Fresno County Social Workers clarify this perfect storm of failure of leadership from the Director of Department of Social Services and chronic underfunding of local social services. Workers demand solutions around training, adequate staffing, retention, and better working conditions to address the child welfare crisis.
Fresno, Calif – Local minors are living and sleeping in a handful of Fresno County Protective Services (CPS) offices, including L Street office, while under the Department of Social Services’ custody. The youth are consistently under unsafe, unsanitary, and unnecessary living conditions as county staff look for permanent placement while some children endure challenges in finding permanent housing.
Fresno County Social Workers, represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521, cry out for accountability in holding the Director Delfino Neira in Fresno County’s Department of Social Services and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to address this crisis that office spaces are shared with staff and foster children. The pressconference was held at Fresno County Child Protective Service Office at 1404 L Street in Fresno, CA on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, to make the public aware of the child welfare crisis in Fresno County.
Conditions inside this office as well as other CPS offices in Fresno include minors sleeping on yoga mats and concrete floors, inadequate and limited access to bathing facilities, kitchen appliances, or even food. The minors’ placement in offices based on their mental health needs, behavioral needs, age or gender do not exist and results in office property damages, drug abuse, and leads to the safety of other minors and staff to be threatened far too many times.
This is an excerpt from a letter a young girl in CPS custody wrote, explaining her experience:
““Dear Lorraine, my experience with being in the CPS is good and bad because some of you guys are nice and you guys feed us and protect us and find us placement. The bad thing is that sometimes I’m in the office for a long time and you guys give us a lot of junk food …. Being in the office triggers my mental health and it makes me impatient.”
SEIU 521 social workers have also filed a charge against the County regarding the out of hand, out of control caseload quotas they had to endure over the past several years. The Department Director’s position has been, “we’d rather fire and discipline social workers than provide the relief they need.” Both the union and the County are currently scheduled to go before a labor judge starting next week to talk about the social workers’ concerns of unsafe caseloads.
A number of other Californian counties utilize holding facilities, equipped with beds, showers, and holding rooms tailored to the mental and behavioral needs, for minors entering the system while alternative permanent placements are being looked into.
The crisis our children face in Fresno County is just the tip of the iceberg and is a perfect storm of leadership failure within the department due to chronic underfunding of social services.
Department of Social Services directors are unwilling to collaborate with staff on how to resolve the child welfare crisis and dismiss any input rank-and-file workers may offer. Social workers are tired of the Department Management team turning a blind eye on these issues that have been well known for years; the child welfare crisis was happening even before the current pandemic.
The social workers call on the public to contact the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to work diligently with the management team at the Department of Social Services and tell them that the solutions out of the crisis doesn’t come from the state or federal level, it lies at the feet of the management team and what they deem are priorities.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE:
“I want to make it clear this is not the social workers’ making decisions to have kids sleep in offices, on tables, without appropriate meals or the ability to take showers daily; it’s the county responsibility. It’s not a question of if something horrible is going to happen; it’s a matter of asking management when does this end?” Yolanda Reyes, SEIU 521 Member, Fresno County Social Worker.
“I can hear it now, the Department will blame the child welfare crisis on state authorities, or CAL/OSHA regulations preventing beds or cots being placed in work spaces and that the state discontinued group homes for youth to live in. But I have to tell you, other counties are handling the children in their custody much more humanely and this tells me that Fresno County management think that children sleeping and living in offices are the answer and its NOT,” scolded Lorraine Ramirez, SEIU 521 Member, Fresno County Social Worker.
“And, as a matter of fact, a new building doesn’t make me a better social worker. Reasonable caseloads at a job where I’m happy, and I’m invested in, and I’m listened to, and earning a decent salary for the hard work I produce. That would make me a better social worker. When I’m a better social worker, or if I’m on a team of strong social workers, we find safe and suitable placements for children faster. When we are able to devote years and maybe even decades to our department, the community benefits from experienced county workers who know the workarounds, the community partners, and the proven approaches to place children in safe homes as quickly as possible,” said Hector Cerda, SEIU 521 Member, Fresno County Social Worker.
Supporting data and photos:
- Graphs on child welfare metrics
- Data on retention and staffing at Fresno County
- Fresno Bee – ‘Inhumane’ conditions: Children under Fresno County Custody living in office space
- Photos from the floor of CPS and child care conditions.
- Photos from today’s press conference.
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Service Employees International Union, Local 521 represents 53,000 public- and nonprofit, private-sector workers in California’s Bay Area, Central Coast and Central Valley regions. Under a Community First vision, we are committed to making sure the needs of our community, and the vital services we provide our community, come first. We believe our communities thrive when residents, leaders, and workers recognize that we are all in this together when it comes to our safety, health, and well-being.
