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Pioneering Child Welfare Innovation: A Second Chance Inc. Celebrates 33 Years of Kinship Care
Thirty-three years ago, A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI) set out to transform child welfare by asking a simple but powerful question: What if families were the solution?
33 years later, our question remains the same…
What if families were the solution? See how ASCI is shaping the future of kinship care.
Founded during one of the most challenging periods in child welfare history, ASCI emerged with a bold vision to ensure children could remain connected to the people who know and love them best. What began as a local response to a growing crisis has evolved into a nationally recognized leader in kinship care, family preservation, systems transformation, and child welfare innovation.
As ASCI celebrates its 33rd anniversary, Lisa Chambers, Managing Director of National Engagements, and Toni Wagner, Sr. Managing Director of Child and Family Services, reflect on the organization’s journey, the lessons learned, and the unwavering mission that continues to shape its future.
From the beginning, our focus has been helping children and families not merely survive difficult circumstances—but truly thrive.
Lisa Chambers
How ASCI Pioneered Kinship Care Practices in Child Welfare
ASCI was founded during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, when thousands of children, particularly African American children, were entering foster care while relatives quietly stepped forward to care for them with little recognition, limited financial support, and few resources.
Rather than accepting the status quo, ASCI championed a different path, one that recognized relatives as essential partners in a child’s well-being and advocated for the support families needed to succeed.
For Toni, the organization’s beginnings were rooted in addressing disparities that many overlooked.
When A Second Chance, Inc. was founded, it was created to address a significant gap in the child welfare system. Relative caregivers were stepping forward every day, yet they often lacked the recognition and support they deserved. Over the past three decades, ASCI has remained true to its core purpose: strengthening and preserving families while ensuring children have safe, stable, and nurturing homes within their family and community networks whenever possible.
Toni Wagner
Today, that mission extends far beyond direct services. ASCI provides national leadership in kin-first practice, systems transformation, policy development, technical assistance, workforce development, and family-centered innovation that strengthens child welfare systems across the country.
Our purpose has remained constant: strengthen families, preserve relationships, and ensure children can safely grow up surrounded by the people who know and love them.
Lisa Chambers
Driving Innovation in Family Preservation and Legal Custodianship
Throughout its history, ASCI has continuously evolved to meet the changing needs of children and families while remaining grounded in its core values.
One of the organization’s most significant contributions has been advancing Pennsylvania’s Subsidized Permanent Legal Custodianship (SPLC), providing families with another permanency option that preserves family relationships while offering the financial stability children and caregivers need to thrive.
Innovation at ASCI has never been pursued simply for the sake of change. Every new practice, program, and partnership has been designed with one purpose in mind: strengthening families.
“Innovation is not simply about adopting new technology—it is about finding better ways to meet families where they are and respond to their evolving needs. ASCI transformed kinship care from an underrecognized practice into a comprehensive, evidence-informed model that supports children, caregivers, and birth families as a whole.”
Toni Wagner
ASCI also embraces a data-informed approach to continuously strengthen programs and improve practice, combining measurable outcomes with the lived experiences of children, caregivers, and parents.
For Lisa, those innovations are meaningful because they always begin with relationships.
When innovation expands options, preserves relationships, and keeps children at the center of every decision, families are stronger.
Lisa Chambers
Empowering Kinship Caregivers, Families, and Communities
While policies, programs, and innovation have shaped ASCI’s growth, its greatest impact is measured in people.
Many of today’s employees were once children, parents, or caregivers who received services through ASCI. Their decision to return and serve other families reflects the lasting influence of an organization built on hope, compassion, and second chances.
Every day, ASCI staff walk alongside families during some of life’s most difficult moments, connecting caregivers to resources, supporting parents working toward reunification, advocating for children, and helping families build stable futures together.
For Toni, these everyday moments define ASCI’s legacy.
The greatest accomplishment has been the lives that have been changed. Every child who remained connected to family, every grandparent who received the support needed to raise a grandchild, every caregiver who opened their home during a difficult season, and every family that found strength through adversity represents the true measure of ASCI’s success.
Toni Wagner
Every day, ASCI staff walk alongside families during some of life’s most difficult moments, helping parents access critical resources, strengthening family relationships, and supporting safe reunification whenever possible.
Building Stronger Child Welfare Systems Through Nationwide Collaboration
From its earliest days, ASCI understood that transforming child welfare would require collaboration.
Over the past three decades, partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, foundations, schools, healthcare providers, researchers, courts, and community stakeholders have expanded ASCI’s reach and strengthened services for children and families across Pennsylvania and beyond.
These collaborations have also helped elevate kinship care from an often-overlooked placement option to a nationally recognized best practice.
Collaboration has been essential to ASCI’s growth and impact. Together, we’ve strengthened systems, influenced policy, and improved outcomes for children and families across the country.
Lisa Chambers
The Next Generation of Kinship Care Support and Systems Transformation
As child welfare continues to evolve, ASCI remains committed to preparing for the next generation of kinship care.
Behavioral health needs, workforce shortages, economic instability, housing challenges, and increasingly complex family dynamics require solutions that are both innovative and deeply family-centered.
ASCI is responding by expanding national technical assistance, strengthening evidence-informed training models, leveraging data to improve practice, and helping jurisdictions across the country build sustainable kin-first systems.
“The next generation of kinship care will require more comprehensive support as families navigate trauma, mental health concerns, economic instability, and increasingly complex systems. Our responsibility is not only to respond to these challenges but to anticipate them, using innovation, advocacy, collaboration, and lived experience to strengthen family preservation.”
Toni Wagner
For Lisa Chambers, the vision remains remarkably consistent after more than three decades.
ASCI’s legacy is rooted in the unwavering belief that family is the greatest resource a child will ever have. Our hope is that every person touched by ASCI remembers they were seen, valued, supported, and empowered—and that together, we built stronger families, stronger communities, and a brighter future for generations to come.
Lisa Chambers
A Legacy That Continues
As ASCI celebrates 33 years of service, the organization’s story is still being written by the families who open their homes, the caregivers who step forward, the staff who walk alongside them, and the partners who share in the mission of strengthening kinship care across the country.
What began as a bold response to a gap in child welfare has grown into a sustained movement rooted in one enduring belief: families, when supported, are the strongest foundation for a child’s future.
ASCI’s work moving forward remains clear: expand opportunity, strengthen systems, and ensure that every child has the chance to grow up surrounded by connection, culture, and care.
Partner with A Second Chance Inc. for Family Preservation Services
As we honor 33 years of impact, we invite you to be part of what comes next. Whether through partnership, advocacy, collaboration, or support, there is a place for every voice in advancing kin-first practice and strengthening families.
Together, we can continue building systems that see families not as a last resort, but as the first and best solution.
Learn more about ASCI’s work by exploring partnership opportunities today!