The difficult but rewarding career as a social worker was honored this week at the Oneida County Board meeting.
Governor Walker proclaimed March as Social Work month.
Social Services Director Mary Rideout acknowledged the difficult work her staff and other social workers do...
"....due in part to the difficulty of this work, we struggle with a shortage of social workers. To address this, the state Department of Children and Families and the Wisconsin County Human Service Association have created recruitment videos to give a realistic picture to the people thinking of getting into social work, particularly the area of child welfare...."
Rideout showed one of the promotional videos with a portion here....
"....(music to person talking) There are things that go on behind closed doors that people don't realize. ,,,one thing about child abuse and neglect, it doesn't care what you look like, how much you make...I had no idea the need of kids in my own community..."(music)
The video asked what local communities would be without social workers, but recruiting and retention has been an ongoing problem. Rideout thanked the county board for supporting the work of social services.
18 staff work for Oneida county and they were honored by the board with applause.
