The first child assigned to my case load as a CPS Case Manager had the same first name as me and that was the only thing about our childhoods that were the same. Samantha’s story was heartbreaking and left you wondering how someone could do that to a child. Samantha was 16 years old and living in a treatment facility when we met. She was being treated for drug addition, physical, and emotional abuse. Her mother had been prostituting her and shooting her up with heroin. The odds were stacked against this child.
As I read through the case notes on the horrific things she had been through it became my mission to protect her and provide her with a better life from that moment on. Our shared name may have been thing that was the same about our lives but it connected us and was where our relationship and trust began. It wasn’t easy and there were times that I went looking for her in some extremely unsavory places armed only with my CPS badge and the determination to find and protect one of my kids.
It was full of ups and downs along the way and every time she ran away I would find her and bring her back. I never stopped fighting for her and then she started fighting for herself. She successfully completed treatment, earned her GED, went to live with her grandmother and became a Certified Nursing Assistant. She changed the course of her life and was definitely one of the success stories!
While My Setting Has Changed, My Mission Remains the Same
I may not be out in the field pounding the pavement today but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t my goal to protect children and provide them with a better life. Today my passion is directed at making all the social workers out there fighting the good fight job's easier - while improving child outcomes!
