Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) joined with the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families to make recommendations for improving social services to Latino families in a policy forum held Sept. 25 on the Lincoln Center campus.
At the forum, Michael Phillips, D.S.W., professor of social work at GSS, presented a report, “Voices of Preventive Services: Perspectives of Clients and Workers,” that assessed how social services are delivered in New York City from the perspective of both children and families who receive the services and social workers who deliver them.
The report outlined 11 recommendations that included structuring preventivie agencies involved in health care, child welfare and other areas as neighborhood-based organizations focused on well-being and education. The report also called for offering those services to Hispanic clients by Spanish-speaking workers, and recommended training workers in culturally competent practices and developing preventive services tailored for troubled teenagers.
The forum included a panel discussion with Phillips; Carmen Jirau-Rivera, associate executive director for New York Foundling Hospital; and Peggy Ellis, associate commissioner for community-based services for the New York City Administration for Children Services.
