Across the U.S., 20 to 40 percent of child welfare case workers leave their job every year, according to City Limits
reporter Rachel Blustain. Foster kids with one caseworker usually found a permanent home; those with six or seven caseworkers usually ended up becoming permanent wards of the state. Blustain did a Q-and-A with Barry Chaffkin, a veteran staffer of foster care agencies in New York City and co-founder of the not-for-profit Fostering Change for Children about a program whose goal is to help caseworkers stay on the job. Here's one question and answer:
Q: What does Children's Corps do to help caseworkers stay at the job, and how successful has it been?
We have a rigorous interview process because we're looking for people who have perseverance—what we call the grit factor—and are truly non-judgmental. We're looking for someone who will say, "OK, you're someone who uses drugs. You're someone who's been in prison. What might have happened in your life that caused those struggles?" Lastly, we're looking for people who are flexible in their thinking. Let's say a foster mother can't bring the kids to visits because she's in one borough and the mom is in a different borough. We want to hire people who will think: Maybe the foster mom's daughter can bring them, or maybe you can get the mom and the foster mom to meet halfway. We're looking for people who can find solutions.
Next we offer our workers four weeks of training. We have panels with parents, foster parents and youth because we want our workers to hear from real people who were affected by the system before they ever go out into the field. When parents do open up, we train our workers to respond in a way that communicates: "It's great that you could share that. How can I help you?" not "Gotcha!" Afterward, we continue to meet as a group once a month and we provide our participants with professional mentors who they can turn at any time.
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