A Social Worker’s Journey

In 1998, after completing my master’s in social work, I started working with the Department of Social Services in Durham County, first in protective services and then with adoptions. I saw firsthand what communities were experiencing and how traumatic family separations can be both for parents and children. I began to understand the gravity of what happens when children are removed from everything they know – home, family and community – and are placed into foster care. I was always struck by their strength, tenacity, hope, and how they balanced their desire to reconnect to familiar things with the growing bonds they formed with foster and adoptive parents. 

For the next few years, I sought opportunities to further develop my knowledge and skills to support families and children, holding positions that focused on strengthening foster care and adoption practice, as well as policy at the state and federal levels. I worked alongside compassionate and dedicated social workers, administrators, advocates and partners who were committed to pushing themselves and challenging the limitations of the system to better serve families and children. I gained a deeper appreciation for the complexities of the child welfare system and the inherent challenges to providing the best resources, practices and support to those who need them most. I also began to learn more about the philanthropic sector and how a private foundation, like The Duke Endowment, can be a key partner for public and private social work agencies by making investments to support, elevate and expand programs that show great promise and advocate for policies that promote the use and spread of effective practices. 

For example, in 2008, while I was working at the North Carolina Division of Social Services, the Endowment awarded a multi-year grant to support Family Finding, an initiative that sought to connect older youth in foster care with often-estranged relatives who would be willing to either provide homes or at least maintain close contact, emotional support and ties to the child. Endowment funding was the catalyst to test core components of the model and compare the outcomes of different implementation approaches. More than 400 children received Family Finding services. The evaluation found that while the program increased kinship care for children and 86 percent of cases resulted in relatives committing to an ongoing relationship with children, children who received Family Finding were no more likely than the control group to move toward adoption, guardianship or reunification. While the evaluation results were somewhat disappointing, there were great learnings about search and engagement, private and public partnerships and the support that social workers need to help navigate family dynamics. Plus, the division’s foray into Family Finding and the Endowment’s funding allowed me the opportunity to lead a program that bridged a public-private partnership and put new aspects of my social work training into practice. I had no idea back then that in 2011 I would join the Child and Family Well-Being team at The Duke Endowment, exploring new ideas that center collaboration and pushing our grantmaking and child welfare forward. 

The work of child welfare seems never-ending; in the Carolinas, we have approximately 15,000 children in foster care on any given day. The Endowment has continued to partner with nonprofits and government agencies to expand promising programs to meet overwhelming needs and mobilize change. For example, Strengthening Families Program participants in North Carolina and South Carolina have consistently shown statistically significant improvements in 14 outcomes, including family cohesion and communication, positive parenting and parenting skills, and children have fewer depressive symptoms and improved social skills. The Incredible Years® in North Carolina also has significant improvement across seven outcomes with improved parenting and appropriate discipline. 

From teen pregnancy prevention programs to evidence-based parenting models such as those mentioned above, I’ve learned more about the importance of supporting research and rigor to effectuate the results we seek, and I’ve also learned to embrace the opportunities that come from work that doesn’t achieve our best-laid plans. 

I know that we at The Duke Endowment do not have all the answers, but we do have a 100-year-old directive from our founder, James B. Duke, to enrich lives and strengthen communities. We also are fortunate to have the tools and partnerships to help support change. The challenges are still enormous, but rather than being discouraged, my colleagues and I are optimistic that we can help overcome these obstacles by supporting the organizations that are doing this work well and the programs that are proven to be effective. We listen to and are encouraged by the voices we hear in the community that inform how we work and how we change. We are inspired to support continuing innovation and research that will help develop and test new methods to close gaps and disparities for populations that require a different approach. And, most of all, we are driven by the shared value of serving others and doing more to make life better for children and families across the Carolinas.