The three of us have our internships at Butte County Children's Services Division. The Children's Services program provides child welfare protective services as required by the state. Child Welfare services means public social services which are directed toward the accomplishment of the following purposes: protecting and promoting the welfare of all children, including handicapped, homeless, dependent or neglected children. Including preventing or remedying, or assisting in the solution of problems which may result in, the neglect, abuse, exploitation or delinquency of children. Also preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their families by identifying family problems, assisting families in resolving their problems, and preventing breakups of the family. Identifying children to be placed in suitable adoptive homes, identifying children who can be returned home one day, and assuring adequate care of children while they are in placement is another function. Child welfare services may include, but are not limited to, case management, counseling, emergency shelter care, parenting training, transportation, out of home respite care and other services.
During our internship we have all participated in detentions, and have seen first hand what children take with them. Some children are detained from schools or hospitals and thus they have nothing to take with them when they are put into placement. Others have nothing to take with them. Out of all children that are detained 56% are due to general neglect. These are the kids that we wanted to help.
Statement of Need
Through our own experiences, talking with social workers and interviews with supervisors we found that it might help if these children had something to call their own. We decided to focus on teenage girls. Younger children are given a lot of attention and toys during a detention, but older children are somewhat isolated.
Description of the Intervention
Our plan of intervention was to come up with something that detaining social workers could give to girls they are detaining. The suggestions that we got from social workers were to give them something to do with make up or hair stuff, something that would fit into their stage of adolescence. We decided we would make small bags full of product samples. (Makeup, soap, shampoos, lotion, cotton balls, toothbrushes, deoderant and nail polish). We had all these products donated from local stores and vendors.
Evaluation of the Intervention
Our intervention has yet to be used. There is no way to predict when a detention will happen and who the child will be. All the detaining social workers are excited to have these bags at their disposal and believe they will make a difference.
Reflections on the Project
This was a very fulfilling project. It was very rewarding to know that maybe we have helped to make one detention a little better. We were also amazed at how willing people were to make donations to our project. We feel that we achieved 75% of the expected result of the project.
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Http://www.state.il.us/dcfs/FCBRO.HTM
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