child welfare specialist

foster parent

clinical therapist

case manager

program assistant

SOS Childrens Villages International

I always had a busy day where i reported to office, looked at what i had done the prevoius day in my diary and what i had planned to do for the week then i would plan for the whole day and then set off to work. Most times i would go to the field at 2:00 pm if at all i have a field activity i planned for.

I gained alot of experience especially working with the rural community, in the area of family livelihoods, behavoiur change communication, food security and nutrition. I enjoyed the economic empowernment of families most becuse of the results it always yeilded. If the family income improved, then they would afford anything.

We always worked as a team and made friends of our collegues.

The hardest part of the job was attitude change of the people in the community. If any one belived that they are poor then you need alot to make them believe that they can be better than what they are at the moment.

The most enjoyable part of the job is introducing something to the community and they pick it up, makes a difference in thier lives, and seeing a changed community, families and a very appreciative group of poeple for whatever you have done for them

SOS states that it provides stable and nurturing homes for the children and they do not.  Siblings are often not placed in the same homes and are moved frequently. Upper management does not have experience in child welfare and do not implement proper policies per DCFS standards. Biological families and children often have to wait for services due to bureaucratic policies. Foster parents do not feel supported and are not able to adopt the children in their care. SOS employs 'relief parents' who often do not have experience in child welfare and assign them to supervise parent/child visits. These staff often do not speak English fluently and are not part of the case management team. SOS runs more like a business instead of a child welfare agency. There is high caseworker turnover due to numerous stressors created by upper management that go unaddressed.

I managed food security, income generating activities projects, education, infrastructure development, managed HIV/AIDS projects which were funded by USAID PEMPFAR. 

One day in 2009, i had Monitoring and Evaluation visitors from USAID and visited my HIV/AIDS project in Luangwa township, met the project beneficiaries. They found that the project was on track and progressing well as per implementation plan. 

I have learnt one thing in project management and that is to keep projects on track and execute the implementation plan accordingly.

The hard part of my job was to mitigate the HIV/AIDS impact among the affected and infected beneficiaries, which mostly it is a challenging  and hardest task for the Manager.

My Job was enjoyable in the sense that i managed cross cutting project activities which made me to learn alot in my day to day work.

Good program idea of keeping large sibling groups together but SOS has not figured out how best to implement this model. Although each child did not have special needs, large, sometimes unrelated, traumatized children in one home with a brand new foster parent without special needs training equals disaster! The foster homes were in constant crisis and disarray. Upper management was aware but did nothing, leaving the case managers and direct supervisors to deal with non-stop, 24-hour crisis intervention. There was, unsurprisingly high turnover due to burnout. It would be helpful to change the contract with DCFS to include specialized foster care to allow foster parents to receive more training and for more therapeutic services to be provided to the children.

Fully engaged in productive activities from 8.00am--5.00pm daily.
Opportunity to serve and work for children without parental care or at risk or loosing parental care. Protecting these most vulnerable children in our world is more than a job but a calling from God.

Effective and efficient management team with vision for growth and maximum mobilization and utilization of resources.

Competent and hard working co-workers.

Defending the best interests and protecting vulnerable children from all forms of violence and abuses is not easy in present world of ours.

Child protection and safeguarding work is a passion. I believe in it and as such, I am enjoying every opportunity to promote this sensitive work.

I was getting to know the young ladies who  I was working with better while living with them.  We'd just started going to church and trusting each other more.  My first week I didn't have a chance to organize or to get things done because I had to take a child to an appointment every day of that week.  the training I was to have received was null and void.  A coworker there did manage to assist me. Then it seems I was terminated after working really hard to improve the home for the young ladies by an overzealous newly appointed higher up.   The job just wanted paper work.  They've since closed the house.

A typical day normally involves cooking, cleaning, transporting clients to appointments/activities. I've learned children in this particular agency are provided with good services and support. However, the culture of the organization is very corrupt.  Hence favoritism was often shown towards certain employees/staff, which often lead to wrongful termination. The hardest part of the job was keeping up with paper work. The most enjoyable part of the job was spending time with the clients.

SOS is an agency that provides homes for children I. DCFS care.  They also provide you as the foster parent a home while caring for their children.  You are now a full time mom all over again.  That means, you are on duty 24 hrs a day 7 days a week, 365 days per year.  SOS has a Respite Staff in place to give the foster parents a break. Not all Respite workers can handle the children in care which mean something’s the foster parent may not get a break or day off.

The administrative team has a great deal of control. Unfortunately, there are not specific goals identified for each child in one's care. Therefore, too many Foster parents are left to their own agenda. Often, the children need counseling and therapeutic support. But, those critical needs sometimes are not met. This assignment is not easy. Be prepared to think on your feet, when living and working with adolescent children.

a typical work day is having a passion to work with children. I have learned a great deal of patience, tolerance, and understanding. I do think that management can be improved, love the culture and atmosphere, the hardest part about the job is the sacrifice of helping children who have had trauma, the most enjoyable part of my job is knowing that I have been able to help children and to instill morals, and values so they can be successful in life

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Child welfare specialist 3 salaries reported	$59,667 per year
Foster parent 4 salaries reported	$16.30 per hour
Clinical therapist 1 salary reported	$63,500 per year
Case manager 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour
Program assistant 2 salaries reported	$45,000 per year

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