I have completed part 1 which is attached please do part two Competency and Practice Behaviors Social workers understand theories of human behavior and the social environment and critically evaluate a

Tif fany Lane, MSW, PhD February 16, 2026 Intr oduction During my field placement at Child Protective Services (CPS), I had the opportunity to work directly with children and families impacted by the child welfare system. My direct practice with children and families consisted largely of families involved with CPS who were facing poverty , trauma, limited support, and deep, long-term system involvement. Because CPS has the power to remove children from their caregivers, the agency itself serves as an important lens for anti-oppressive practice and cultural humility in ethical work with families. "Help" provided by CPS can easily morph into a system of surveillance absent intentional care. Below, I reflect on my own development in anti-oppressive child welfare practice through cultural awareness, bias, power, and field-based examples of cultural humility.

Reflection on Personal and Professional Growth:

Cultural Awar eness in Practice Before my field placement began, my understanding of CPS reflected what is commonly portrayed. I believed CPS existed primarily to remove children from the home and that children were placed into foster care until they aged out of the system. Through my placement, I learned that CPS is an agency with a mission to promote child and family well-being while prioritizing safety and reunification whenever possible. Removal of a child is based upon both an assessment of risk and documented evidence of harm when abuse or neglect is determined and confirmed. Service plans are provided to assist parents in safely and successfully returning their children to their care. Additionally , our agency assists families with referrals for mental health services, treatment options for substance use issues, and assistance related to poverty issues. Understanding how poverty, trauma, and systems affect families has changed how I do my job. Most families working with Child Protective Services (CPS) have not lost interest in being able to raise their children. They are overwhelmed by a lack of access to financial stability, housing instability , transportation limitations, untreated mental illness, and/or fear of the system. Understanding this about many families working with CPS has helped me transition from being focused on compliance to thinking about what families are carrying that is not obvious to me. I no longer base my safety planning and engagement with families solely on assessments of deficits. Cultural awareness now directs my engagement and safety planning using a collaborative approach and asking open-ended questions while acknowledging the structural barriers that may be present within each family.

Recognizing Bias, Power, and Positionality One of the most significant ways my experiences shaped me was through my work with a white family who was facing financial hardship and their home environment was unclean. Prior to my field placement, I had always assumed that a parent who really cared about being reunited with their children would have hope, be cooperative with Child Protective Services (CPS), and continue to fight for reunification. In contrast, I was working with a mother who continued to express sadness and a lack of confidence regarding the possibility of being reunited with her child.

At first, I couldn't understand why she didn't appear to be more motivated or optimistic, and I perceived her discouraged outlook in a negative manner.

Eventually , I began to recognize that this assumption had ignored the power dynamics at play that af fected how she experienced the reunification process. For example, she lacked the financial ability to navigate the reunification process and lacked legal representation; whereas, the grandparents had all three of those things, and they also had greater relationships with the Court Staf f and legal system than she did. Despite the fact that the mother completed her service plan, the unfairness of the system created by the grandparent’s advantages and disadvantages limited the mother's ability to impact the outcome of the reunification process. Her discouragement was reflective of her emotional exhaustion and understanding of the system working against her interests, rather than a lack of love or concern for her children. This experience helped me better understand my positional power as a CPS worker and how agency authority affects how families engage with us. I became more intentional about slowing my assessments, seeking supervision, and making sure family circumstances were fully documented and contextualized rather than reduced to surface-level judgments. Case Example of Professional Growth CPS took custody of children from an extremely poor white family who lived in an environment that was unsafe for their children. Upon entering the residence, I initially saw the unclean living environment through the lens of CPS and viewed it as part of the case. As I received supervision, I came to understand that the major contributors to the conditions of the home were poverty , limitations on resources, and lack of support available to the family.

The way I thought about this case changed to view potential concrete supports the family would need to provide for the safety of the children. This case allowed me to begin making distinctions regarding the differences between conditions resulting from poverty and conditions resulting from neglect. Additionally, this case reinforced my commitment to advocating for families and providing supportive interventions rather than punitive actions. Practices and Systems of Power I have seen class, disability, and family structure as the most common diversity factors present in the practice of CPS. Homes that are unsanitary and homes where there is less supervision are common indicators of poverty; however, these are commonly referred to as neglect without a full understanding of the context in which they exist. Mental health issues and substance abuse issues directly impact the ability of a caregiver to engage with services provided by agencies such as CPS. Family structures that include single parents or kinship care arrangements can affect assessments and decisions made for permanency.

These are important factors as they help define what constitutes safe environments, how services will be delivered, and ultimately determine the outcome of cases. As indicated in the example provided, poverty had a large role in how the family was assessed. The lack of resources and the lack of support available to the family caused increased scrutiny and stress, and subsequently increased the involvement of CPS. This experience required me to transition from a role as an enforcer to advocate for the family.

Reporting standards, housing standards, and other systems of power influenced the way the family's struggles were viewed and defined as social problems versus personal failures. This ultimately af fected the family's engagement with CPS and ultimately affected the outcomes of their case. Field-Based Illustrations of Cultural Humility One example of Cultural Humility was when I worked with a white family that lived in poverty and had unsafe housing. When I first started, I was very focused on cleanliness, and because I was an intern, I had control over how their unsafe conditions would be documented and what they meant for this family.

After going through reflection and supervision, I decided to slow down my evaluation process and use Reflective Listening, and had an open dialogue with the family as well. We were able to develop reasonable safety expectations for the family, and connect them to resources to support them. While my focus was on creating safety for this family , I recognized that the family's economic status created barriers for them. The next case is an example of another White mother with a history of substance use whose baby was born positive to syphilis and had symptoms of withdrawal from opioids. In the beginning, I observed myself making assumptions regarding her relapse and parenting abilities. I became aware of how that thinking was creating stigma and requested supervision and changed the way I approached this case. I used collaboration with medical providers and reframing to support both child safety and the mother's recovery.

This approach acknowledged trauma and ef fort rather than relying on moral judgment. Conclusion Cultural humility is a lifelong journey; it is not a skill to develop. According to Gottlieb (2020), developing and implementing cultural humility will require ongoing self-reflection, a conscious understanding of one's position in relation to others as they relate to issues of power, and a commitment to decentering one's own authority.

These principles are also supported by the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics (NASW, 2021) through its emphasis on dignity , self-determination, and social justice. The integration of these frameworks enabled me to approach assumptions with doubt and to act ethically in a system that often places greater value on control over support. In general, this experience emphasized the importance of both culturally sensitive and anti-oppressive practices within the context of child welfare. As I developed greater awareness of both bias and power, I was able to grow professionally .

I am committed to continuing to engage in all aspects of my profession in a manner that seeks to limit harm, to address inequalities, to honor the dignity of families, while ensuring the safety of children. W orks Cited Gottlieb, Mara. “The Case for a Cultural Humility Framework in Social Work Practice.” Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work , vol. 30, no. 6, 16 Apr.

2021, pp. 463–481, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15313204.2020.1753615, https://doi.or g/10.1080/15313204.2020.1753615.

National Association of Social Workers.

“National Association of Social Workers.” Socialworkers.or g , 2024, www.socialworkers.or g/.