{"id":31920,"date":"2021-10-27T17:20:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T17:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/my-community-cares\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:37:26","slug":"mi-comunidad-se-importa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/my-community-cares\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfC\u00f3mo construye My Community Cares en Luisiana barrios fuertes que mantienen unidas a las familias?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Summary<\/h3>\n

My Community Cares (MCC) is a neighborhood-based initiative designed to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Hazel had survived many challenges throughout her life. She endured abuse and neglect as a child, struggled with drug addiction, and spent time living on the streets. But her most painful challenge was when she was separated from her four children and they were placed in foster care. She was willing to do anything to reunify with them but every time she made an effort, she hit bureaucratic roadblocks. She felt judged and punished by the very people who were supposed to help her. And then Hazel met a community member who had been through similar life experiences and took Hazel under her wing. Serving as Hazel\u2019s advocate, she connected her to meaningful supports, and most importantly, believed in her. According to Hazel, having an advocate made all the difference. \u201cJust having her there to ask me what I need and then help me to get it \u2014 she showed me compassion when no one else would. If it wasn\u2019t for her, I would not have my children today.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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After her experience, Hazel didn\u2019t want any parent to go through what she had. She wanted to be there for others, parent to parent, before child protection was called and the family became involved with the system. Through participation in a listening circle1<\/sup><\/a> facilitated by CommunityBuild Ventures<\/span><\/a>, she learned about a new initiative in Louisiana: My Community Cares (MCC)<\/b><\/span>. MCC applies a neighborhood-based approach to reduce the number of children who experience abuse or neglect, keep children and parents together, and connect families to available resources and support. Hazel immediately signed up. \u201cI believe that children are meant to be with their parents,\u201d Hazel said. \u201cWe need more people out there doing whatever it takes to keep families together.\u201d MCC asks residents of neighborhoods with the highest concentration of reports of abuse and neglect and children in foster care to lead and co-design strategies with agency partners and other key stakeholders to support families so they never become involved with child welfare<\/b><\/span>.<\/p>\n

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The beginning2<\/sup><\/a><\/h2>\n

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MCC was developed in response to the 2018 Child and Family Services Review<\/span><\/a> (CFSR) conducted on Louisiana\u2019s child welfare system. The CFSR highlighted an opportunity to reassess how the Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS) and other agencies partner together to support families and prevent children from entering foster care. This review prompted a sense of urgency and served as a catalyst for a bold new vision for DCFS, shifting from a reactive agency to one centered on family strengthening. In response to the CFSR, Louisiana engaged in a pilot Program Improvement Plan (PIP) process<\/span><\/a>, which provided an opportunity to bring a diverse set of stakeholders together to create a roadmap for a new vision of what they wanted child welfare in their state to be.<\/p>\n

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Armed with data, the voices of those with lived experience, and an open mind, consensus around an approach began to emerge during the PIP process. The data showed that many families involved in child welfare historically lived within the same neighborhoods. Instead of simply choosing a prevention program, stakeholders agreed to seek the voice of local residents to identify what community-based programs families need in order to have access to critical services that are supportive, culturally relevant, and built on the strengths of their neighborhood<\/b><\/span>. Out of this development, MCC was born. Four parishes with high numbers of children involved in reports of abuse and neglect were chosen to pilot MCC: Caddo, East Baton Rouge, Livingston, and Rapides. Out of those four parishes, 10 ZIP codes were identified as priority neighborhoods. The four parish teams began forming in late 2019 and spent 2020 building momentum and engagement with the 10 priority neighborhoods, while adapting their approaches within the COVID-19 environment.<\/p>\n

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A number of judges and legal stakeholders who are passionate<\/span><\/a> about finding ways to serve families before they became entangled with the court system were strongly involved in the creation of MCC. As a result, the Court Improvement Program (CIP) of the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Pelican Center for Children and Families became lead entities of MCC in partnership with DCFS, the Louisiana Children\u2019s Trust Fund, Children\u2019s Justice Act Task Force, and many other agencies and community members. The Pelican Center for Children and Families<\/span><\/a> provides administrative and staff support to the state, parish, and neighborhood teams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Improving coordination<\/h3>\n

One major barrier that emerged during the listening sessions was that some residents, as well as community partners, were not aware of available services or how to access them. In response, an online platform \u2014 My Community Cares Connection Portal (MCCCP)<\/b><\/span> \u2014 was created in each parish to facilitate collaboration between service providers, agency partners, and community members to coordinate care, share information, and connect families to community supports. MCCCP has been especially critical during COVID-19, when providers have needed to connect families to concrete supports quickly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Core components<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

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While each parish and neighborhood took their own unique approach to implementing MCC, there are key tenets that ground the initiative across all of the communities. These include:<\/p>\n