Posted on by Editorial Team

 

CIRCLE THE DATE
Next Monday Night, March 10 at 7 PM
HOPE, HEART & HOME
Monthly Virtual Meeting
Guest Hosts
ALLISON SCHILDS 
& ROXANA LLARENA

Parent Peer Advocates – Citrus FCN

Allison Schild is a Parent Leader, Advocate, and Speaker dedicated to reimaginin child welfare and strengthening family support systems. With lived experience in the Florida child welfare system, she works to elevate parent voices, drive systemic change, and promote community-driven solutions that put and keep families together.
 
Allison currently serves as the Parent Engagement Manager at Citrus Family Care Network, where she leads efforts to empower parents and shift the narrative within the child welfare system. She advocates for policy reforms that prioritize reunification and family preservation over separation.

She is deeply involved in fatherhood engagement initiatives, working to strengthen the role of fathers in dependency cases and promote collaborative, family-centered solutions, for all parents.

Previously, she was the Peer Services Manager at Thriving Mind South Florida, supporting provider organizations to engage with those who have lived experience, hire and train other peer specialists and support individuals and families accessing the Southern Region’s behavioral health system of care.

Beyond her professional roles, Allison is a founding member and Board President of Parent Advocates for Transformation and Healing (PATH), an organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for families impacted by the child welfare system.

Allison is also a sought-after speaker and trainer, presenting at conferences and panels on topics such as family preservation, peer-led advocacy, and the impact of lived experience in child welfare reform. She is committed to shifting the narrative from family separation to family support, ensuring that parents and communities have the resources they need to thrive.

Roxana Llarena is a mother an advocate, and most importantly, a Parent Peer in the child welfare system with the office of Regional Council in Miami-Dade County. In 2018, her children were placed in the foster care system as a direct result of her substance use disorder.  After a year-long dependency case, she was reunited with her children and has maintained sole custody as well as her sobriety.
 
In 2020, Roxana met with a group of Parent Partners and parent advocates that encouraged her to return to a system that needed parent representation and her voice. With in a year, Roxanna became a Peer Specialist with the Office of Regional Council and made her dreams of working with parents a reality. She currently works with parents, their attorneys, and a social worker to support them in reunification with their children. She made a commitment to lift the voices of parents within the system by sitting on as many boards, advisory committees, and investor stakeholder meetings as she could.
 
Guiding parents and allowing them space to express their deepest needs is one of Roxana’s greatest strengths. She is committed to the work of constant learning and growing in a world that is ever changing and not always focused on parents.

 

“I just want you to know if you are out there and you are
being really hard on yourself right now for something that
has happened, it’s normal. That is what is going to happen
to you in life. No one gets through unscathed. We are going
to have a few scratches on us. Please be kind to yourself and
stand up for yourself. Please!”
– Taylor Swift.

 

Be sure to join us next Monday night to hear these women’s powerful message.
Invite a Friend! Learn more about us at http://www.hopehearthomeministry.com
and visit us on facebook: www.facebook.com/ministryHHH