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Where Truth Meets Love: Dr Yven Destin on James Baldwin and Kinship Care in Black Families
At A Second Chance, Inc. (ASCI), we believe that every child and family deserves to be seen, heard, and supported. Our work with kinship families is rooted in the understanding that love, guidance, and connection are powerful tools for resilience and growth. For decades, thinkers like James Baldwin have reminded us that love is not passive; it is an active force that affirms our humanity and challenges us to speak truthfully and courageously. Baldwin’s insistence on truth, responsibility, and accountability resonates deeply with ASCI’s mission: to honor the lived experiences of Black children and families, to celebrate their strength and creativity, and to ensure that kinship care remains a pathway to stability, belonging, and opportunity.
In this spirit, we turn to Dr. Yven Destin, ASCI board member, scholar, educator, and father, to explore how truth, love, and kinship intersect to uplift families and communities. As a father of three and husband to a deployed Army National Guard member, he brings both lived experience and deep scholarship to ASCI’s work. As a Haitian descendant, his understanding of Black self-determination, community continuity, and truth-telling informs both his approach to kinship care and how ASCI shows up more fully for families navigating complex systems.
At ASCI, leadership is grounded in lived realities, and Dr. Destin’s perspective reflects the organization’s belief that families need to be honored. His work invites us to more fully recognize the brilliance and possibility within Black children and families, and to see kinship care as a pathway to visibility, dignity, and connection.
We have a responsibility to elevate and lift their stories up and show that they do matter.
Dr. Yven Destin
As a scholar of James Baldwin, Dr. Destin often returns to the idea that love and truth are inseparable. For him, love is not passive, it is the courage to speak honestly while remaining deeply committed to one another’s wellbeing. This kind of truth-telling is especially meaningful for children. For young people in kinship care, being met with honesty and affirmation helps them trust their own experiences and develop confidence in their own voice.
This commitment shows up at ASCI in how families are partnered with, creating spaces where caregivers and children feel heard, affirmed, and supported as they navigate schools, systems, and everyday life. Dr. Destin emphasizes how powerful it can be for a child to hear that their experiences are real and worthy of being acknowledged.
He also names the unique strength of kinship care as a source of continuity and grounding. When children are placed with relatives or trusted kin, they are not starting from zero. There is already shared understanding that helps soften the challenges of navigating society and finding their footing in new circumstances.
Being paired with kin shrinks the gap of difference. There’s a starting point that helps soften the challenges of navigating society.
Dr. Yven Destin
This understanding aligns with ASCI’s approach to kinship care as a deeply rooted practice in Black communities. Kinship care is a continuation of family traditions and knowledge passed down through generations. By preserving connection and building strengths that already exist within family dynamics, ASCI supports caregivers in ways that honor their wisdom, relationships, and the resilience of the children in their care. Kinship care is about nurturing a child’s sense of self and foundational roots, while celebrating the family bonds that have long been a source of strength and resilience in Black communities.
We’ve always been doing kinship care. We just give it a name now.
Dr. Yven Destin
Dr. Destin is clear that caregivers deserve more than simply getting through each day. He emphasizes that thriving requires support, encouragement, and access to tools that help caregivers grow in their roles. Beyond practical guidance, caregivers need recognition for the leadership, creativity, and dedication they bring to their families every day. Dr. Destin reminds caregivers of their own power and agency in shaping the lives of the children they love:
You do have a voice. You do have agency.
Dr. Yven Destin
At ASCI, this belief guides how families are supported through access to information, support, and connection, while honoring the care, commitment, and emotional investment caregivers bring every day. In practice, this means showing up for families beyond forms and processes, and recognizing caregivers as whole people with wisdom, goals, and leadership within their families.
Dr. Destin also describes the work of supporting children as shared responsibility, families, communities, and systems lifting one another up. This vision reflects ASCI’s commitment to partnership across communities and institutions, centering the voices and strengths of caregivers while strengthening the networks that surround families.
In closing, Dr. Destin reflected on a line often attributed to James Baldwin about love: the longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love… is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light.
He shared that, while the words are widely cited under Baldwin’s name, he can strongly attest that its sentiment is deeply Baldwinian in spirit. It captures the moral and relational vision of love that Baldwin spent his life articulating, the idea that love is not passive affection, but an active force that reveals, enlarges, and affirms our shared humanity.
What matters most, Dr. Destin emphasized, is the spirit of this idea: that love is an active practice of seeing people clearly, affirming their humanity, and reflecting their worth back to them, especially in moments when it is hard to see for themselves.
For kinship caregivers preserving family legacy and connection, this reflection offers encouragement. When the demands of care feel heavy, someone can help reflect your light back to you. In countless ways, caregivers do this same work every day for the children and families they love.
At A Second Chance, Inc., we believe that truth and love are inseparable in the work of supporting families. We are grateful to Dr. Yven Destin for sharing his insight, experience, and vision, which help guide our approach to kinship care. His reflections, grounded in both lived experience and scholarship, remind us of the enduring relevance of James Baldwin’s work and his insistence that love requires courage, honesty, and accountability continue to inspire how we partner with families.
We believe in honoring the lived experiences, wisdom, and leadership of kinship caregivers. We are committed to creating spaces where children and families are seen, affirmed, and connected to their communities. By reflecting each other’s light, speaking truthfully, and walking alongside families with respect and partnership, we help children thrive, preserve family legacy, and strengthen the bonds that make Black families resilient, empowered, and enduring.