General Committees

Area Board Committee

The Area Board Committee operates under the Massachusetts legislative guidance, which partially governs Area Advisory Boards which align with all 29 DCF Area Offices. Our work includes functional practices such well as supporting the overall work of the Area Advisory Boards. In 2019, we formed this committee with the and education for Area Board leadership and members (as well as for DCF Area Office staff liaisons), and creating

In FY 23 this team hosted a Statewide Area Advisory Board Summit. This full-day session came after two protocols. We learned, in advance of the Summit, that many teams needed a “101” format to help remind this in mind we repeated basics, such as review of the legislative and DCF guidance, as well as offering advanced requested following the prior Summit in 2019.

In positive response to the Summit in the Fall of 2022, we also presented a “Virtual Area Advisory Board continuation of the Annual Area Advisory Board Summit as well as adding a NEW database to assist with collecting broadly with teams across the Commonwealth to help facilitate the sharing of best practices and to deepen statewide and more local levels.

Committee Chair

The Diversity Committee is committed to working in partnership to effectively engage with the community. There are two distinct

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

In this area were focus upon the overarching needs of the community ethnic, and cultural groups receive from the child welfare community. for our work, based upon statewide and regional variances. The

LGBTQIA+ Youth and Family Support

The Diversity Committee has a long-standing body of work in supporting service work, as well as through service on the DCF Statewide LGBTQ Commission for LGBTQ Youth, and most recently in our programmatic in FY 22 and now part of our regular work. Through providing identities, as well as creating opportunities to gather as a community, worked in conjunction with DCF to provide adequate support for the need for specialized support of LGBTQIA+ youth. We are pleased charge, into FY 24.

governs the work of the Family Advisory Committee, and we are conjoined to the as serving as the advisory level of review for membership decision appeals, as the goal of unifying the guidance for the work in the field, providing resources creating a framework and mechanism for sharing of resources and best practices.

years of changes to board operations hindered by COVID and the associated remind them of the guidelines to facilitate rebuilding Area Advisory Boards. With advanced sessions in advising and educating participants about topics that were

Committee Chair

Board Summit” in the spring of 2023. Goals for the upcoming year include a collecting data about board members, and other factors, which will be shared deepen relationships, all in an effort to help expand “family voice” inclusion at the