This young man who was nearing adulthood was very respectful and quiet at first. He seemed to have his mind made up about what he wanted to do with his life. But, at the end of 2020, things changed. When the case first appeared at my desk, the young man hoped to be...

We often meet with clients for an hour at a time usually. In most cases, that one interaction in our only connection. Other cases, we have several FTMs on the same case so we see the parties more than once. So, trying to see how I have made a difference took me some...

Did I hear you correct?  Jennifer* took her four kids to the emergency room because she thought they ingested embalming fluid? I spent an hour talking to the foster care worker and hearing the case details. Immediately, I knew I had an unusual case after hearing...

When we think about becoming first-time parents we are in a good place in our lives, we have a stable living situation and a solid support system. Now imagine that you are 19 and fresh out of high school and have none of that.  When I first met Lisa,* she had been...

When we work out in the field we do not always hear from our clients how we impact their lives. Then, one day I received a text from a client 3 weeks after I started working with the family.  She said: “I just want to take a second and say that I am so thankful for...

I have only worked with this client a few weeks, but in those few weeks, I feel as if I have made a significant difference in how she sees herself and enabled her to be the strength her children needed to move forward.  In the AIH program, we get referrals for a...

I began working with a young man in his mid-twenties in November 2021. Unlike the oftentimes awkwardness of an initial meeting, this young man was immediately open with his life story, humble about past mistakes, and hopeful for a future that includes sobriety,...

One Example of How our Foster care and Licensing Departments Work with Our Adoption Department   I became responsible in 2020 for an adoption involving a 4-year-old girl. It was explained to her that I was going to find her a forever family. I was going to have...