10 Things a Social Worker Wants You To Know

Project Belong sat down to talk with a Christian child welfare social worker in the Northern Virginia region. These are ten takeaways that she would like to share with you!

1.  Every Christian should see themselves as a social worker.

There are a lot of Christians who don’t know anything about what child welfare workers do. Somewhere along the way, we passed the baton to the government. But we actually started the world of social work. The origins of these systems started with Christians in their communities serving others. I actually think that every Christian should consider themselves a social worker. But at the same time, there needs to be the right equipping to do so.

2.  Social workers are proud of what they do.

Completing the education and training to enter this work is a huge accomplishment, and I’m really proud of it.

It doesn’t always feel like the world sees it that way. When I tell people I am a social worker, people are generally impressed but I get the sense they think I’m a little crazy too. Maybe if more people were involved, or it were more normalized in the church, it wouldn’t be so shocking when people learn about my work.

3. Social workers do more than just removing children.

Social workers work with vulnerable families and children on many different levels. Yes, Child Protective Service workers go investigate substantiated reports and remove children in immediate danger. But we also work in prevention, where we provide services to the family in order to resolve conflicts or teach healthy skills so children can return home. I appreciate this about social work, because people can find the roles that are more suited for them.

4.  Social workers always seek first to reunify biological families.

Placements always start with the goal of reunification. Sometimes, knowing that can cause foster parents or people in supportive roles to slip into treating foster children as “other.” Great foster parents are intentional about making sure their foster children are treated as another member of the family. As Christians, we should be thoughtful about that.

5. Social workers carry a burden for biological parents.

One thing that was difficult for me to come to terms with is that the children I work with often do come from believing families. It’s not simply families who don’t know the Lord. One mom I am working with now is a strong believer and she is gracious and loves her kids. But then she is also wrapped in addiction and other unhealthy cycles. She doesn’t have the tools or community to apply scripture and her beliefs in the hard places of her life. As Christians, we need to be concerned about her too.

6.  Social workers are not the heroes. The foster parents are.

At the end of the day, the heroes of the whole foster care system are the foster parents. They have the bulk of the responsibility. As hard as my job is, the hardest job is being a foster parent.

That being said, it’s not a decision that should not be entered into lightly. You need to communicate with your worker about what you can handle. Because ultimately, it’s about laying down your life for kids who are not going to recognize it until many years later. 

7.  Social workers are well supported when the foster parents are well supported.

One way you can help a social worker is to support the foster parents. The better the foster families, the better off the worker is. A caseworker spends a lot of time helping foster parents manage. So if they are able to mostly manage on their own, that helps us a lot.

One foster parent I know is really frustrated with broken policies and implementation that keep falling short. In order to walk through these broken systems, these families need as much support as possible from the church.

8.  Social workers… like us all… can struggle with vilifying biological parents. 

Social workers and foster parents all need to work to combat this mindset. Sometimes, we try to reduce biological parents down to just “bad parents.” It can be easy to slip into the mentality that they are beyond repair and can never change. On hard days, even workers can label certain cases as hopeless. But that is not true - the hope of the gospel can touch and heal any situation.

9.  Social workers need good leaders and supervisors.

It’s so important to have a good boss. I would love to see more Christians in this field and stay for long enough to filter into roles like this. Sometimes I find that many Christians in this field will work for counties or their state when they first get started, but then they leave to go and do a less stressful job.

10.  We need more social workers.

Many people have first-hand experience with either foster care or adoption which gets them into this field, but that wasn’t my situation. It’s not something that should hold you back from getting involved. If you are drawn to the vulnerable, I encourage you to take baby steps to learn and serve. 

In college, I met a family who fostered and adopted. I became profoundly taken by individuals who open their hearts in this way and put themselves in really vulnerable positions. Since then, the Lord has weaved several experiences together for me, which has led to where I am now. You never know how God will lead.

We see how hard this work is and we are so thankful for each person who steps into social work!