Spotlight on CFCS: Hannah Bowe

There are countless stories that live within our walls at CFCS, but not all of them come from the children and families we work with. Our employees –  the social workers, case managers, interns, admins and directors who make our agency run smoothly – are the reason for our success as an organization. They also happen to be interesting people with quite a few good stories of their own!  

We’re highlighting the rich experiences and perspectives our staff bring to the office with a series on the blog called “Spotlights on CFCS”. Today we’re celebrating Hannah Bowe, Intensive Foster Care Social Worker! 

Tell us about yourself! 

I got my Bachelor’s in social work from Simmons, and then right after that my MSW, also at Simmons. I came to this job right out of grad school. This is my first social work position, besides the internships I had in grad school. I’d had a grad school classmate who interned in the FSS program, and I heard good things about CFCS from her. Also, a friend of my family’s is a board member and has been for years. So, through these avenues I heard about CFCS, and I was poking around online for jobs, CFCS popped up. I’ve been here since August 2018. 

What does your job entail? 

One of my favorite things about this job is the feeling of pride and accomplishment

My role is specifically to do case management for my clients, youth in foster care: making referrals for youth, making sure their needs are being met, and making sure that all the people on a client’s team (teachers, therapists, mentors, DCF workers, family members, and me) are all on the same page, that we’re all talking to each other.  

I see all of the youth whose cases I manage once a week. Nowadays, that’s mostly virtual. I try to assess how they’re adjusting to their placement, how emotionally stable they are and if they need more supports. I’m helping clients to get them ready for their next step – hopefully, a permanent placement. I also talk with foster parents to make sure they have the tools they need to help the specific children in their home. If not, I try to get them those tools and resources. 

What’s a challenge you’ve faced in this job that you’ve overcome? 

Whenever I tell anyone about my job, their gut reaction is, “That must be so…emotionally draining.” And I honestly haven’t found that to be true. 

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that I am often more present in my clients’ lives than their DCF social worker, because it’s my job to be. It’s my job to see the kids weekly and talk to all their providers more frequently. It’s DCF’s job to make sure they have a safe placement and to mostly work with biological family members.  

So I see clients more often, but I don’t have any decision-making rights. I can’t sign anything for a child. I’m not invited to every DCF meeting. There’s challenges there because sometimes things don’t move as quickly as I would like them to, which is understandable because DCF has a bigger caseload than we do. 

But I’ve learned to strengthen my advocacy skills with my clients. I feel like now I’m more aligned with them – I’m a team member with the DCF social workers, instead of DCF just making the decisions and me going along. 

What’s your favorite part of your job? 

The feeling of pride and accomplishment after a really productive, engaging home visit with one of my clients, especially when we get to talk a little more about their family connections or their hopes for where they’d go next, for a permanent home. I feel proud of them for taking that risk with me to open up, and for being willing to take that risk.  

How do you see permanency as factoring into your work? 

Permanency practice doesn’t really change my day-to-day. It’s more that the lens through which I see the work is different. I was expecting the main focus in this job to be keeping a child stable: helping them heal from past trauma and teaching them coping skills. But that’s not really the focus of our work. Our focus is making sure each child has connections and team members (who aren’t paid providers) to help them do those things. And that looks like finding out if there are family members a child wants to keep in touch with, a mentor or teacher who can spend extra time to support them, things like that. 

Healing from trauma is great, and any good therapist can help them do that. My purpose is to get them out of our foster homes as fast as possible. And that’s really hard for a child to know – that they’re here but they’re not here forever. It’s hard to know that their caretakers aren’t permanent, maybe their school and friends aren’t permanent. So getting them somewhere that’s permanent -- and that means a home that is supportive and nurturing -- is, I would say, the most important thing. 

What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about your job? 

Whenever I tell anyone about my job, their gut reaction is, “That must be so sad, so emotionally draining, I could never do that.” And I honestly haven’t found that to be true. Sure there are days that are sad and emotionally draining, but overall, I’m just working with kids. Kids and families who have been through some really hard things but who are resilient and able to engage and heal. More days than not, I finish the work day with more energy than I started because I get to be a part of that story and that resiliency.   

Anything else you’d like to say? 

I’ve spent most of this time talking about my clients, but the foster parents deserve a shout-out. I work closely with them as equals. They are the ones doing the day-to-day work, keeping kids safe and teaching them to trust again. I couldn’t do this job without having such patient, skilled foster parents on the team.