They say necessity is the mother of invention and foster care has the potential to be one of the most inventive systems in existence, because necessity is everywhere. When the standard playbook doesn’t work, we’re forced to get creative.

Today, we sit down with Dan Vogel, the founder of the Flourish Fund. Dan spent years working on massive, complex strategic challenges in government and philanthropy before turning his focus toward the foster care system. He’s here to talk about what it looks like to move from playing checkers to playing chess—why innovation matters in child welfare, and how knowing better can finally help us do better for vulnerable children and families.

Foster care changes the landscape for the entire household—especially the siblings who were there first. In this episode, Matthew Haines reflects on growing up in a foster family and how it shaped his approach as a parent today. Plus, Dr. Nicole Wilke, Mackenzie Jamison and Philip Pattison share their own firsthand experiences navigating life in foster and adoptive families.

With so many worthy causes out there, why should we prioritize foster care?

Today we sit down with Brian Mavis, the founder of America’s Kids Belong, to answer that question. We talk about his new book Upstream: Diving into Foster Care to Heal 10 Social Wounds and social issues that impact our communities - incarceration, poverty, homelessness, mental health and more.