From Pariahs to Partners
How Parents and their Allies Changed New York City's Child Welfare System
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- $31.99
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- $31.99
Publisher Description
At the end of the 20th century, New York City had one of the worst child welfare systems in the United States: 50,000 children were in foster care; they and their families were often neglected or abused by the system; parents had no voice; and the services designed to protect children were more often harming, rather than helping, them.
From Pariahs to Partners tells for the first time the inspiring story of the parents and their allies--child welfare commissioners, social workers, lawyers, and foundation officers--who joined together to change the system. David Tobis situates this remarkable success within the larger history of child services in the U.S., a roller coaster of alternating crisis and reform that failed to produce lasting change. But the major focus of the book is on individual parents-most of them women, many of them black or Latina, and all of them poor-who came back from the "other side" of domestic violence, drug addiction, homelessness, and poverty to fight for their rights and their children. Many of these parents recognized their own role in the wrenching experience of losing custody of their children. They entered drug treatment programs, underwent intensive counseling, left abusive relationships, got jobs, filed lawsuits, and were reunited with their sons and daughters. Some took the next step and trained to become parent organizers. Tobis shows how their efforts increased benefits for families and reduced the number of children in foster care in New York City to 15,000 in 2011.
David Tobis was a central figure in the child welfare reform movement, and From Pariahs to Partners draws on his own personal experience, as well detailed case examples from parent advocates, to tell a rare story of the triumph of individual and collective activism over bureaucratic inertia and ineptitude.
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After being approached by an anonymous donor, Tobis, who has worked in New York City's child welfare system since 1979, used the donation to co-create the Child Welfare Fund, which aims to help children and families in need and reform the city's welfare system. His account begins with a brief history of child welfare efforts in N.Y.C. before 1995. Many reform efforts were doomed before they began, despite good intentions, due to institutional inertia and limited social services. Tobis details his efforts, and those of his allies, to make parents and foster children more aware of their rights within the system, and provides statistics that highlight flaws in the system. Whether the efforts to transform New York's child welfare efforts into something more effective and humane will survive rotating agency heads and funding issues remains to be seen, but Tobis, at least, seems optimistic. This potentially important book, however, is hampered by an over-reliance on anecdotes. While a useful and engaging introduction to the subject, the treatment remains cursory, leaving the reader yearning for a more thorough text.
