In a Days Work: Four Child Welfare Workers in California

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.