Dr Patrick McCarthy is the former president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private philanthropy organisation based in Baltimore, Maryland and working across the United States. The foundation makes grants to help federal agencies, states, counties, cities and neighbourhoods create more innovative, cost-effective responses to the issues that negatively affect children: poverty, unnecessary disconnection from family and communities with limited access to opportunity.
McCarthy succeeded to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s presidency and CEO in 2010, a position that he held for the nine years until his retirement in December 2018. McCarthy helped deepen the Foundation’s commitment to elevating and supporting issues related to race equity. He also led efforts to create a fairer and safer juvenile justice system and a more family-focused child welfare system.
McCarthy holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
Dr McCarthy’s lecture at the What Works Launch was entitled ‘How Do We Scale Prevention and Early Intervention?’ Its focus was on how statutory and non-statutory organisations can contribute to scaling PEI to ensure its effectiveness at a population level. McCarthy’s argument is made using three stories with three linked messages: bad systems trumps good programmes, the importance of the practice ingredient in programmes, and the importance of individualised support meeting the needs of children. He proposes a move to a practice and innovation mind-set in place of a programmatic mind-set.