Leading Forward | July 2026 | Renee Brown, LPC, CSAC
Renee Brown, LPC, CSAC, is FFTA’s 2026 Champion for Children & Families Awardee and President & CEO of DePaul Community Resources, a Virginia-based nonprofit serving children and families through foster care, kinship care, and supporting individuals with disabilities. A former foster parent, licensed professional counselor, and national advocate, Renee is deeply committed to advancing trauma-informed, family-centered systems that strengthen and support caregivers. She is a frequent speaker on leadership, kinship care, and system transformation.
When People Step In: The Leadership That Moves Systems Forward
Leadership is often described in terms of vision, strategy, and outcomes. But in my experience, the moments that shape real impact look much simpler, and much harder. They begin when someone chooses to step in, without certainty, without a roadmap, and often without knowing how it will turn out.
Recently, I had the honor of being recognized by FFTA as a Champion for Children and Families, an acknowledgment that means a great deal to me, not because of the award itself, but because of the people and purpose it represents.
That moment gave me an opportunity to reflect on my journey in this work, and one theme kept rising to the surface: Leadership, at its core, is about what happens when people step in.
Leadership Begins Long Before a Title
My understanding of this kind of leadership started long before my career.
When I was seven years old, I came home from school one day to find a baby in our house. My parents had welcomed a six-week-old infant into our home, my new brother, through adoption.
At the time, there were no conversations about trauma.
No preparation for siblings.
No structured post-adoption support.
My parents did the best they could with what they knew. They loved fully, even without the tools that we know today are so critical to supporting children who have experienced trauma.
They stepped in anyway.
And while that experience was imperfect, it shaped me in lasting ways. It taught me how deeply children are impacted when adults don’t fully understand trauma, and how important it is for us to keep learning, growing, and doing better.
Sometimes leadership begins when people step in without having all the answers.
What Children Learn When They See Us Step In
Years later, as a single mother raising two sons, I became a foster parent at DePaul.
What surprised me most wasn’t what I learned, but what my children learned.
As they grew older, I watched them gravitate toward peers who were struggling, children dealing with instability, loss, or trauma. They weren’t responding to a program or a directive. They were responding to what they had seen.
They saw adults step in.
And because of that, empathy became part of who they were.
That experience reinforced something I now carry into leadership every day:
Culture isn’t what we say. It’s what people see us do.
When leaders model stepping in consistently, compassionately, and without hesitation, we create environments where others do the same.
When There Is No Program, Leadership Still Requires Action
Later in my career, I received a call from a grandmother who had unexpectedly taken in her two grandchildren after her daughter entered treatment.
She had one bed.
No clothes for the children.
And no financial support until her next disability check.
There was no program for her.
No category that fit.
No funding stream to tap into.
But the need was real.
So we stepped in.
DePaul helped because we could, and because it was the right thing to do.
In doing so, we realized something bigger: she wasn’t the exception.
Across our communities, kinship caregivers are stepping in every day. Without timely support, those families can quickly reach a breaking point, and children may enter foster care unnecessarily.
That moment led to something more than a one-time response. It led to innovation, new partnerships, new funding streams, and a program designed specifically to support kinship caregivers in crisis.
Sometimes leadership is not about launching something new because you planned to.
It’s about recognizing a pattern because you paid attention.
Leadership Means Challenging Systems That No Longer Serve
There are also moments when stepping in means asking hard questions.
I remember discussing a case involving an uncle who wanted custody of his niece and nephew but was ineligible under barrier crime rules due to a past offense. He had served his time, built a stable life, and was successfully raising his own children.
Yet the system did not allow him to care for family.
That didn’t sit right.
Through partnerships, advocacy, and relationships, attention was brought to policies that were unintentionally preventing children from being placed with safe, loving family members.
And eventually, change followed.
New legislation created a pathway for case-by-case consideration.
That matters, not just for one family, but for many.
Leadership is not only about working within systems.
It’s about helping systems evolve.
What Leadership Requires of All of Us
If there is one lesson I have learned over and over again, it is this:
Child welfare, and really, any system designed to serve people, moves forward when individuals are willing to step in before everything is figured out.
Caregivers step in without guarantees.
Advocates step in without certainty.
Organizations step in without clear funding or defined pathways.
And because of that, systems improve.
Leadership doesn’t always look like a grand strategy. Sometimes it looks like:
Answering the phone
Sitting with discomfort
Questioning policies that no longer serve
Acting when there isn’t a perfect solution
The question we should continue to ask ourselves is:
Are our systems designed to step in when families need them—or to stand in their way?
Moving Forward
We have made meaningful progress toward more family-centered, trauma-informed approaches in child welfare. But there is more to do.
Children deserve systems that recognize and support the people already showing up for them.
Caregivers deserve partnership, not suspicion.
And our policies must allow room for growth, redemption, and humanity.
Final Thought
Leadership is not defined by position or recognition.
It is defined by moments.
Moments when someone chooses to step in—
before there is clarity,
before systems catch up,
and often before anyone knows how it will turn out.
Because those moments are where trust is built, where systems begin to shift, and where real change takes root.
And if we are paying attention, they are also invitations—
to lead with courage,
to act with humanity,
and to build systems that make it easier for others to do the same.
Because lasting change doesn’t begin when everything is figured out.
It begins when someone steps in.
Stay Informed
Writer: Renee Brown, LPC, CSAC, DePaul Community Resources
