Children and young people need adults in their lives to make decisions that are in their best interest, create safety and foster positive relationships; this is paramount for children in out-of-home care. These best interest decisions are especially true for children and young people from culturally diverse backgrounds who are in out-of-home care or have a statutory intervention. Unfortunately, I have often seen a breakdown in relationships and communication due to language barriers, cross-cultural misunderstandings, and missed opportunities for repair and strengthening of protective factors.

Kevin Creeden, Director of Assessment and Research at Whitney Academy Massachusetts and a speaker at the 2022 International Child Trauma Conference said in recent training, “If you don’t feed the staff, they will eat the kids:”

First Nations children's rights activist and 2022 International Childhood Trauma Conference speaker Cindy Blackstock recently said that adults need to trust children with the truth. "They can handle it," Blackstock told Dalhousie University earlier this year, even when the truth is uncomfortable or horrifying.