\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.casey.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6ce7bdd412dcaa3bf11bc4795552771d\"},\"headline\":\"Many minds move mountains: To not repeat the failings of our past, we must understand where we\u2019ve come from\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-17T01:40:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-15T22:06:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.casey.org\\\/many-minds-move-mountains\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":20,\"keywords\":[\"Building Communities of Hope\",\"New York\",\"Videos\",\"William C. 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