Beliefs and Assumptions Guiding Our Work  

In the course of our work with children, families and our community we believe:  

The role of DFS is to determine the safety of children, and, where change is needed in families, to influence positive change in families and youth that will ensure future safety, permanency and well-being.  

A child's safety takes precedence over all other concerns.  

Most parents are capable of and motivated to protect and nurture their children.  

A child's emotional security powerfully influences development and well-being.  

Where maltreatment does not make a child unsafe, the child's emotional security afforded by remaining in the family takes precedence over removal as a safety action.  

A child's emotional security is strongly linked to family membership, and particularly to continuity in the relationship with the birth parent(s), followed by continuity of caregiver relationships.   Family members' emotional security powerfully influences their ability to focus on the needs of the child.  

Interventions to assure safety invariably affect the emotional security of the child and other family members.  

The art of child welfare practice involves successfully balancing concerns for safety with concern for the emotional security of children and families.  

Families who have not criminally abused their children should not be treated as criminals.  

A child's need for permanency and emotional security takes precedence over certain parental rights, and therefore, limits the time that can or will be afforded a parent to demonstrate the ability to meet a child's need for safety and well-being.  

Successfully meeting the child's needs requires attention to safety, permanency, emotional security and overall well-being.  

Children in the custody of the County should receive a higher level of care than the standards minimally set for families.  

The cooperation of family members, caregivers and youth is influenced significantly by the respect and consideration we demonstrate with them.  

The helping relationship is a principle basis for influencing and facilitating human change.   Sustained change is dependent on the existence of a viable system of social supports external to the child welfare agency.  

The focus of intervention should be based on the child's needs for safety, development and well-being rather than society's need to punish caregiver acts.  

Culture reflects the variety of ways in which different groups of people have come to understand and solve problems, thus differences must be considered as alternative strengths rather than as deficits.