“Treat them like your own.” That’s what we tell Foster Parents. Simple enough right? Welcome children into your home, fold them into your routine. Easy Peasy. Except it isn’t easy peasy, is it? Treat them like your own, EXCEPT: don’t advocate for them if it means going against the state’s position in court, report and…
How Trust-Based Leadership Can Improve Child Welfare Outcomes
I have recently been reading Start with Why by Simon Sinek. A story about Southwest Airlines in the book caught my attention. Sinek described how Southwest focused on making their employees happy, and with making Southwest an enjoyable place to work. The theory was that if employees were happy, clients/customers were happy, and therefore share…
7 Reasons It Is Incredibly Difficult To Have a Career in Child Welfare
This post has been rolling around in my mind ever since I started working in child welfare. Over the course of almost 5 years, I have watched workers come and go, staying in their jobs on average about 6-9 months. In my experience, if anyone can make it past the role of supervisor, or be…
How Do I Know If I Am Ready to be a Foster/Adoptive Parent: Financial Requirements
Although it may seem trivial, this practical side of the foster/adopt approval process is crucial. All states offer foster/adoptive parents some type of reimbursement for having children in their homes, but it is not wise to rely on this for income going into the approval process. Here are a few reasons why: Not all children…
Social Work: The Swiss Army Knife of Human Services
I find that the general population has no idea what social work is or what social workers do. Social work is not something often depicted in Hollywood TV shows or movies (when it is depicted, it is usually inaccurate), and frankly, the tasks of social work are so varied that the work can be hard…
Dear Social Worker,
Thank you for the work you do, for caring for children. Thank you for putting so many hours in to do the extraordinary work to find homes for children who may not have the best home. Thank you for putting the time in at the office to check on these children and do the hours…
Foster Parenting: The Importance of Documentation
If you have been a foster parent for any length of time, you know how quickly cases can turn over to different case workers. This is due to many chronic issues within workforce recruitment and retention in the child welfare system, but one of the major side effects you need to be aware of is…
The Christian Social Worker 