News
The times, they are a-changin’
By: Danna Fabella, Interim Director Employment and Human Services Department
A while back, when we decided that “change” would be our topic for this newsletter, we had no idea of the changes our department would be experiencing. I think most of you know by now that our Department Director, John Cullen, began his new position on March 2 as the new County Administrator. On that same day, I became the Interim Director of the Employment and Human Services Department, and Linda Canan began as Acting Director, Children and Family Services Bureau. WHEW! Just saying it is a mouthful.
We were sorry to see John leave our Department, but know that he will do a great job for the whole county in his new position. As for me, I will not be that far away and, of course, will still have oversight of the Children’s Bureau. Linda, with her vast child welfare experience, will be in charge of the Bureau, and she’ll do a fine job.
The changes that have been going on in the child welfare practice over the past several years have been just as monumental as the staffing changes I mention above. We have implemented Team Decision Making, Differential Response, Ice Breakers, Parent Partners, Wrap-Around, and Emancipation Planning. We are initiating practices such as Family Finding, Family Engagement, Inclusive Case Planning, and Concurrent Planning. Our social workers have had to become much more computer literate.
Our caregivers are asked about permanency from the very beginning of placement (concurrent planning). We ask that you meet the birth parents (Ice Breaker) and work with us to develop visitation plans that work for the children, for the parents, and for you. We also ask that you work with us around reunification to determine if a child can be safely returned home. And, we ask that you help us recruit other families, such as your own, to take in children who need foster homes.
What has NOT changed is out commitment to the children that we serve. We want families that will love and nurture these youngsters as if they were their own; and at the same time, be ready to help them return back home should their parents resolve the issues that brought them into foster care. So, while change is clearly in the air, there continues to be the unchanging need for foster homes for our most vulnerable population.
From Contra Costa County Fostering Families Newsletter, May/June 2006