Following last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, community members gathered at the Boys and Girls Club on July 30 to discuss the local child welfare system. The Social Policy Institute at San Diego State University presented its findings on Kern County’s Child Welfare System, emphasizing the importance of community engagement and feedback.
These findings concluded that there were no substantial systemic failures in child protective services. Additionally, it found that Kern County’s child welfare system is on par with statewide and national averages.
The conversation began with the community strongly voicing that social workers and foster parents should both undergo an evaluation to improve the system and protect children from further dangerous environments.
The recommendations provided by the public help ensure a better understanding between Child Protective Services (CPS) and the community to provide improvements in the department.
Zeta Doroteo, a foster mom, provided an example of a family that is experiencing poverty and mentioned CPS can help them by having more social workers. She stated that not every social worker is bad, as she has had both good and bad experiences with select social workers, and that social workers need to be trained better.
She argued that social workers need to be more understanding and not judge a person’s life even though bad parents exist.
“They need not walk into homes and right away judge. Now there’s a lot of bad parents out there. There’s a lot of bad foster parents out there. Don’t come in right away to judge; come in sympathetic, look at me like you care about me,” said Doroteo. “I think a lot of it needs to come down to retraining these foster parents, these social workers, on how they approach families. They approach the families we’re trying to, you know, keep together because I’m pretty sure 70% of these children, there’s a way to reunite these children.”
Doroteo emphasized the importance of advocating for all children’s well-being.
“Because they’re human. That was me. That was me many years ago. That was you many years ago. There are so many of us, like, it’s too late to save me. You know, I’ve already grown up. When I needed the help, the help wasn’t there for me. The backs were turned. And so, I decided, I’m gonna spend my life until my last breath,” said Doroteo. “I’m gonna help everybody else around me. So they don’t have to suffer, and try to make their suffering less. Try to help where it needs to be, where people seem to overlook everything. That’s why it’s important to me, because that was me.”
Sierra Mojica, a foster parent, shared her situation with her foster kids and social worker interactions.
“My situation is different, though with my foster kiddo there, the social worker is not reporting everything, all the safety issues with this child. And we are just very upset,” stated Mojica.
She stated her social worker was not communicating and dismissed what she was saying until the visit of her child.
She claimed that she has been reaching out to supervisors and emailing them, but they responded to wait two months to receive a call back. Mojica acknowledged that there is a need for social workers’ training while also focusing on the child’s background.
“I see there’s a lot of training that’s needed; I’m worried that there’s not enough when it comes to the children. It’s not just about love. You’ve got to understand what they’ve been through, how to care for this child, keep that child alive, or you have doctors stating this is not safe because it’s a mentally ill kid.”
Lito Morillo, Director of Human Services, clarified that this event was intended for the community. Morillo shared his thoughts on CPS and how families deal with many issues, and CPS is not equipped to handle every situation.
“When you think about child protective services in most counties, including this one, it’s pretty silent. Our social workers go out, our services are rendered right then and there,” said Morillo. “But our families deal with so many dynamics. Substance abuse, talking about domestic violence, behavioral health issues, a whole host of things are happening. And child welfare, by itself, is not really designed to encapsulate and solve all those issues.”
Morillo addressed the final recommendation regarding a wellness system of care on how it can provide better care for families.
“It’s really talking about how do we get our partners, and how do we get more services into this household? So that way, when we leave, or we’re done, there’s a particular referral, that engagement, I will follow up with that family in terms of engagement, relationship, and understanding that we provide as much service as we possibly can,” said Morillo.
Several community members argued for the need to improve social workers’ training to ensure consistency, observations, concerns, and respect towards parents, as previously weren’t shown in visits, and not being biased on cultural differences in family separation.
In the public conversation, parents discussed that they need performance reviews as well as social workers to improve the safety of the children and provide a clear process to file complaints as necessary. Public comments concluded with the recommendation that social workers should be provided mental health support as they are overworked with many cases.
Mojica addressed her thoughts on the independent review of the findings.
“I have some mixed feelings about it, to be honest, but honestly, I feel like they do want to make changes. I did feel that from everybody who spoke. And from the information they’re providing, there is truth. We need more social workers. But we also need more training, and I’m so happy that they did mention the training, cause I think that’s where a lot of people are falling through the cracks there, and they did just talk about training in CPS,” said Mojica.
She stated there were other options to provide training and come together as a community to address these issues.
“They also talked about training through other workforces and combining this as a unit. We all need to work together to get through the community. So I do believe that part is a great start. I do think there’s a lot of other things they still need to address,” said Mojica.
Doroteo expressed her view on the independent review findings.
“It sounds like it’s a good plan. That’s what it sounds like. If it actually happens, that’s what we have to wait and see. But to me, it sounds like we have good plans,” said Doroteo. “I think a lot of the people here tonight brought up even more things that I think I really hope they listen to us, and they implement those as well.”
Mojica expressed her expectations of what she expects child welfare to prioritize.
“Honestly, I think they’re gonna focus on the workload, like bringing more social workers in. But I’m praying they actually start with more of the retraining, ’cause that’s what we need to do: retraining, not training new ones, retraining who’s already in there. And help them do better,” said Mojica.
