Ashley Howell

 Children's Administration works with children and families to identify their needs and develop a plan for services which support families and assure safety and well-being for children. The services provided are designed to reduce the risk of child abuse, find safe alternatives to out of home placement, and assure safety and permanency for children in care.

 They provide services to support families who are in crisis and at risk of disruption and services to care for children in placement are provided primarily by community agencies and foster parents. In addition, private child placing agencies provide adoption services and foster care to some youth in the custody of Children’s Administration.

 Maureen is a program manager within the Children's Administration of the Department of Social and Health Services.  Maureen has worked for DSHS for 25 years; 23 of these years have been with Children’s Administration.  Maureen’s job is involved in the Domestic Violence portion of Children's Administration and DSHS.

 Maureen is the program manager for three programs in the Domestic Violence field.  She certifies domestic violence perpetrator treatment programs  She manages contracts for services for domestic violence victims, and runs the domestic violence hotline.  She helps coordinate Children's Administration response to families who have experience reoccurring domestic violence and child abuse and neglect.

 What Maureen likes most about her job – she states the best part of her job is feeling that she is a part of a community of people helping to keep children and families safe. She loves being a part of the solution to ending domestic violence and child abuse.

 What Maureen likes least about her job – She says that there is no part that doesn’t like about her job, but there are challenging parts. She says the most challenging part of her job is how much there is to do. Its hard to juggle the various tasks that come up. It can also be depressing sometimes because all of my work relates to someone having harmed another person.

 If there was one thing Maureen could change about her job it would be the funding. She wishes there was more funding to pay for all the services children and families need. There is never enough money to fund everything the community needs.

 Maureen sees domestic violence as a pattern of abusive and coercive conduct. She sees it as a chosen and learned behavior of domestic violence perpetrators. Domestic violence can be learned within families, communities, and culture. Domestic violence perpetrators learn not only their abusive tactics but also the belief systems that support their use of abuse against intimate partners and children. She does not see domestic violence as a illness, substance abuse, or anger problem.

 It is important for social workers who wok within children services or providing domestic violence advocacy to know the signs and patterns of what abuse looks like. Any services that are provided to the family should take the abuse into consideration. All interventions should hold domestic violence perpetrators accountable for the abuse they perpetrate.

 Maureen believes it is important for everyone to be aware and know that Domestic Violence is learned behavior. Having early education about can help school aged children attain healthy and supportive relationships. Increasing support to victims and their families is also important because it will help them understand what a healthy and supportive relationship is.

 Child abuse and domestic violence often co-occur. Between 30 – 60% of families experiencing child abuse are also experiencing domestic violence. Quality training on identifying signs of abuse and neglect, as well as screening for domestic violence can help social workers provide effective services to families. Maureen also believes it is important to not that although a child may be impacted by domestic violence and child abuse, research shows that children are resilient and can benefit from supportive and loving relationships with protective adults.

 Maureen Kelley, Program manager Executive Staff, Children’s Administration Telephone: