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How placing kids with family can radically change the way foster care works in the US

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode Audacious Solutions.

Sixto Cancel experienced the failings of foster care firsthand. Now he advocates for its reform and the expansion of "kinship care" so that young people can have a say in who raises them.

About Sixto Cancel

Sixto Cancel's personal experiences from infancy through young adulthood powered a passion to transform the foster care system. He is now the founder and CEO of Think of Us, a nonprofit research and design lab working to transform child welfare. Led and guided by people who have been impacted by child welfare, Think of Us partners with leaders and practitioners across the country to create and implement disruptive, scalable solutions and policy reforms in the foster care system. Cancel was named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list of social entrepreneurs and also appointed as a White House Champion of Change.

About Marquan Teetz

Marquan Teetz is a youth advocate based in Kansas. His personal experience in foster care has helped him speak out for reform as both an ambassador at Think of Us and a data manager and researcher at the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Laine Kaplan-Levenson with help from Fiona Geiran and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour and Rachel Faulkner White. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Laine Kaplan-Levenson
Laine Kaplan-Levenson is a producer and reporter for NPR's Throughline podcast. Before joining the Throughline team, they were the host and producer of WWNO's award-winning history podcast TriPod: New Orleans at 300, as well as WWNO/WRKF's award-winning political podcast Sticky Wicket. Before podcasting, they were a founding reporter for WWNO's Coastal Desk, and covered land loss, fisheries, water management, and all things Louisiana coast. Kaplan-Levenson has contributed to NPR, This American Life, Marketplace, Latino USA, Oxford American (print), Here and Now, The World, 70 Million, and Nancy, among other national outlets. They served as a host and producer of Last Call, a multiracial collective of queer artists and archivists, and freelanced as a storytelling and podcast consultant, workshop instructor, and facilitator of student-produced audio projects. Kaplan-Levenson is also the founder and host of the live storytelling series, Bring Your Own. They like to play music and occasionally DJ under the moniker DJ Swimteam.
Rachel Faulkner is a producer and editor for TED Radio Hour.