Children's Alliance of Kansas

09/23/2026

CAK’s Child Welfare Workforce Development Team facilitated our first KanCoach and Resilience Alliance 'Listen, Lunch & Learn' last Friday!

These Listen, Lunch & Learns provide a valuable opportunity for us to hear directly from child welfare professionals about what they need from our programs, while also increasing awareness of KanCoach and Resilience Alliance among those who have not yet participated.

Thank you to DCCCA in Lawrence for hosting. Most importantly, thank you to DCCCA KanCoach and Resilience Alliance program graduates Lisa Marx, Darian Feehan, and Dee Dee Colahan for participating in the Graduate Panel and sharing your experiences with your peers.

If your agency is interested in hosting a Listen, Lunch & Learn, contact Kristen Malloy, Executive Vice President, at [[email protected]]. We’d love to bring the conversation to your team!



https://www.childally.org/kancoach

09/21/2026

We’re pleased to celebrate an important step forward for Kansas foster families. 💙

HB 2524 helps ensure that foster families who provide legal permanency to young people who have experienced challenges in their lives are not forced to choose between supporting that young person as a permanent member of their family and continuing to serve as a licensed foster home.

With this change, families may now have a pathway to maintain their foster home license while continuing to provide a lifelong home and support to a young person previously placed with them through foster care.

We’re grateful to the foster families who make lifelong commitments to children and youth, and to the advocates, policymakers, and child welfare professionals who worked together to advance this important change for Kansas families.

09/17/2026

Yesterday, we celebrated our final KinVest Steering Committee meeting!

For the past five years, KinVest has brought together public, private, university, and lived-experience partners around a shared goal: creating systemic change and advancing kin-first values across Kansas.

In 2025, 53% of children entering foster care in Kansas were initially placed with kin, nearly twice the rate in 2017. This matters because when children cannot remain in their parents’ care, research shows they do better when they remain connected to kin, including greater stability, stronger connections to siblings, family, culture, and community, and greater permanency. Read morehttps://www.childally.org/s/Kinship-Connections-Fact-Sheet_Sept2026_final2.pdf

We are grateful to the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare for leading this five-year effort and to the partners and leaders with lived experience who helped shape the work along the way.

While the KinVest Steering Committee meetings are coming to a close, the work does not. We look forward to building on what we have learned together and continuing to advance kin-first values, policy, and practice across Kansas.

09/04/2026

First week of MAPP Foundations Leader Certification is in the books! It was a great week of learning, connecting, and growing with an awesome group. Excited to keep building on what we’ve started!

09/03/2026

Join our Team! We are hiring a Director of Workforce Development.

08/26/2026

Don't live in Kansas but interested in taking self-paced foster care training? We’ve got you covered!

Explore our growing catalog of online, self-paced courses designed to provide flexible training opportunities you can complete on your own schedule.

Visit learn.childally.org, log in, and browse the courses available for purchase. Start learning today—wherever you are!

08/21/2026

Celebrating Two Years of SOUL Family

This week, the SOUL Family Collective came together to celebrate two years of SOUL Family Legal Permanency and the progress we have made toward reimagining permanency for older youth in Kansas.

Over the past two years, Case Management Providers, the Kansas Department for Children and Families, legal partners, lived experts, and other statewide partners have been working together to advance SOUL Family Permanency and ensure older youth have the family connections, support, and opportunities they need to thrive.

We know permanency is more than a legal outcome. It is about lasting relationships, a sense of belonging, and having adults who will walk alongside young people long after they leave foster care.

We were also excited to welcome new young leaders to the Collective and celebrate the leadership of the young people and lived experts who have helped shape this work from the beginning. Their experiences, ideas, and vision continue to challenge us to think differently and keep youth at the center.

Two years of SOUL Family is worth celebrating. We are proud of what has been built, grateful for the people who continue to lead and champion this work, and excited for what we can accomplish together in the years ahead.

08/07/2026

This week, our Children’s Alliance of Kansas team had the privilege of representing Kansas, alongside the Kansas Department for Children and Families and other statewide partners, at the SOUL Family Network Convening hosted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Over the past several days, we’ve learned alongside incredible leaders from across the country who are committed to one shared goal: ensuring every young person has the family connections, support, and opportunities they need to thrive.

The conversations challenged us to think differently about permanency for older youth—recognizing that every young person deserves lasting relationships, a sense of belonging, and adults who will walk beside them long after they leave foster care.

We’re returning to Kansas inspired by new ideas, strengthened partnerships, and an even deeper commitment to advancing practices that put youth and families at the center of our work.

A heartfelt thank you to the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the SOUL Family Network for creating space to learn, collaborate, and build a stronger future together.

The best solutions are built when we learn from one another—and we’re excited to bring these ideas back home.

💙

08/02/2026

07/02/2026

The Children's Alliance office will be closed on Friday, July 3, in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. We will reopen on Monday, July 6.

We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!