This is for Child Protection Workers, Adoption Prep Workers, Recrutiers, and others who do their best, under less than ideal situations, to rescue children from abusive and neglectful environments and place them in forever homes. They so seldom get appreciated, and most often get criticized. I’m going to use the word “social worker” to describe all of them to make it less cumbersome. Not everything applies to everyone, but I have worked for 3 years with these people, and it is definitely representative.
Thank You, Social Worker
Thank you, social worker, for getting up today and coming to a job that is hard. Thanks for greeting another day with stacks of files on your desk in a cube that is too small in a building that is too crowded after walking too far from the parking lot in the cold. Thanks for checking your 40 voice mails and opening your bulging in box and wondering where to begin.
Thank you, social worker, for managing a caseload that is too large. Thanks for juggling school meetings and case plan reviews and court hearings and monthly visits for more children than there are days of the month. Thanks for picking up, delivering, transitioning, and buying ice cream for kids who don’t say thanks.
Thank you, social worker, for your tears. Thanks for caring so much about “your” children that even after years of dealing with their pain and anger, you can still feel compassion. Thanks for being open enough to feel in a profession that attempts to teach you not to.
Thank you, social worker, for hanging in there when it seems the world is mad at you. Thanks for responding appropriately when a child cusses you out, when a prospective adoptive parent blames you that they are not yet matched, when an agency holds you responsible for paperwork not being completed, when a guardian ad litem criticizes you, when a judge gets in your face, when everyone views you as the problem while you are working your hardest to be the solution.
Thank you, social worker, for working in an imperfect system and hearing the misdirected criticism that is aimed at you. Thanks for your continual willingness to put the needs of children before your own in order to work for little pay in a job where it seems impossible to please even one person. Thanks for accepting your role with dignity and pushing forward, regardless of the cost to you.
Thank you, social worker, for doing what few are willing to do while the rest of us sit back and blame. Thanks for continuing to fight the battle on behalf of children when it seems like rewards are few and nobody understands.
Thank you, social worker, for accepting our apologies when we come to the realization that you are not the system. Thanks for letting us off the hook when we hurl insults, make you the face of the Child Welfare System which you cannot control, and say negative things about you when you aren’t around. Thank you for realizing that we share the same frustrations and that we are attempting to work together for the same goal and, in doing so, do and say things we shouldn’t.
Thank you, social worker, for doing the little things that may not seem like they matter today, but may change a life forever. Thanks for the hugs, the notes, the treats that you have given the children. Thanks for taking extra time to send those pictures you found in a case file from years ago before you had the case to an adoptive family who has never seen a photo of their child as a baby. Thanks for answering one more email, returning one more call, and missing supper with your family one more time to get an ICPC packet done so a child can go home sooner. Thanks for all the things you do that nobody else seems to notice, that you’ll never get credit for, that won’t show up on a performance review, but that you do because they are the right thing to do.
Some day you will move on to retirement or to a new position or a new career. It is very possible that you will leave wondering if you’ve made any difference at all. But I assure you that though you may never find out, there are lives that have been changed because you come to work every day. And someday, whether you know it or not, there will be secure, happy adults, healed and whole, walking this earth who once used to be abused and neglected children, moving into their first foster home. And they will be who they are because you came to work every day and did your best.
Thank you, social worker, for getting up today and coming to a job that is hard.
Thank You, Social Worker
Thank you, social worker, for getting up today and coming to a job that is hard. Thanks for greeting another day with stacks of files on your desk in a cube that is too small in a building that is too crowded after walking too far from the parking lot in the cold. Thanks for checking your 40 voice mails and opening your bulging in box and wondering where to begin.
Thank you, social worker, for managing a caseload that is too large. Thanks for juggling school meetings and case plan reviews and court hearings and monthly visits for more children than there are days of the month. Thanks for picking up, delivering, transitioning, and buying ice cream for kids who don’t say thanks.
Thank you, social worker, for your tears. Thanks for caring so much about “your” children that even after years of dealing with their pain and anger, you can still feel compassion. Thanks for being open enough to feel in a profession that attempts to teach you not to.
Thank you, social worker, for hanging in there when it seems the world is mad at you. Thanks for responding appropriately when a child cusses you out, when a prospective adoptive parent blames you that they are not yet matched, when an agency holds you responsible for paperwork not being completed, when a guardian ad litem criticizes you, when a judge gets in your face, when everyone views you as the problem while you are working your hardest to be the solution.
Thank you, social worker, for working in an imperfect system and hearing the misdirected criticism that is aimed at you. Thanks for your continual willingness to put the needs of children before your own in order to work for little pay in a job where it seems impossible to please even one person. Thanks for accepting your role with dignity and pushing forward, regardless of the cost to you.
Thank you, social worker, for doing what few are willing to do while the rest of us sit back and blame. Thanks for continuing to fight the battle on behalf of children when it seems like rewards are few and nobody understands.
Thank you, social worker, for accepting our apologies when we come to the realization that you are not the system. Thanks for letting us off the hook when we hurl insults, make you the face of the Child Welfare System which you cannot control, and say negative things about you when you aren’t around. Thank you for realizing that we share the same frustrations and that we are attempting to work together for the same goal and, in doing so, do and say things we shouldn’t.
Thank you, social worker, for doing the little things that may not seem like they matter today, but may change a life forever. Thanks for the hugs, the notes, the treats that you have given the children. Thanks for taking extra time to send those pictures you found in a case file from years ago before you had the case to an adoptive family who has never seen a photo of their child as a baby. Thanks for answering one more email, returning one more call, and missing supper with your family one more time to get an ICPC packet done so a child can go home sooner. Thanks for all the things you do that nobody else seems to notice, that you’ll never get credit for, that won’t show up on a performance review, but that you do because they are the right thing to do.
Some day you will move on to retirement or to a new position or a new career. It is very possible that you will leave wondering if you’ve made any difference at all. But I assure you that though you may never find out, there are lives that have been changed because you come to work every day. And someday, whether you know it or not, there will be secure, happy adults, healed and whole, walking this earth who once used to be abused and neglected children, moving into their first foster home. And they will be who they are because you came to work every day and did your best.
Thank you, social worker, for getting up today and coming to a job that is hard.
5 comments:
Thank you, Claudia. I needed to hear that today. This tribute was indeed a message from God for me. You just do not know how much that helped. Be blessed!
Just another Waco CPS worker
Unfortunately my experience would be something like this . . . Thank you social worker for placing a foster child in my home that you knew was a predator. Thank you placing that child in my home and knowing he would share a bedroom with my adopted child. Thank you for caring more about his right to prvacy than my son's safety.
Ok that's a bit sarcastic and bitter even years later . . . so thank you all the other social workers who truly do care!
Which is why I felt like I really needed to write this -- because when we have one negative experience with a social worker then we tend to put all the good ones in the same category, and it isn't fair...
Thanks for that Claudia.
Claudia, thank YOU for what you do, and thank YOU for caring.
And even tho they drive you batty sometimes, thank you for taking in to your home the children you did.
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