Child welfare leaders in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, determined that they needed new approaches to keeping families together safely -- and they wanted to center their efforts around the well-being of children and young people. For situations in which foster care was the only option, they wanted it to be temporary, with fewer disruptions and less trauma for children and families in the system. Four years later, thanks to a clear vision built on shared values, better data systems for analyzing trends, new ways of working with families and communities, and a partnership with a national team of experts, the county's Youth and Family Services (YFS) Division is seeing significant, positive results. These include reduced entries into foster care, fewer young people in the system living in group settings, less staff turnover with improved morale, more support for kinship care and increased efforts to end racial disparities. This report examines what Mecklenburg County did to improve its services to children, youth and families and ends with the top 10 takeaways from Mecklenburg County's Youth and Family Services' transformation may be useful to other child welfare agency leaders, policymakers and advocates.