Wicked Institute

Solving Problems Together

The Children’s Home Society of America (CHSA) network’s mission is to create solutions to problems that disrupt stability and limit potential for children, families and communities. We do that by influencing practices, policies, pathways, systems and transforming the ways we do the work as individuals and as a network. The Wicked Problems Institute is made possible through our partnership with the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of North Carolina’s School of Social Work. Together, we provide the place, space and time to explore the most complex problems that stand in the way of child, family and community well-being, generate solutions and activate next steps.

In 2023, we launched a four-year theme for the Institute: Prevention in Action: Building Equitable Pathways to Child and Family Well-Being. We are holding a container to build shared understanding of systemic factors that can overload families, such as generational trauma, poverty and structural inequities and gaps caused by historical and current realities. A generative space, the Institute focuses on actionable, implementable solutions through in-person and virtual convenings, learning communities, and working groups.