Beyond Adoption: Rebuilding Child Welfare Systems

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27d ago 29:07

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What does it take to reimagine child welfare on a global scale? Caroline Boudreaux, Founder of the Miracle Foundation, shares her extraordinary evolution from corporate life to global changemaker. Her journey began on a spontaneous trip to India where, on Mother’s Day in 2000, she met a group of orphaned children—and one moment changed her forever.

“I put a hungry orphan on a wooden bed and heard her bones hit the wood. I’ve never been the same,” Boudreaux recalls.

Originally launching Miracle Foundation as an international adoption agency, Caroline soon realized that adoption couldn’t scale fast enough to match the need. She pivoted. Then, another revelation: 80% of institutionalized children actually had living family. “We couldn’t just make orphanages better anymore—we had to help children go home,” she shares. That shift required a new model, a bold strategy, and a lot of resilience.

The organization began empowering ‘kinship care’—supporting extended families to take children back in by addressing barriers like housing, education, or income. Then came Thrive Well: a transformative app that puts this care model into the hands of over 30,000 social workers, enabling systems change at scale.

This inspiring discussion adds in the role of healthy board dynamics, founder self-awareness, and breaking through the myth that only “rich people” give. “You're not looking for donors with money,” Caroline says. “You’re looking for souls who want to do something bigger than themselves.”

Her metaphor? “We’re all jumping into the river to save babies. But someone has to look upstream to stop them from falling in.”

This conversation will challenge your assumptions, ignite your passion for systemic change, and offer inspiration for every nonprofit leader navigating evolving missions and growing impact.

00:00:00 Welcome to Caroline Boudreaux

00:01:29 How a trip to India sparked a mission

00:04:14 The moment that changed everything on Mother’s Day

00:07:10 Founding the Miracle Foundation

00:08:50 Early struggles and pivot from adoption

00:11:18 Discovering most “orphans” had families

00:13:03 The kinship care model explained

00:16:19 Partnering with Indian government and local leaders

00:17:40 Launching the Thrive Well app

00:20:01 Founder syndrome and building a strong board

00:21:22 Metaphor: saving babies vs. stopping them from falling in

00:23:22 Finding the right donors: look for souls, not dollars

00:25:27 The journey of learning, pivoting, and systemic change

00:27:08 Vision for a world without orphanages by 2040

#FamilyFirst #MiracleFoundation #SystemsChange

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