Session Schedule

Sixto Cancle

Founder and CEO
Think of Us

Sixto Cancel is a visionary leader spearheading transformative change in the foster care system through Think of Us, a trailblazing organization with a mission to "create a foster care system where every child has a loving home."

Think of Us is a Research + Design Lab at the forefront of revolutionizing child welfare policy and practice. They develop trusting relationships with individuals who have lived experiences within the child welfare system, such as current and former foster youth, parents, and families. By deeply engaging with those directly impacted and creating "proximity at scale," Think of Us can better understand the systemic challenges and incorporate their voices and insights into influencing practices and policies across the entire child welfare system. This collaborative approach ensures that the solutions and advocacy efforts undertaken by Think of Us are more effective, relevant, and impactful in driving meaningful change.

At Think of Us, Sixto champions the importance of capturing and utilizing lived experiences as data. By collecting detailed information from thousands of current and former foster youth, they identify systemic issues and advocate for policy changes. During the pandemic, they gathered data from 27,000 youth about their housing, employment, and basic needs, uncovering common problems and challenges across the foster care system nationwide. This powerful data set led to securing $400 million in aid for youth in foster care.

Sixto's team embraces a "co-design" approach, actively involving those with lived experiences in creating data collection tools. This collaborative method leads to higher completion rates and ensures that the tools accurately capture the nuances of their experiences. Leveraging this data, they reframe problems through a systemic lens, revealing that poverty, housing insecurity, and addiction—not solely "child" or "parent" issues—are often the driving forces behind families entering the child welfare system. By correctly identifying the root causes, they can develop solutions that increase the likelihood of every child having a loving home.