Vol. 12, No. 1 • November 2007
Monthly visits with my social worker
In our last writing contest we asked young people in foster care to send us a short essay describing what they think about the monthly visits they have with their social workers. In particular, we wanted to know how these visits made them feel and what could make them better.
We asked children to focus on this topic for a simple reason: visits matter. This is supported by evidence from the first round of federal reviews, which linked high-quality visits with better outcomes for children and their families. It is also supported by the essays on this page, which testify to the power and importance of monthly visits.
If you are a child welfare worker or a foster parent, we hope you will continually assess the quality and frequency of agency visits with children in care. They can make such a difference in children’s lives.
—John McMahon, Editor
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First Place
by Anthony, age 11
My social worker makes me feel good about myself. I can talk with her about any issue—my family, school, problems, my foster family, etc.
The thing I like most about her is she makes sure she lets me know how my other family members are doing. My social worker also introduces strategies to problem solving if I have any problems. My social worker keeps up with my grades, listens to me play my band instrument, comes into my messy room (which can be dangerous), and most of all she listens to me. My social worker makes sure that my foster family and me are getting along. I can tell she wants the best for me and tries to help me in growing up to be productive and successful in society as a young man. I plan to show thanks to her and my foster family as I plan to reach my goals as being part of law enforcement.Anthony’s letter won first prize, for which he was awarded $100.
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Second Place
by Kelli, age 15
Monthly visits with my social worker are good because we are always laughing with or about each other and we’re just being ourselves. . . . I’m not going to lie—sometimes she does make me a little ill. [But] I forget about it and do what I had planned that day . . . .
What makes her most helpful is that she helps me get through some of my troubles and tells me everything will get better. She’s always telling me to help make things better or things will never get better. That helps me a lot because if I didn’t have someone to help me through my problems I don’t know what I would do. My guess is probably something stupid . . . .
[She] would be . . . a better social worker if she just let me go home to my real house. If she would just let me go home everything would be great. If that would happen then she would be the greatest social worker ever!
Kelli ’s letter won second prize, for which she was awarded $50.
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Third Place
by Colby, age 15
I can thankfully say that I am no longer in foster care. I live in a large family that I love and know love me. I could not have been placed in a family that is more loving than the one that I have now. There is not anyone in the world I can thank for that other than my social worker.
Around 11 years ago I was put into foster care and received my social worker. At the time I was really too young to understand exactly what was going on or who a social worker was. All I could understand is at such a hard time in my life was there was a lady (my social worker) that I visited every month. My social worker made me feel loved and secure. Don’t get me wrong, my foster family at the time did the same for me—but my social worker was someone that I could rely on if I needed something and I didn’t feel comfortable going to my foster family about it . . . .
I had a social worker that was everything I mentioned in this paper but she was so much more to me also. In fact it would probably take forever just to explain how wonderful she was so I am going to stop by saying that there isn’t anything that I would have liked changed about my social worker.
Colby ’s letter won third prize, for which he was awarded $25.
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Ronda, age 15
Monthly visits I have leave me very happy! I’m happy afterwards because [my social worker] tells me how proud of me she is, which I’m proud of myself as well because I’m making A and B Honor Roll.
She is helpful because she literally bends over backwards to help foster kids like me. I can’t think of anything to make her better at what she does because she has already helped me so much to change my life around, fix my mistakes, and to feel normal again. Ms. Juanita has been an angel in disguise. She has been there when I needed someone to talk to or if I needed help with something. She is just always here when I need her. I think all foster care social workers are miracle workers . . . .
So next time you see your [social worker] how about thanking them?
Ronda received $15 for having her letter published.
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Heather, age 11
My social worker’s name is Marcie Bland-Boughman. The monthly visits with Marcie are good. Marcie takes me out to eat, and to the store, and she takes me to her office. When Marcie comes to my house she likes to look at my stuff. I show her my room, my trophies, and my games. When Marcie comes to visit it makes me feel good, special, and important. Marcie keeps me updated on things like court dates, and on family members. I could not change anything about my monthly visits!!!
Heather received $15 for having her letter published.
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Shanita received $15 for having her drawing published.
Copyright � 2007 Jordan Institute for Families
