• Signup for Email
  • About Children’s Home & Aid
    • Mission & Vision
    • Meet Our Leadership Team
      • Mike Shaver
      • Jan Stepto-Millett
      • Angelica Stapert
      • Sean Soun
      • Paula Corrigan-Halpern
      • Sara Irmen
      • Dawnielle Jeffrey
      • Lynsey Sloan
      • Mendy Smith
      • Renae Storey
      • Amanda Whitlock
    • Board of Trustees
    • License & Accreditation
    • Mission & Vision
    • Financial Information
    • Client Policy and Rights
  • Get Involved
    • Join an Auxiliary Board
      • Join the Young Professionals Board
        • Membership Request Form
      • Hinsdale Auxiliary
      • Lost Dunes Golf Committee
      • Rice Leadership Committee
      • The Woman’s Board
      • Central Regional Advisory Board
      • Northern Regional Advisory Board
      • Southern Regional Advisory Board
    • Attend or Sponsor an Event
    • Get Your Company Involved
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Chicagoland
      • Volunteer Central
      • Volunteer Northern
      • Volunteer Southern
  • Ways to Give
    • Make a Donation
    • Double Your Impact – Matching Gifts
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Planned Giving
    • Make a Gift of Stock
    • Give Through Your IRA
    • Children’s Home & Aid Legacy Society
    • Attend or Sponsor an Event
    • Get Your Company Involved
    • Shop Amazon Smile
    • See Your Impact
    • Create Your Own Fundraising Event
  • Policy Center
    • Advocacy
    • Start to Finish Coalition
    • Youth Budget Commission
    • Our Projects
    • The Ahlquist Agenda Podcast
    • Result of the Quarter
    • Get our Newsletter!
  • Events
  • Blog & News
  • Locations
  • Careers
  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Equity, Diversion and Inclusion Resources
    • Black History Month 2022
      • Black History Month 2021
    • Self-Care After the Election
    • Hispanic Heritage Month
    • Native American Heritage Month
    • Women’s History Month
    • Juneteenth
    • Pride Month
Children's Home + Aid
Donate
  • DONATE NOW
  • Child Welfare
    Services
    • Intact Family Services
    •  Foster Care
      Services
      • Become a Foster Parent
        • Learn More – Informational Meetings
      • Foster Parent Resources
      • Excellence Academy
      • Specialized Foster Care
    •  Foster to
      Adopt
      • Become an Adoptive Parent
      • Adoption & Guardianship Preservation
      • Adoption Information Request
      • Adoption Resources
      • The PEPAC Program
      • Post-Adoption Services Program
  •  Counseling &
    Treatment Programs
    • Adoption Support & Preservation
    • Choose 2 Change
    • Community Based Behavioral Health
    • Families And Children in Treatment
    • Family Centered Counseling Services
    • Family Solutions
    • Chicago Project Connect
    • Helping Children Heal Through Extensive Therapy
      • The Rice Center
    • The Butterfly Project
    • Family Counseling for Youth in Crisis
      • Redeploy Illinois Children Program
      • Youth Services
      • Host Home Placement
  • Parenting
    • The Butterfly Project
    • The Children’s Room
    • The Crisis Nursery Program
      • Motherhouse Crisis Nursery
      • Bloomington Crisis Nursery
    • Early Start
    • Family Visitation Center
    • Healthy Families Illinois
    • Doula Services
    • Kid’s Turn
    • Parents Care & Share
    • The PEPAC Program
    • Stronger Beginnings for Families
    • Thriving Fathers & Families
  •  Child Care
    & Education
    • Community Child Care Centers
      • Bloomington
      • Carpentersville
      • Englewood
      • Palatine
      • Schaumburg
      • Viva Chicago
    • Early Head Start
    • The Head Start Program
    • Preschool For All
    • Child Care Assistance Program
      • CCAP Request Form
    • Child Care Resource and Referral
      • Southern Region
        • Looking for Child Care
        • Parent Resources
        • Provider Services
        • Statistical Information
        • Training Opportunities
        • CCR&R Staff Directory
  • Contact Us
  • Signup for Email
  • About Children’s Home & Aid
    • Mission & Vision
    • Meet Our Leadership Team
      • Mike Shaver
      • Jan Stepto-Millett
      • Angelica Stapert
      • Sean Soun
      • Paula Corrigan-Halpern
      • Sara Irmen
      • Dawnielle Jeffrey
      • Lynsey Sloan
      • Mendy Smith
      • Renae Storey
      • Amanda Whitlock
    • Board of Trustees
    • License & Accreditation
    • Mission & Vision
    • Financial Information
    • Client Policy and Rights
  • Get Involved
    • Join an Auxiliary Board
      • Join the Young Professionals Board
        • Membership Request Form
      • Hinsdale Auxiliary
      • Lost Dunes Golf Committee
      • Rice Leadership Committee
      • The Woman’s Board
      • Central Regional Advisory Board
      • Northern Regional Advisory Board
      • Southern Regional Advisory Board
    • Attend or Sponsor an Event
    • Get Your Company Involved
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Chicagoland
      • Volunteer Central
      • Volunteer Northern
      • Volunteer Southern
  • Ways to Give
    • Make a Donation
    • Double Your Impact – Matching Gifts
    • Become a Monthly Donor
    • Planned Giving
    • Make a Gift of Stock
    • Give Through Your IRA
    • Children’s Home & Aid Legacy Society
    • Attend or Sponsor an Event
    • Get Your Company Involved
    • Shop Amazon Smile
    • See Your Impact
    • Create Your Own Fundraising Event
  • Policy Center
    • Advocacy
    • Start to Finish Coalition
    • Youth Budget Commission
    • Our Projects
    • The Ahlquist Agenda Podcast
    • Result of the Quarter
    • Get our Newsletter!
  • Events
  • Blog & News
  • Locations
  • Careers
  • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    • Equity, Diversion and Inclusion Resources
    • Black History Month 2022
      • Black History Month 2021
    • Self-Care After the Election
    • Hispanic Heritage Month
    • Native American Heritage Month
    • Women’s History Month
    • Juneteenth
    • Pride Month
Return to all blog and news posts

Celebrating Social Work Month: A look back to 1988

by Gelasia Croom
3/01/2018  |  135th Anniversary, Rice Child + Family Center

Throughout 2018, we are celebrating 135 years of meeting every child, every family, where their need is greatest. Doing whatever it takes so children and families can thrive. We are proud of our legacy of meeting the changing needs of vulnerable families throughout Illinois and inspired by the children and families we serve and their stories of resilience.

Being a social worker is an often challenging, yet rewarding career. In honor of National Social Work month, we’d like to share a story from 1988 about Katie Shaughnessy, a social worker at the Evanston Children’s Center, now known as the Rice Child + Family Center. Although helping children and parents rebuild relationships can be difficult; for Katie, it’s the most meaningful part of her work. Thirty years later, we are still committed to restoring family bonds and helping children build a network of support.

From Children’s Home & Aid’s 1988 Van Arsdale Journal:

Parent, friend, sister, neighbor, teacher, counselor, consultant, confidante, diplomat, referee, scapegoat. These are roles Katie Shaughnessy knows—and plays—well.

Katie’s a social worker at the Evanston Children’s Center. She and other child care workers are charged with caring for 10 boys, ages 7 to 12 years. They often may be abused, neglected, abandoned children, or some combination thereof. To Katie, however, they’re simply “my kids.”

“My abused kids always blame themselves for their abuse,” she says. “They’ll think, ‘I made them hit me, leave me.’ They have so many aggressive feelings bottled up inside. Rage. Fear.”

As a result, Katie’s unit is an emotional tinderbox, particularly on holidays. These are times when the youngsters are most painfully reminded that their lives are not material for a situation comedy.

“One boy who later came here was found at age two walking the streets in November in his pajama top,” she recounts. Abandoned children frequently develop abnormal fears of being left alone. “During a field trip, a child might clutch your hand the entire time,” she says. “That’s unusual for a 10-year-old.”

What happens to such children, in large measure, depends on Katie and her co-workers, the therapists, social workers, and teachers who administer the treatment plan developed with the family. “The team is tremendously supportive,” says Katie.

Staff support notwithstanding, monitoring the unit is difficult due to the building’s floor plan. “If I’m in the hallway, I can’t see everybody,” says Katie. “There could be a crisis you don’t know about. I’ve walked into the bathroom and found clumps of hair on the floor.”

But Katie believes that no matter how children may have been treated, there is always a bond linking them to their parents. The relationship may be tenuous, even volatile, but it can be repaired, she says.

“We try to help the children and parents see their situations truthfully, to get to the root of their anger, painful as that may be,” she notes. “To see a kid get to go back home makes it all worthwhile.”

Children’s Home & Aid’s story began with the vision of one man who believed that every child deserved a loving home. Your part is unfolding today.  What is your story?

See all of the stories  as part of our 135th anniversary.

 

share
No Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search the Blog

Categories

  • 135th Anniversary (16)
    • Hope With Wings (1)
  • Adoption (15)
  • Associate Board (1)
  • Black History Month (3)
  • Blue Bow Campaign (18)
  • Butterfly Project (1)
  • Central Region (24)
  • Champions for Children (11)
  • Chicago Cubs (2)
  • Child Welfare (12)
  • City of Chicago (25)
    • One Summer Chicago (12)
      • Summer Intern Project (8)
  • Corporate Partner Spotlight (6)
  • COVID (1)
  • Crisis Nursery (9)
  • Cultural Competence (2)
  • Diversion and Inclusion (1)
  • Diversity and Inclusion (1)
  • Domestic Violence (1)
  • Donor Spotlight (2)
  • Early Childhood Services (16)
  • EDI (6)
  • Education (9)
    • Literacy (1)
  • Equity (1)
  • Families Thriving Podcast (2)
  • Family Visitation Center (1)
  • Fatherhood (4)
  • Fiscal Scan (4)
  • Foster Care (8)
  • Foster Care Spotlight (2)
  • Foster Parent Mentoring (5)
  • Fundraising (25)
    • Stuff the Bus (2)
  • Graze & Raise (1)
  • Healthy Families Home Visiting (2)
  • Holiday Time (19)
  • Home Visiting (1)
  • In the News (16)
  • Jerri Hoffmann Child & Family Center (1)
  • LGBTQ (1)
  • Memorial Day (1)
  • Mental Health (5)
  • Mission (27)
    • Careers (14)
      • Internship (7)
    • Leadership Spotlight (9)
  • Mitzi Freidheim Child + Family Center (4)
  • MotherHouse (1)
  • Mothers Day (1)
  • Northern Region (13)
  • Philanthropy (9)
  • Power of Fathers (4)
  • Program Results (58)
    • CCAP (2)
    • Choose 2 Change (7)
    • Community Schools (5)
    • Doula (4)
    • Foster Care (19)
      • Intact Family Services (2)
    • Head Start (2)
    • Healthy Start (2)
    • Mentoring (5)
    • Parents Care + Share (2)
    • Redeploy Illinois (2)
    • RISE (1)
    • Safe from the Start (2)
    • Stat of the Month (3)
    • Stronger Beginnings for Families (3)
  • Relative Caregivers (2)
  • Rice Child + Family Center (19)
  • Southern Region (13)
  • State Budget Crisis (6)
  • The Ahlquist Center (29)
    • Advocacy (18)
    • Newsletter (7)
  • Uncategorized (18)
    • Mentorship (4)
  • Veterans Day (2)
  • Volunteer Spotlight (4)
  • Woman's Board (7)
  • Youth Budget (2)

On Twitter

My Tweets

HRC Seal of Recognition

Image
Children's Home + Aid is a recognized leader in supporting and serving LGBT families.
Children's Home + Aid

Corporate Home Office

200 West Monroe Street, Ste 2100, Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 424-0200
+ DONATE NOW!

ABOUT

  • Media / Press Room
    • Press Releases
  • Careers
  • Financial Information
  • Corporate & Foundation Partners
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy

GET IN TOUCH

  • Contact Us
  • Volunteer
  • United Way
  • COA

© copyright 2022 children’s home + aid