Fall 2026 Webinars
Webinar Series – The Science and Practice of Family Engagement: Building the Foundation for Meaningful Family Partnership in Systems Transformation
What makes family engagement authentic, impactful, and sustainable? Join Family Voices for a free, three-part webinar series that explores strategies, frameworks, and tools that can support meaningful family partnership in practice, program, and systems change. Participants will deepen their understanding of evidence-based family engagement, explore pathways for increasing family leadership and agency, and learn about practical resources for measuring and tracking progress with family engagement efforts. The recordings will be available to registrants after the webinar dates.
Who should attend this series? Family-led organizations, family and youth leaders, community-based organizations, Title V programs, Medicaid agencies, health care providers, policymakers, and other systems partners.
WEBINAR 1 – The Science of Family Engagement: Building More Responsive Systems
Wednesday, September 30th, 2026, 2:00-3:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT)
Meaningful family engagement strengthens systems of care and improves outcomes for children and youth. This webinar explores the science and principles behind authentic family engagement and highlights how partnerships among families, youth, service providers and other partners can transform programs and systems. The presentation examines common barriers to engagement and strategies for building equitable, family-driven practices. Participants will learn approaches for integrating family engagement into organizational processes and strengthening systems that center family voice and leadership.
Presented by Allysa Ware, Family Voices
WEBINAR 2 – From Informing to Co-Creating: Making Progress toward Richer Family Engagement
Wednesday, October 14th, 2026, 2:00-3:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT)
In this webinar, participants will explore the Continuum of Engagement—from informing and consulting through involving, collaborating, and co-creating—and see how the flow of information and the distribution sharing of decision-making power shape partnership at the individual, community, and systems levels. Using the Water of Systems Change as a lens, the webinar examines the mental-model, relational, and structural shifts required to move toward richer partnerships with families to transform systems of care.
Presented by Nikki Montgomery, Family Voices
WEBINAR 3 – Measuring What Matters: Tools to Assess and Strengthen Family Engagement in Systems Transformation
Wednesday, November 4th, 2026, 2:00-3:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT)
Family engagement is essential to building equitable systems of care, yet organizations often struggle to move beyond intent to implementation. This session introduces tools that organizations can use to evaluate and strengthen their approaches to authentic and impactful family engagement. Participants will learn how the Family Engagement in Systems Assessment Tool (FESAT) and newly developed FESAT resources can support reflection across four key domains of engagement (commitment, transparency, representation, and impact) and how these domains translate into actionable practices in systems of care transformation efforts.
Presented by Armelle Casau, Family Voices
The Future You are Dreaming: Mental Health and the Transition to Adulthood for Black Autistic Women and Femmes
Thursday, November 5th, 2026, 2:00 pm ET
What does the future you are dreaming of look like, and what support do you need to get there? This special webinar will feature an amazing panel of young people sharing their lived experiences, perspectives, and insights about navigating the transition to adulthood. Through their stories and experiences, we will explore what it can really look like to enter college, manage expectations and pressures, experience burnout, and find the mental health support needed to move toward the future you envision.
We’ll also introduce the EmpowerHER Spectrum Project, an initiative funded by the WITH Foundation that supports Black autistic women and femmes as they navigate this important stage of life.
Catch up on past Family Voices webinars: familyvoices.org/resources
