CASA Calendar

Presenter: Jessica A. Pryce, Ph.D., MSW

This webinar will present on how history has shaped our child welfare system and, inadvertently, created negative outcomes for families of color. This training material will center on the role of implicit bias in child welfare decisions. National data will be included as well as local data (as available). Additionally, there will be concepts of racial justice explored and compelling reasons for each participant to play an active role in equity and justice. We will also explore how we can partner with families and strengthen them. Much of the system is crisis oriented and risk averse, there will also be a discussion of family separation and the trauma that lingers when a child is removed from their family.

There will be emphasis on how this trauma deeply impacts families of color. There will be strategies presented for participants to use and ponder which will stimulate the strengthening of families instead of separation. Additionally, Dr. Pryce spent the past year researching what other states and municipalities had formalized and implemented in their work against racial inequity. This presentation will report the findings from that research. The webinar will also include a discussion of how courageous leadership can impact systemic change.

Presenter Biography:
Dr. Pryce is an Assistant Professor at Florida State University and currently the Executive Director of the Florida Institute for Child Welfare. For the past 10 years, she has been involved at multiple angles of child welfare (direct practice, teaching + training & policy and research). She has published on child welfare related topics, such as, training and education, racial disparity and anti-poverty practices. She has presented her research at 30+ conferences both nationally and internationally. She is the author is several op-eds focused on racial disparity and effective strategies to impact racial disproportionality within child welfare. Her TED Talk on Implicit Racial Bias in Decision Making has since been viewed over 1.2 million times.

Dr. Pryce has worked on the frontlines of child welfare, conducted primary research, been a policy advisor to Florida’s legislature and taught graduate level courses in child welfare. Previously holding the positions of Child Protective Caseworker with the Department of Children and Families, and the Deputy Director of the University at Albany’s New York State Education Consortium. In 2019, she received a 5-year appointment to the Advisory Board of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute, where she consults and advises on leadership and workforce interventions around the country. She currently sits on the Florida Dependency Court Improvement Panel, alongside judges and advocates who are working towards a more trauma informed approach within the judicial system.

She has maintained and cultivated a commitment to the well-being of vulnerable children and families, the sustainability of the child welfare workforce, and effectively addressing inequity. Her paramount goal includes re-building and leading a child welfare system that focuses on strengthening families instead of pulling them apart.

Register by clicking the link below.
CE Hours: 1.25