I’m writing to express our gratitude for social workers during March, National Social Work Month.
As the director of CASA of San Luis Obispo County, I oversee the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers who are independent, sworn officers of the court, appointed to investigate a foster child’s circumstances and advocate for the child’s best interests. Our CASAs see how skillfully social workers do a very difficult job of supporting children and families in the child welfare system. Together, we form a team, ensuring that a judge has the most up-to-date information to make life-altering decisions for the family and that the child receives all of the services and support he or she needs.
We see first-hand how San Luis Obispo County social workers juggle multiple cases, work in high stress circumstances with families and individuals coping with serious health and legal issues and stand on the front lines, keeping children safe and ensuring families have the resources they need to heal.
Social workers deserve our recognition and support not just during this month but every day.
Teresa Tardiff
executive director, CASA of SLO County
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Mar 22 – Apr 1, 2018.
What a shame that county supervisor Lynn Compton (good buddies with supervisors Debbie Arnold and John Peschong and an eager if mindless tool for unethical COLAB lobbyists) does not hold the same respect for social work, going out of her way to publicly denigrate social workers, implying they are fools and hypocrites for working at jobs that make it difficult to afford decent housing in San Luis Obispo County. From Comptons perspective, anyone having difficulty affording housing should simply marry someone wealthy or grab a job as a hedge fund manager…or get elected to a seat on the county Board of Supervisors.
Thank you, Teresa, for this kind letter. Social Workers in Child Welfare are like police officers: They see the things that other people don’t have to see, and then go home and try to live a life as though they have not been affected by witnessing the effects of torture, of sexual abuse, of the worst kinds of neglect. They suffer the scorn of the ignorant, no matter whether they return the children to their parents or keep them in foster care. They suffer the idiocy of the conspiracy theorists (yes, rightword 2, Lynn Compton is one of them) who believe that removing children from their homes is somehow a “money-maker” for the County, for the Department of Social Services. I had the opportunity to work for 40 years with heroes, and those heroes–underpaid, overworked, suffering the hostilities of fools–are known simply as “Social Workers.”