BSW and MSW graduates of the Child Welfare Education and Training Partnership are honored

May 22, 2009 - BSW and MSW graduates of the Child Welfare Education and Training Program overseen by the School of Social Work were told Thursday they are part of the legacy of a reform movement to better protect and serve families and children in Indiana.

Dean Michael Patchner

“You are part of history,” said Michael Patchner, Dean of the Indiana University School of Social Work, told the students at a ceremony to mark their achievement.

“It’s the most important job you will ever have in your entire life,” Patchner told the graduates, all from IUPUI. “We know that social workers do it better,” Patchner said of the skills they learned as students that they can now use to help families and children.

“A lot of things came together that allowed you to be here today,” the dean noted. Events that included high profile child welfare cases that led to a sense that the state’s child welfare system needed to be improved unfolded as first candidate Mitch Daniels and then Governor Daniels pushed to make child welfare a priority in Indiana.

The governor acted on recommendations of a state commission on child welfare chaired by Dean Patchner that made some 40 recommendations on how to better help families and children. Among other things, the governor made a commitment to hire hundreds of new case managers, the dean pointed out.

Melissa Norman, an executive manager with the Indiana Department of Child Services, and former MSW graduate who participated in the child welfare training program, told the graduates she understood the commitment and sacrifice the students had made to reach this point in the lives.

Melissa Norman

 

The Department of Child Services under the leadership of its director, James Payne, has undergone “nothing short of a true transformation of practice and policy that embraces a renewed commitment for social work values and ethics,” Norman said.

The partnership between the state and the social work program was created out of a shared goal to enhance the professional development of child welfare workers, Norman said. “We all know the agency is as good as those it calls upon to be the voice and vehicle for the work that is done.”

“I can speak from experience that the skills that you have learned you will use every single day,” Norman told the graduates. “This is without a doubt the hardest job that I have ever done and I love it.”

“I can tell you with confidence that my employment with DCS and my education and my master’s degree from IU have prepared me to go out and do the best I can every single day. I think you will find that as well.”