The Child Welfare Division of Fresno County, California provides child protective services and children's mental health crisis services. It addresses issues like disproportionality among minorities, poverty, and physical abuse and neglect of children. The division's vision is to support and strengthen children and families through an integrated network of community partners committed to prevention, safety, permanence, and well-being. Social workers aim to provide best practice and treat clients with respect and dignity.

1. Child Welfare Division
Fresno County, California

2. Phone:
(559) 600-2300 Address:
Fax: 2135 Fresno
(559) 600-2395 Street
Fresno, CA 93721
Child Protective
Services Hotline:
(559) 255-8320
Children's Mental
Health Crisis
Services Hotline:
(559) 453-3860

3. • Disproportionality among
African Americans, as well
as other minorities
• Poverty Issues
• Physical neglect & abuse
of children

5. • Physical Abuse: ―A physical injury that is inflicted by other
than accidental means on a child by another person.”
• Sexual Abuse: “…includes rape, incest, sodomy, lewd or
lascivious acts, oral copulation, penetration of genital or
anal opening by a foreign object and child molestation.”
• Emotional Abuse: “…willfully causing harm or permits a
child to suffer mental harm…”
• Physical Neglect: ―the negligent treatment or the
maltreatment of a child by a person responsible for the
child’s welfare.”

6. • Abused Children (physical, sexual, emotional)
• Neglect of Children
• Parents
• Domestic Abuse issues
• Substance Abuse Issues
• Poverty
―contains scenes of mom being held to the
floor & punched repeatedly‖

7. • The Child:
• Shows sudden changes in behavior or school performance
• Has not received help for physical or medical problems brought to the parents' attention
• Has learning problems (or difficulty concentrating) that cannot be attributed to specific physical
or psychological causes
• Is always watchful, as though preparing for something bad to happen
• Lacks adult supervision
• Is overly compliant, passive, or withdrawn
• Comes to school or other activities early, stays late, and does not want to go home
• The Parent:
• Shows little concern for the child
• Denies the existence of—or blames the child for—the child's problems in school or at home
• Asks teachers or other caregivers to use harsh physical discipline if the child misbehaves
• Sees the child as entirely bad, worthless, or burdensome
• Demands a level of physical or academic performance the child cannot achieve
• Looks primarily to the child for care, attention, and satisfaction of emotional needs
• The Parent and Child:
• Rarely touch or look at each other
• Consider their relationship entirely negative
• State that they do not like each other
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/signs.cfm

8. • How many deaths per year?
• Estimated 1,1700 child fatalities in 2009
• Who are the perpetrators
• Individuals responsible for the care of the victims
• ―in 2009, 75% of infant fatalities were caused by parents‖
• How do these deaths occur?
• Fatal child abuse may involve repeated abuse over a period of
time (e.g., battered child syndrome), or it may involve a single,
impulsive incident (e.g., drowning, suffocating, or shaking a
baby).
• Fatal neglect, the child’s death results not from
anything the caregiver does, but from a caregiver’s failure to act.
http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm

9. • Vision
• To lead an integrated network of community partners that
supports, protects, & strengthens children & families.
• Mission
• To promote a system of best practice in partnership with the
community, committed to prevention & early intervention, that
ensures child safety, permanence & stability, family well-being, that
is proactive, strategic, outcomes based, & fiscally responsible to
the children & families served.
“My goal as a social worker is to provide best practice in all my
actions with my clients,” (Eva Torres, SWIII)

10. • ―…County of Fresno employees and community partners
provide assessment, intervention, prevention, placement
and mental health treatment services for infants, children,
youth and families of Fresno County.‖
• http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/DepartmentPage.aspx?id=23095

11. • Practice?
• “Always strive for the best for the clients no matter the situation”
• Policy & Procedure?
• The work of Child Welfare is directed by State and Federal Law
which then guides Regulations and Policies in place at all levels,
from the Federal level all the way down to the Local Agency level.
• Views of clients?
• Treated with respect & dignity
• Viewed as able to make change
• How SW make contact with clients & what that portrays?
• Home calls
• Most clients do not have transportation, SW make the effort to
make contact where the client is located

13. • Negative stigma
• Bad reputation
“we (child welfare) are presented in the media as a result of
a child death or if anything else major and negative that
happens,” (Eva Torres, SWIII)

14. • Social Work:
• ―The social work profession promotes social change, problem
solving in human relationships and the empowerment & liberation
of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human
behavior & social systems, social work intervenes at the point
where people interact with their environments. Principles of
human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.‖

15. • Values:
• 1. Service
• 2. Social Justice
• 3. Dignity & worth of the person
• Importance of human rights
• Integrity
• Competence
I think that the social workers in my agency at the Department of Social Services
especially promote social work values when working with the children. Social
workers serve the children in taking them out of abusive situations, providing
resources for their family & parents to better care for their children, provide justice
to abused children, provide them with the knowledge that they are worthy, protect
their rights as children and do all of the above with competence.

16. • Social Justice:
• ―Social workers have a responsibility to promote social justice, in
relation to society generally, and in relation to the people whom they
work with.‖ This means:
• Challenging negative discrimination
• Recognizing Diversity
• Distributing resources equitably
• Challenging unjust policies a practices
• Professional conduct
“Universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.“
“Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people to benefit equally from
the resources afforded us by society and the environment."

17. • Human Rights:
• ―Social work is based on respect for the inherent worth & dignity of
people, & the rights that follow from this. Social workers should uphold &
defend each person’s physical, psychological, emotional & spiritual
integrity & well-being.‖ This Means:
• 1. Respecting the right to self-determination
• 2.Promoting the right to participation
• 3. Treating each person as a whole
• 4. Identifying & developing strengths
The social workers at my agency (DSS) often ask the client what their needs
are, provide them with referrals & resources, help them identify strengths
unknown to the client & then let the client take the action themselves. The
social workers are never disrespectful & continually look at the client as a
complete individual that needs a helping hand. When the client has thanked the
social worker for their success, the social workers at DSS often remind the client
that it was their strengths & determination that brought them to where they now.
Social workers in my agency also protect the rights of children daily by removing
them from abusive homes, or daily checking on children in the at-risk homes.

18. • INTERIM DIRECTOR:
• Judy Lemos
• Administrative Secretary:
• Terry Reyna
• DEPUTY DIRECTORS:
• Christine Balbas, CalWORKs & Welfare to Work Services
• Howard Himes, Child Welfare
• Judy Lemos, Administrative Support Services
• Marlene Pascua, Adult Services
• Steve Rodriguez, Medi-Cal & CalFresh, Regional Services

19. • PROGRAM MANAGERS:
• Maria Aguirre, Program Manager
West Fresno Regional Center-Voluntary Family Maintenance- Family
Reunification- Permanency Planning
• Vivian Aldridge, Program Manager
Cal Works-Sanction Unit-Ongoing Metro-Refugee Services-West Fresno Regional
• Barbara Boswell, Program Manager
Staff Development
• David Cannon, Program Manager
Medi-Cal & CalFresh Ongoing – Rapid Services Unit –
Supportive Services Call Center
• Joy Cronin, Program Manager
Child Focus & Teen Parenting Teams – School Based Independent Living Program –
Court Ordered Supervised Visitation
• Linda Du’Chene, Program Manager
CalWIN Project Manager – CalWIN Help Desk –
IEVS (Integrated Earnings Verification System)
• John Dufresne, Program Manager
Court Services – Care Line – Central Desk
• Linda Espinosa, Program Manager
Program Integrity – Appeals – QA/QC (Quality Assurance–Quality Control) –

20. • Program Specialists
• Henry Flores, Program Manager
General Relief – Homeless CalFresh
• Oralia Gomez, Program Manager
Welfare to Work Services – Employment Resource Center – Special Needs-
Work Experience – Fresno City College – Adolescent Services – AFLP
• JoseLuis Gonzalez, Program Manager
Welfare to Work Services – Refugee Coordinator –
Ongoing Metro –West Fresno Regional Employment Services
• Joel Gurss, Program Manager
In-Home Supportive Services – Adult Protective Services
• Katherine Martindale, Program Manager
Child Welfare – Metro Division
• Deborah Martinez, Program Manager
Foster Care Eligibility – Foster Parent Resources – Relative Foster Parent Home
Approval
• Enrique Medina, Program Manager
Regional Centers – (Reedley, Selma, Coalinga, & Kerman)

21. • Lauri Moore, Program Manager
Emergency Response – Family to Family
• Sylvia Mota, Program Manager
Medi-Cal & CalFresh Ongoing
• Wendy Osikafo, Program Manager
CA Partners for Permanency
• Michael Reiser, Program Manager
Aged, Blind & Disabled – Medi-Cal – CalFresh – Public Authority
• Harkiran (Kiran) Sandhu, Program Manager
CalWORKs Intake – Homeless Assistance – Rapid Service Unit
• Tina Torres, Program Manager
Child Care – Welfare to Work Services
• Maria Villapudua-Herrera, Program Manager
Medi-Cal – CalFresh Intake
• Peter Vue, Program Manager
Medi-Cal & CalFresh Ongoing – Outreach – Edwards Medi-Cal

22. Child Abuse and Neglect
www.childwelfare.gov
Identifying Child Abuse and Neglect
www.childwelfare.gov/can/identifying
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
www.childwelfare.gov/preventing
Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect
www.childwelfare.gov/responding/reporting.cfm