Stoneleigh Fellow Steve Volk and his Resolve Philly colleague Julie Christie have published an article for Metro Philadelphia discussing long-term staffing shortages in child welfare.
Usually, a stranger called Lexi Andino on her cellphone — “They would just tell me I’m getting a new caseworker.”
Andino, now 25, received that call throughout her 11 years in foster care. “I would guess it was 15 or 20 caseworkers I had. I stopped counting.”
Philadelphia deploys a two-pronged system to provide family and child services — government-employed staff, to investigate alleged child abuse and neglect cases; and private, contracted agencies that take the cases from there, providing in-home services to families or placements in foster care.
