YSO Insights serves two audiences with a shared purpose: keeping children safe and helping them thrive. For administrators and staff of youth-serving organizations, that means evidence-based guidance on child protection policy, mandated reporting, screening, and investigations. For Plan B parents — foster, adoptive, kinship, stepparents, and blended families — it means honest, practical guidance from people who have been there. For both, it means evidence-based ideas to encourage resilience and protect futures.
The first weeks of school went fine. Better than fine. Then, somewhere along the way, everything changed. The easygoing kid who did homework without complaint now fights bedtime, melts down over math worksheets, and talks back to the teacher who was “the best” a few...
Debbie Ausburn · September 8, 2026
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We are soooo busy, too busy. Somehow culture has convinced us that we have to meet high expectations of America’s societal norms with extracurricular activities, busy-bodies and financial fortes. But the burdens wear on us; as people, as parents and as families. …
Holidays can be a profoundly difficult time, especially for our foster, adoptive, or stepchildren. No matter how wonderful we are as Plan B parents, their world remains fundamentally out of joint. Foster children and stepchildren in particular feel, whether consciously or not, that if the…
One common suggestion for foster, adoptive, and blended families during the winter holidays is to create new family traditions. That’s usually easier said than done, particularly when it comes to thinking of new traditions. Below are some suggestions that I’ve found for blended and foster…
The winter holidays are a good time to think about how we can help individual foster families. This time of year, there is an even greater need for community support. Foster parents have the same holiday to-do lists as every other family. In addition, they have to…
A story from Southaven, Mississippi illustrates the importance of good training and policies in how to deal with a dilemma that youth organizations often face — when sexual activity between minors becomes a mandated reporting event. The district attorney…
This time of year, I read and hear lots of questions about the best ways of teaching gratitude. Parenting magazines and websites are filled with suggestions and techniques, all adding yet another thing to our list of what-we-are-supposed-to-do as parents. Over the years, the best technique I…
In recent years, development NGOs have reenergized their efforts to safeguard children and vulnerable adults they work with from abuse and sexual exploitation. Many NGOs have adopted zero-tolerance policies for harassment, abuse, and exploitation. But safeguarding scandals continue, and even strenuous…
I am thankful I failed. So often we hear of failure as if it is a bad thing! It’s not! Not giving life a “good fight” with the chance of failure, now that can lead to a purposeless life. Giving up won’t get you anywhere. But, stepping…
On Veterans Day, we pause to honor those who have served our nation in uniform. We recognize their courage, their sacrifice, and their commitment to protecting our freedoms. But behind every service member stands a family that also serves—spouses who manage households through deployments, children…
Foster care saved my life. I know "saved my life" is really a simple, laymen term that kind-of covers it; however, it also may be a little too simplistic for the real depth of what that means for me. Before foster care my perception of…
When thieves pulled off a brazen daylight robbery at the Louvre this October, this article says security experts weren't particularly surprised. The investigation revealed what security professionals already knew: even the most prestigious institutions struggle with fundamental questions about where to place cameras, how to…
An extended family member emailed me in mid-October, asking about our family plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was surprised, since I was still working on Halloween. I hadn’t even thought about later months, much less made plans. At first I…