Episode 266: Advocating for Whole Family Care (w/ Esther Sherrard)

The Forgotten Podcast

The Forgotten Initiative

Christian, Family, Adoption, Kids & Family, Fostercare

4.9 • 532 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The child welfare system is not perfect. Not only is it subject to the types of challenges all government programs can face—such as a lack of funding, policy gaps, and inefficiencies—it’s also very overloaded. As a result, many biological parents don’t receive the best resources to help them navigate their circumstances, and often, they are confused about how to access the resources that are available.

Here at The Forgotten Initiative, we’re committed to advocating for the best interests of children and families while ensuring that the laws and procedures designed to protect them are upheld. This is exactly what Esther Sherrard, a dedicated private consultant, works to do every day!

Esther helps agencies, courts, and faith communities improve child welfare outcomes by preserving, restoring, and growing families. She was a licensed foster parent for older youth and has spent 10 years with the Federal Child and Family Services Review team. Esther is determined to see more children and families involved in the child welfare system experience positive outcomes.

In this episode, Esther shares some of the challenges biological parents face when trying to navigate the system, the importance of the local church standing in the gap to support children and families in foster care, why we should seek to show true compassion to biological parents, and much more.

This conversation was grounding and inspiring as we seek to fulfill God’s calling to promote justice and support families.

Find resources mentioned and more in the show notes for this episode: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/esther-sherrard-266/

Transcript

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0:00.0	sharing the stories of the foster care community this is the forgotten podcast if we can get
0:09.7	god's people the church to really do the things that god has called us to do and equipped us to do
0:16.0	and going into the hard places and showing love and grace and mercy, then our hope is not in the system
0:23.2	to do that, right? Our hope is in the mighty power of God to move mountains and do things
0:28.8	that are impossible with man.
0:31.8	Hey, it's Jamie Cabe. Welcome to the Forgotten podcast, where we are highlighting the stories of the people of foster care.
0:40.1	We want to bring you hope and encouragement in your journey and help you support the foster care community where you live.
0:46.8	This podcast is a resource of the Forgotten Initiative.
0:51.1	Learn more about our work across America and how you can get involved by visiting
0:55.8	the forgotteninitiative.org. And please consider joining with us on mission with a gift of any
1:03.0	amount. You can do this by texting the word forgotten to 44321. Okay, it's time. Let's do this.
1:17.4	Esther Sherard is a private consultant working to help agencies, courts, and faith communities improve child
1:28.5	welfare outcomes by preserving, restoring, and growing families.
1:33.2	She is a nationally certified trainer for strengthening families' protective factors and a
1:38.4	certified practitioner for TBRI, which many of you know as trust-based relational intervention.
1:46.0	In addition to her professional experience, Esther was a licensed foster parent for older youth and she's been a parent
1:52.7	advocate helping families achieve reunification. She's also an active member of her local church,
1:59.5	the proud auntie of eight nephews and nieces, and a forever big sister to one of the youths she fostered.
2:07.7	Esther, thank you so much for being with us today.
2:10.2	Thank you so much for having me.
2:12.2	Well, you have had over 25 years experience in the child welfare space.
2:18.0	You spanned roles from social worker to federal oversight.
	...

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