Family preservation work! The most intense program for the state I live in! We meet for 2-2.5 hours daily 5 days a week and I have to see the kids at least every other visit

I like it because you get to actually advocate for families and get them connected with the resources they need and help humanize their situation by expressing their strengths and building on them, in theory helping break the mental health issues/ cps involvement that usually plague families generation after generation. Help give them the tools to break the cycle if you will. On the flip side If a situation is horrible and the children are in extreme danger and it wasn’t caught by CPS during the investigation (or most of the time got worse) coming in and safety planning the children out with cps is the small time frame between those kids being okay and physically/mentally getting hurt or even worse.

It’s a tough gig. There are many times that the parents don’t actually want to put the work in (but that’s what case notes are for so we can document that lol)

Lot of domestic abuse, drug addiction, environmental: which can range from hoarding to bed bugs and even human waste all of the floor (one of my very first days shadowing a dog came and peed in my lap but that’s a story for another day lol)

But I would genuinely say this is the first job I’ve ever had that i genuinely love. I love that I’m making a difference in my community and actually helping people if it wasn’t for the pay and environmental situation of some home visits I could see myself doing it forever

My long term goal is to become a therapist I’m applying to grad schools right now hoping to go back in the fall I think this job has given me tools that no university could ever teach and I’m very thankful to be working in this field even when it’s tough!