CPS caseworkers tell of own lives in system

By ANITA HASSAN

What Gaby Valladares remembers most about many past Christmas holidays is receiving a drugstore alarm clock. Year after year, for five years in a row.

It was not a gift she particularly wanted, but it reminded her of one thing: She was in foster care. The clock was a present from her foster families that was provided to them by a child placement agency.

"It's one of the reasons, to this day, that I can't use an alarm clock," she said.

Valladares, now 27, spent almost all of her teens in foster care in the Houston region until she "aged out," becoming too old to be in Child Protective Services.

The one-time foster child went on to make her career as a CPS youth specialist in Harris County, helping teenagers who grew up in the same environment she did.

She mentors teens who age out of CPS, trying to help them cope with life after years of foster care.

It is not uncommon for people who went through the system to find careers as adults in the agency or with other social service organizations, said Estella Olguin, CPS spokeswoman for the county.

Some, like Valladares, say that working for CPS allows them to use their personal experiences to make a difference in others' lives.

CPS custody at age 7

They can also help improve an agency they were intimately familiar with for years.

"I do what I do because of what happened to me," said 23-year-old Megan Davis, a CPS caseworker in the intensive investigations unit in Harris County.

Davis said she and her twin sister were placed into CPS custody at age 7 after suffering physical abuse by their stepfather.

She recalls at least three caseworkers coming to her home to investigate her parents when she was a girl. The caseworker she remembers most is the one who made a second visit and finally removed the twins from the home.

Davis and her sister were fortunate enough to be placed in the same foster care home, and by the time they were 14, both had been adopted by the same family.

"I can honestly say she (the caseworker) saved me and my sister's life," Davis said. "It was the fact that she didn't forget us. It was nice to finally be remembered."

That experience not only led Davis to become a CPS caseworker herself but also shaped the way she works with the children assigned to her. For one thing, she says, it has taught her to spend time building a rapport with each child and to look for the same signs of abuse that she herself exhibited.

"It also always reminds me not to remove (children from parents' custody) too quickly," she said.

Although Davis has many cases - at one point she had at least 42 - she remembers every child's name.

"Because I don't forget them, the way my caseworker didn't forget me," she said.

Valladares also knows that her own experiences help her make better connections with the young people she works with.

"At least they can know, I may not feel what you feel, but I can relate," she said.

By the time she was 15, Valladares and her younger brother and sister were living in a Houston homeless shelter with their mother.

Eventually, a CPS caseworker was called to the shelter and the children were removed from their mother's custody. The decision was mostly based on the fact that the children had been out of school for two consecutive years, Valladares said.

Siblings separarted

The caseworker tried hard to keep Valladares and her siblings together, but the children were split up not long after being taken away from their mother.

Valladares ended up living in five foster care homes in less than a year.

It wasn't until she ended up in a home in La Porte that she was able to finish high school. Because she had missed so much school, however, Valladares said she started her freshman year at 17.

Many people tried to convince her that she should get her GED, but Valladares decided to stay in school.

"I had so many obstacles to get there, and once I had the opportunity to knock high school out of the way I was like, 'I'm going to do this,' " she said.

While many children age out of foster care at 18, Valladares stayed in the system until she finished high school at 20.

Sharing her struggles

After graduation, Valladares moved to Houston and began attending classes at Texas Southern University. She worked graveyard shifts at McDonald's to supplement an allowance the state began paying her when she left foster care.

In 2006, she went to work for CPS when the youth specialist positions were created in the agency.

Valladares works at the The Houston Alumni and Youth Center, a transitional facility where teens aging out the system can come for assistance.

Part of her job at the H.A.Y. Center is to help youngsters in foster care understand what resources are available to them after they age out.

One of the most important parts of her job is being open about sharing her own struggles in foster care, and in life afterward.

"The more personal, the better," Valladares said. "I feel like sometimes they need to look at me not as a (CPS) worker, but as someone who takes pride in having made it out of the system."

Juanetta Smith, 27, is another CPS employee who spent several years in foster care. Smith, however, had no aspirations of making a career at CPS.

"In all honesty, I did not want to work for CPS, because I had known CPS from a negative perspective as a child," she said.

Smith said she entered foster care at age 14 after being taken from her parents because they were cocaine addicts.

After going into state custody, Smith had a difficult time in several foster homes. At one point, she even ran away and ended up spending time in a juvenile facility.

She eventually was placed with a foster family near Austin. That turned out to be a good match, and she stayed with the family until she aged out of the system at 18.

Destiny at work

After graduating from college, Smith filled out several job applications, and CPS was the first to call her back.

She gave the job a chance, and found that she loved it.

"I feel like I'm destined to be here," she said.

Smith started out as an investigator, but now works in the foster and adoption department at the agency in Harris County. Her job is providing the training to help prepare people who want to become foster or adoptive parents.

She enjoys being able to offer people her perspective on what life was like in foster care, as well as explain the problems she had coming into it.

"I tell them, 'Anything you want to ask me, I am open to answer,' " Smith said. "I want them to know that these kids coming into their homes are going to have some issues, a lot of issues similar to the things I went through."

Source http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/CPS-caseworkers-tell-of-own-lives-in-system-2423703.php