{"id":1557,"date":"2025-10-21T21:10:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2025-10-24T19:14:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:14:00","slug":"cfcc-20205-symposium-panel-two-community-changemakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/2025\/10\/21\/cfcc-20205-symposium-panel-two-community-changemakers\/","title":{"rendered":"CFCC 20205 Symposium Panel Two: Community Changemakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

CFCC Celebrates Community Changemakers<\/h2>\r\n
\"\"

CFCC Directors with the CFCC 2025 Community Changemakers<\/p><\/div>\r\n

CFCC has found many community partners as we have expanded our mission to include the prevention of unnecessary court system involvement. During this panel, some of our most impactful and innovative partners offered inspiration to the audience by sharing their work to support students, increase family engagement in schools, defend family integrity, support families\u2019 financial well-being, and advocate for positive changes in laws that impact families. CFCC\u2019s very own Rohina Zavala shared about the Tackling Chronic Absenteeism Project\u2019s 20<\/span>th<\/span> anniversary and our new middle school model and community referral model. She was among the<\/span> following individuals who gave five-minute Ted-Talk style talks, coined \u201cChange Chats,\u201d and received a Community Changemakers award on behalf of their organization:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

1. Rohina Zavala<\/b><\/a>, TCAP Project Manager, CFCC<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Zavala explained the philosophy, activities, and goals of CFCC\u2019s Tackling Chronic Absenteeism Project (TCAP). TCAP is celebrating 20 years of successfully applying a restorative and therapeutic approach with students and families who struggle with truancy and chronic absenteeism. TCAP is deepening its focus on supporting middle school students while expanding it model to help students referred from government agencies as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

2. Markus Trent<\/b><\/a>, Founder and Executive Director, Fathers Fighting 4 Fathers<\/span>
<\/span>Community Mentorship Inc.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Trent shared how Fathers Fighting 4 Fathers Community Mentorship, Inc. (FF4F) is bolstering father engagement in Baltimore area schools. FF4F mentors parents on how to engage with their school\u2019s Parent Teach Organizations (PTO) and hosts events to grow parents\u2019 knowledge and advocacy skills.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

3. Amber Dortch<\/b><\/a>, Social Worker, Better Together – Maryland Office of the Public Defender<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Dortch presented the preventative power of the Better Together\u2019s pre-petition support for parents. When a family is at risk for child abuse or neglect investigation, Better Together steps in to ensure that parents and caregivers know their rights and have a safe place to ask questions and get the support they need to keep their children\u2019s\u00a0 safe and together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

4. Kelsey Williams<\/b><\/a>, Maryland Children\u2019s Alliance, Baltimore Baby Bonus Campaign<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Williams used data to make a convincing argument for the need for financial investments into families following the birth of a child. Maryland Children\u2019s Alliance is campaigning for such an investment, known as the Baltimore Baby Bonus,\u00a0 for all of Baltimore\u2019s families which is projected to dramatically lower the child poverty rate in the city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

5. Joseph Jones<\/b><\/a>, Founder, President, & CEO, Center for Urban Families<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jones told the story of one father who, with the support of the Center for Urban Families (CFUF), turned his life around after being incarcerated. CFUF helped this father and many after him develop the entrepreneurial skills and the end of life arrangements to establish economic stability for their families.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CFCC Celebrates Community Changemakers CFCC has found many community partners as we have expanded our mission to include the prevention of unnecessary court system involvement. During this panel, some of our most impactful and innovative partners offered inspiration to the audience by sharing their work to support students, increase family engagement in schools, defend family…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7346,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,53,17,54,52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1613,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/1613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/cfcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}