Proven in Practice: Work That Holds Up in Real Systems

This work didn’t start with a business plan.

It started inside real systems—with real families, real youth, and real consequences.

And it was made possible through partnership with public system leaders who were willing to listen, engage, and build differently.

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For over a decade, I worked at the intersection of families, youth, community-based organizations, and public systems—helping build structures that allowed lived experience to inform how services are designed and delivered.

As the Chief Executive Officer of the Family & Youth Roundtable of San Diego County, I helped develop an independent, family- and youth-led organization that partnered directly with public agencies to strengthen engagement, communication, and system effectiveness.

The strength and reputation of that work led to invitations to train, present, and collaborate beyond San Diego—including with public systems and organizations in Sacramento, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Puerto Rico, as well as national system-of-care efforts connected to SAMHSA. The Roundtable’s certification, training, and supervision model for peer support partners in children’s services also received national recognition.

Working from within an independent community-based organization also revealed the realities organizations face as they translate public-system expectations into services that must work for people in real life.

This work included:

• Designing and facilitating community-based focus groups across diverse populations
• Developing and delivering training programs for public service providers
• Supporting policy development and system transformation efforts
• Creating spaces where families and youth could influence decisions that impacted their lives

This work was carried out in partnership with public systems and community-based organizations at the county, state, and national levels—including Child Welfare Services, Behavioral Health Services, Probation, and other system-of-care partners..

In one initiative, we brought together over 70 participants across multiple communities—youth, parents, and underserved populations—to identify barriers to care.

What surfaced was consistent:
Fear.
Stigma.
Mistrust of systems.
And structural barriers that prevent people from accessing help when they need it most.

Earlier in this work, I created one of the first conferences focused specifically on stigma, discrimination, and disparities impacting children and youth—at a time when funding existed, but the conversation was largely missing.

Systems don’t fail because people don’t care.

They fail when structure and lived experience are not aligned.

That realization is what informs the work I do now—helping individuals, organizations, and systems slow down, see clearly, and build with intention.

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