3 Million Children
3 million children in the US receive an investigation or alternative response from child protective services agencies annually. Child welfare workers must determine whether there is evidence of abuse or neglect; thereby, setting the course for State involvement with a family.
The foster care system served almost 570,000 children in 2022. That’s more than half a million children in need of support outside their homes annually. The responsibility for that falls to the State and its agencies or contracted private entities.
For each child who needs support, there is a caseworker who’s assigned to oversee their safety and care. Having someone whose focus is on ensuring that standards are being met in our foster care system is critical.
You can imagine the weightiness of their role.
They see and experience the impact of abuse and neglect up close. Their work involves triaging crises daily. Their role necessitates that they never close their eyes to the brokenness that exists all around them. It can take a toll physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
I would just lay there and wonder: What if something happens to the kid? What if the parent relapses? All the different thoughts would come at nighttime when I'm trying to sleep; that's the time when you have the space to stop and think.
BrittniFormer Foster Care Caseworker
The foster care system cannot function effectively without caseworkers who are deeply compassionate and dedicated to their roles. Yet, rates of burnout for caseworkers are high. Caseworkers typically leave their roles within 2 years.
Children depend on caseworkers, and caseworkers need support.
As we think about how to best care for our children in foster care, we have to start thinking about how to care for our nation’s caseworkers.
Here are 5 Ways to Support Caseworkers in Your Community
1. Seek to better understand your community.
Let’s start here. If you want to make an impact in your community, you have to know your community. Foster care exists in every community because families exist in every community. Whether crises are visible or hidden in your community, there are families struggling and some of those families are involved with foster care.
Every community is served by a foster care agency. That might mean a foster care agency is right down the road from you, that it’s across the city, or in a neighboring town, maybe even in another county. Regardless of whether you live in a rural farming town, a quiet suburb, or a bustling metropolitan city, a foster care agency serves families right where you live.
- What does foster care look like where you live?
- Is there anyone in your church that is involved in foster care in any way?
2. Be gracious in your speech.
It can be easy to want to find a bad guy in foster care—someone who when your own frustration arises, you can blame. Caseworkers often face the brunt of this frustration as they work with foster families, biological parents, and children.
Some clients certainly appreciate our intervention while others bring to us a lot of hostility, a lot of denial, a lot of anger, and that's a lot to have to deal with and go up against. But our workers really do the best that they can and they absolutely have good intentions. They want to do a good job and they really strive to do that each and every day.
CarmenRetired Deputy Director, Department of Family and Children Serivces
When we hear negative reports about caseworkers, we have the opportunity to be gracious and believe the best in them. This isn’t to say they are perfect in all of their ways. There can be times of disagreement or where greater advocacy should take place, but we must first listen with compassion.
- A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger – Proverbs 15:1
- Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body – Proverbs 16:24
- Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger – James 1:19
3. Pray for caseworkers right where you live.
Have you noticed that when you consistently pray for someone your heart is stirred toward them? You’re invested in a way that you otherwise wouldn’t be because you are actively communicating about them to the Lord. Our caseworkers need your prayers as they care for children and families. They need to know that they aren’t in this work alone. It’s all too much. In weakness, we can run to the Lord. 1 John 5:14 tells us: And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
You can start small. Begin praying for caseworkers personally. Maybe you already know of caseworkers in your community—start praying for them individually. Or gather a group to pray for caseworkers. As you’ve built momentum, consider adding prayer for caseworkers into the church’s corporate prayer rotation.
Here’s a prayer guide that can help > Caseworker Prayer Guide
4. Rally around a day, week, or month and serve.
As you continue to grow in awareness, consider taking the next step and serve caseworkers directly. Invite your church to rally around a particular day, week, or month as you look for a way to serve. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It does have to be genuine that you care.
- Stop by with a treat or a handwritten note of encouragement
I recently sat down with the District Office Supervisor for our office. She shared that her office loves the 'encouragement cards' we dropped off during our monthly appreciation basket delivery. She told us that she was having a rough day and found the encouragement cards, picked one out, and read it. She also shared that multiple people have hung the cards in their office area as a way to encourage them when they need it.
JustinTFI Advocate
- Volunteer for an event they host
For our TFI Advocates, that has looked like providing prizes for annual foster parent awards, Filling Easter eggs for an agency egg hunt, or creating activity bags for parents and children to use as they are visiting each month.
- Find ways to help caseworkers connect to one another
Every year, we ask what the greatest need of the agency is. Every year for 3 years the answer has been retention improvement and employee morale. TFI has been able to create contexts where social workers can laugh together, feel loved and valued, and know someone cares that their work is often hard and thankless.
TessTFI Advocate
5. Move to consistent care.
Relationships grow where there is trust. To best support caseworkers, I’d invite you to be consistent throughout the year. Show up and listen to what needs they have for themselves or the families and children they serve. Be someone who is in their corner, someone they can call on anytime but also someone who is going to pursue them and help anticipate needs they might have when they are overwhelmed.
People need people. Caseworkers are just that, people. They want to know you’ll be there for them.
That was one of the things that I was concerned about initially because people will come and they'll want to maybe do an activity or an event. But (our TFI Advocate) told us from the beginning, I'm here for the long haul.
DanikaAssistant Director for Family Services
If you want to consistently care for caseworkers, you might just be the right fit for our TFI Advocate program. We’d love to train and walk with you as you navigate what an ongoing relationship with a foster care agency looks like.
We believe that well-cared-for people care well for people. We’d love to walk with you as you then walk with your caseworkers so that children and families can thrive!
Make a difference today.
Your support helps us continue to train Advocates across America to connect churches to local caseworkers, supporting them and sharing with them the redemptive love of Christ. Every contribution–big or small–brings us closer to creating lasting change.
