Comfort Cases: Unpacked Podcast | Episode 8 | Tewabech Genet Stewart

Listeners and Viewers: This interview was initially scheduled to post in November during National Adoption Awareness Month. But because of scheduling and the content’s impact, we chose to air it early.

Why does help sometimes arrive only after a child has been removed from home?

After 22 years inside Florida’s child welfare system, Tewabech Genet Stewart began questioning the assumptions behind family separation, adoption, and support. Becoming an adoptive mother made those questions even more urgent.

On Comfort Cases: UnPacked, Rob Scheer and Genet explore a powerful possibility: meaningful help for families before a crisis leads to separation. The conversation gets real about poverty, safety, the loss alongside the love in adoption, and the difference between supporting families and policing families.

Genet brings a deeply personal perspective. Experiences of family separation during the Liberian civil war, decades working in child welfare, and adopting a son through foster care shaped Genet’s understanding of family, loss, and belonging.

At the heart of the episode: Would children choose the child welfare system as currently designed?

CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

From child welfare executive to outspoken critic
How becoming an adoptive mother deepened Genet’s concerns
Why resources may become available after removal
The loss and separation sometimes missing from adoption narratives
Protecting children experiencing genuine abuse, neglect, or danger
Bringing lived experience into child welfare decisions
Building support around dignity, prevention, and community

How could communities better support families before a crisis? Share thoughts in the comments.

ABOUT GENET

Tewabech Genet Stewart is a speaker, strategic consultant, former child welfare executive, and adoptive mother. Experiences in Liberia and Florida shape Genet’s work around family, belonging, and human dignity. In January 2027, Genet plans to launch Tewabech Genet LLC, a consulting and speaking practice that helps organizations and funders rethink how they support children and families.

CONNECT WITH GENET

Website: http://www.tewabechgenet.com/

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To listen to previous episodes of Fostering Change and Comfort Cases: Unpacked, please visit: www.comfortcases.org/podcast or your favorite podcast outlets.

📩 Have thoughts or questions, or an idea for a future guest? Reach out at fosteringchange@comfortcases.org – we’d love to hear from you! From all of us at Comfort Cases: Unpacked, thank you for listening, for sharing this journey with us through seven incredible seasons, and for believing that every child deserves dignity, belonging, and hope.