Foster Families as Partners in Therapy

Beggs, Marjorie

Zellerbach Family Fund

Breaking the Cycle of Failure: Family Enrichment Network

Preserving the Cultural Legacy: Black Adoption Placement and Research

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

San Francisco Study Center

Family Preservation Programs: State's Successful New Strategy to Keep Children at Home

Ok in My Backyard: Issues and Rights in Housing for the Mentally Ill

Who decides if a child goes to foster care? What dangers do child welfare workers face? What is the impact of poverty and substance abuse on the child welfare system? Marjorie Beggs answers these questions and many more in In A Day's Work, a new book published by the nonprofit Study Center Press, which profiles four outstanding child welfare workers in California. Beggs did extensive interviews with each social worker and accompanied them on supervised parental visits, sexual abuse investigations, and into the court system. The result is a lively, journalistic account of individual case worker motivations, concerns, failures, and triumphs. The child welfare workers profiled are: Clara Zamora, a case worker in San Francisco's Emergency Response Sexual Abuse Unit; Susan Sontag-Cristano, Riverside County case worker in the Court Dependency Unit; David Weinreich, a Permanency Planning Unit case worker in South Central Los Angeles; and Barbara Williams, a court officer in Contra Costa County. Zamora, the only Spanish-speaking worker in her unit, believes all non-English-speaking families that get involved in the child welfare system would benefit from services in their own language but it should be mandatory for cases involving sexual abuse allegations. "Sexual issues are so intimate that it's difficult to talk about it all," she says, "not just for the family members but for the workers, too." Sontag-Cristano began working in Riverside County's emergency response and family maintenance department but two years ago transferred to the court dependency unit. "At first I hated the court stuff," she says. "Sometimes I feel like a hostage negotiator. I know that sounds crazy, but there are days I walk out of court like I just negotiated a United Nations peace treaty or something." All the social workers profiled reveal their motivation for entering such a stressful and sometimes frustrating profession. But they also discuss the satisfaction they feel on doing a good job, for children and parents alike. Barbara Williams takes particular pride in representing parents fairly. "They are in the worst possible situation," she says. "They've got someone coming in saying, 'You're a terrible parent. You shouldn't be raising your children.'" David Weinreich sums up the work of child welfare workers by saying, "This job is about problem solving. I tend to err on the side of the child. If I'm wrong, and I have been, then I'm wrong, but at least I've taken precautions. In my experience, children tell the truth." Beggs' in-depth interviews and scene-setting style make this book a vivid portrait of the people who work on the front lines of child welfare. At the same time, she imparts the facts and figures that describe a child protection system in California that has grown from 34,000 children in foster care in 1984 to 92,000 in 1995. In A Day's Work grew out of a project undertaken by the 12,000-member California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers to recognize accomplishments of child welfare workers and to portray their work realistically for people who are considering a career in social work. Sixteen county Social Services departments statewide were asked to nominate successful full-time child welfare workers. Nominees responded to questionnaires and participated in focus groups; four were chosen to be profiled in In A Day's Work.

In a Days Work: Four Child Welfare Workers in California

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Dual Diagnosis: Challenges of Serving Seriously Mentally Ill Substance Abusers relates the history of this growing problem, and reports on six San Francisco Bay Area counties' efforts to integrate mental health and addiction recovery treatment.

Dual Diagnosis: Challenges of Serving Seriously Mentally Ill Substance Abusers

Study Center Press

This book celebrates the Tenderloin at its most tender. It was inspired by the obituaries published in the Central City Extra — monthly newspaper for the neighborhood’s fixed-income and no-income populace. This is a hardscrabble script. The Tenderloin is San Francisco’s poorest neighborhood, a high-density, human services ghetto where hundreds of nonprofit and public providers serve a citywide caseload of homeless people in addition to treating the tribulations of the area’s 30,000 residents. Our hood is a mere few dozen square blocks cemented between downtown and Civic Center. Nob Hill is above, Skid Row below. Death in the Tenderloin is our eulogy to this historic, notorious neighborhood and its medley of people, absolutely the most diverse community in San Francisco, the heart of the city in more ways than one. We want you to come away with a sense of how difficult life is out here on the edge. This book encourages us to think about death, next to birth the most important part of life. Yet these stories are not all somber, they brim with optimism. The obituaries are about people whose death, mostly quiet and independent, is dignified by their memorials, the setting for the ensuing narratives. Memorials mostly are conducted in the SRO or apartment building where the person lived. Typically they are officiated by Rev. Glenda Hope, the Tenderloin closer, who invites The Extra to attend to let the community know of the person’s passing and what they meant to those left behind. We edited the published obituaries, deleting courtesy titles and most dates, occasionally adding landscape details to sharpen the image of the Tenderloin and the people who live here. Most who are portrayed battled addictions, exorcising personal demons — or not. Quite a few had been recently homeless and, with what seemed like a sixth sense, came in from the cold to die in relative comfort with a roof over their head. Most of these people are unknowns, some are known beyond the Tenderloin, a very few even farther. Certain readers might regret that all important dates aren’t provided. But this is not a history book. It is an anthology of short stories that deal with death and dying in a rarefied setting. Each character is unique. The companion essays — three of them are edited features that were published in The Extra — offer a journalistic context. The stories are largely composed of the facts of the dead person’s life as their survivors and mourners recalled them, impressions and candid reminiscences of friends, family, neighbors and caregivers. In this culture, where last names are not important, shared experiences make people tight. Each story helps etch a feeling for life in San Francisco’s Tenderloin — a neighborhood and a state of mind.

Death in the Tenderloin: A slice of life from the heart of San Francisco

Carter, Tom

Link, Geoff

Sociology

<p>This book celebrates the Tenderloin at its most tender. It was inspired by the obituaries published in the Central City Extra — monthly newspaper for the neighborhood’s fixed-income and no-income populace. This is a hardscrabble script. The Tenderloin is San Francisco’s poorest neighborhood, a high-density, human services ghetto where hundreds of nonprofit and public providers serve a citywide caseload of homeless people in addition to treating the tribulations of the area’s 30,000 residents. Our hood is a mere few dozen square blocks cemented between downtown and Civic Center. Nob Hill is above, Skid Row below. Death in the Tenderloin is our eulogy to this historic, notorious neighborhood and its medley of people, absolutely the most diverse community in San Francisco, the heart of the city in more ways than one. We want you to come away with a sense of how difficult life is out here on the edge. This book encourages us to think about death, next to birth the most important part of life. Yet these stories are not all somber, they brim with optimism. The obituaries are about people whose death, mostly quiet and independent, is dignified by their memorials, the setting for the ensuing narratives. Memorials mostly are conducted in the SRO or apartment building where the person lived. Typically they are officiated by Rev. Glenda Hope, the Tenderloin closer, who invites The Extra to attend to let the community know of the person’s passing and what they meant to those left behind. We edited the published obituaries, deleting courtesy titles and most dates, occasionally adding landscape details to sharpen the image of the Tenderloin and the people who live here. Most who are portrayed battled addictions, exorcising personal demons — or not. Quite a few had been recently homeless and, with what seemed like a sixth sense, came in from the cold to die in relative comfort with a roof over their head. Most of these people are unknowns, some are known beyond the Tenderloin, a very few even farther. Certain readers might regret that all important dates aren’t provided. But this is not a history book. It is an anthology of short stories that deal with death and dying in a rarefied setting. Each character is unique. The companion essays — three of them are edited features that were published in The Extra — offer a journalistic context. The stories are largely composed of the facts of the dead person’s life as their survivors and mourners recalled them, impressions and candid reminiscences of friends, family, neighbors and caregivers. In this culture, where last names are not important, shared experiences make people tight. Each story helps etch a feeling for life in San Francisco’s Tenderloin — a neighborhood and a state of mind.</p>

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Beggs, Marjorie. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Beggs, Marjorie