“I have said in a few bold moments that I think we can end foster care in the District of Columbia,” says Ann Reilly, deputy director of the Office of In-Home and Out-of-Home Care for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency.
In her 17 years at the agency, Reilly’s roles have included social worker, hotline manager and supervisor. Her focus has remained constant: supporting, not separating, families through case management and community-based services. “If we pay the electricity bill and provide other concrete resources to keep families together, we make it easier for them to focus on parenting skills and participate in interventions that will help stabilize family life,” she explains.
Reilly hopes the Fellowship provides her with skills and relationships to change the systems D.C. families encounter. “Child welfare is the deep end of the system, the last resort for families in need,” she says. “To reduce the need for child welfare, we have to focus on bringing needed resources to bear much earlier.”
Reilly believes the end to foster care depends on protective factors like extended family and friends. “You can find out who a young person’s community is and use the courts to make those relationships legal,” she says. “The solutions to what our families need lie within them and their communities.”