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I try to be that one adult a child can feel safe talking to.

Jason

”The social worker may be the only one you can trust.”

July-August 2001

by Richard Bermack

Jason has been in the system five years and has had five workers. He has had several placements, but finally the last one took, and he considers his foster parents his family. “They may not be blood, but it feels like they are. If something happens, I will call them. I call my foster mom my grandma,” he states.

Social work is one of the professions he is considering. He feels social workers made a difference in his life, but he wishes they could have been there more. “Social work interests me,” he explains, “because when I was 13 years old I was in a new house and the only person I was close to was my social worker. But she would only come when there was a court date or something. I would call, but she wasn’t in the office. I felt if I was a social worker I would change things. I would make visits and show up more. When you place a child, for that first week or two they may be dazed. So you should check up on them every couple of days. Because the child might not know anyone in the area, and they don’t yet trust the caretaker. So the only person they can trust may be their social worker.”