Community In-Site

About Community In-Site

Community In-Site is a podcast about the family well-being movement and next generation leaders working to ensure families have what they need before crisis, separation, or deeper system involvement occurs. Hosted by Valerie Frost, the show features conversations with leaders, advocates, researchers, organizers, practitioners, and community members who are building solutions from the grassroots to the grasstops. Valerie brings both lived expertise with the child welfare system and professional insight into each conversation, asking what it takes to move from system-centered responses to family-centered support. Each episode explores a specific idea, challenge, or strategy shaping the future of family well-being, including community partnerships, racial equity, economic support, parent leadership, prevention, lived experience, and the conditions families need to thrive. Through stories, lessons, and real examples from communities across the country, Community In-Site helps listeners see what the family well-being movement looks like in practice and what they can carry into their own work. For more information about the family well-being movement and Thriving Families, Safer Children initiative you can visit, Thriving Families (https://thrivingfamiliessaferchildren.org/)

Publisher

Imagination Factory & 14th Street Studios

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Apr 2024

Latest episode

15 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

7 of 61 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   15 Oct 2026TRANSCRIPT

   What Comes After Reform? Radical Imagination with Samantha Mellerson and Tshaka Barrows

   Samantha Mellerson and Tshaka Barrows, Co-Executive Directors of the Haywood Burns Institute, explore radical imagination beyond reform to build community power and achieve just conditions for children and families.

2. 

   1 Oct 2026

   How Cash Assistance with No Strings Attached Can Prevent Foster Care with Melody Webb [Re-Release]

   Host Melody Webb, founder and CEO of Mother’s Outreach Network, explains how unconditional cash assistance prevents families from entering foster care.

3. 

   17 Sept 2026TRANSCRIPT

   Why Diaper Banks Can Be Key to Preventing a Family Crisis with Dr. Megan Smith

   Host V interviews Dr. Megan Smith on how diaper banks prevent family crises by addressing essential needs before they escalate.

Inside a recent episode

What Comes After Reform? Radical Imagination with Samantha Mellerson and Tshaka Barrows

Published 15 Oct 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] The things that we know have changed. really led to the current outcomes that we see. So we have all these debates internally even about there's one stream of thought around breaking down the current structures, right? I think we're at a unique position in time where we're seeing at the federal level how fragile these systems and structures were because they're being broken down at record-breaking time, right? Things that were taking us 20 years to move policies, oh, they disappear in a day now. So here we are, right? What we're pushing for is saying, let's stop limiting the possibilities to the current structures. […]

Who has been a guest on Community In-Site

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Samantha Mellerson
• Tshaka Barrows
• Melody Webb
• Megan Smith
• Sharon Ostfeld-Johns

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

25 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 20 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

19

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

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Questions about Community In-Site