In December 2021, the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers (NSCSW) contracted Wisdom2Action (W2A) to consult a wide range of stakeholders working with and/or on behalf of children and families and caregivers in the province. These consultations stemmed from initial community conversations held by the NSCSW in 2019. The ultimate goal of the project was to gain insight into how the child welfare system could be better designed to address the needs and rights of children in the province and thereby answer two guiding questions:

• What would it take for every child in Nova Scotia to live in a home and a community free of poverty, violence, and harm, that allowed them to reach their full potential?
• What would it take to create a child protection system that embraced the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child, as well as the calls from the Black and Indigenous Nova Scotians for reform as enshrined in Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in the Inquiry into the Home for Colored Children?