For decades, child welfare leaders across the United States have worked to improve outcomes for children and families within systems that are deeply interconnected and constantly changing. Yet understanding how decisions in one part of those systems influence outcomes elsewhere has remained a significant challenge. Leaders often rely on historical data and current-state reporting, limiting their ability to anticipate how policy changes, investments, or interventions might shape future outcomes. 

To address this challenge, For Others developed the Well-Being Support Ecosystem (WBSE)™. As part of that work, For Others partnered with The Contingent to develop its core analytical tool, the Common Agenda Development Tool (CADT)™. Together, the WBSE™ and the CADT™ help leaders identify the factors driving outcomes, build shared understanding, and explore how coordinated action can create lasting change for children and families navigating the foster care system.  

As a global Microsoft Elevate partner, we collaborated with For Others and The Contingent to design and build a digital platform that brings states’ child welfare data into a unified view, helping leaders understand what's happening and model what may happen in the next few years. Beyond providing visibility into current conditions, the CADT™ functions as a forecasting and decision-support tool, enabling leaders to explore future scenarios, assess the potential impact of interventions, and better understand the long-term consequences of action or inaction. Rather than asking only "What is happening today?", leaders can begin asking "How many children will have good homes in 5 years if we don’t act today? How can improvements in recruiting and licensing shift these outcomes?” 

Already, the CADT™ has enabled high-level engagement with 14 states and jurisdictions. By making visible the factors that influence the federal “A Home for Every Child” homes-to-children ratio, it has sparked new conversations about foster parent recruitment, licensing, and retention. In Arkansas, Oregon, and Tennessee, where The Contingent and For Others are already working alongside state leaders, the CADT™ has created a common framework for understanding what is working and what needs to improve. 

"threshold is helping us build something that can change how an entire state cares for its most vulnerable children - and that's why their partnership means everything to us."  
- Jared Brown, EVP of Strategic Partnerships, For Others 

We are honored to support this mission and proud to be part of the team launching the CADT™. This is more than a technology milestone. It is a new capability for building a future where all our children grow up in good homes. 

"Working with the talented and dedicated teams at For Others and The Contingent has been far from 'just another client engagement.' This partnership is built on trust, open communication, and support. Although our conversations are filled with talking points on calculations and screen design, at the heart of it all is creating disruption to vastly improve child welfare in this country." 

- Adina Fudym, Head of Solution Management & Design, threshold