C.G. Robinson spends most of her days watching the innocent endure pain and suffering inflicted emotionally and physically by those they trust.
Robinson, 43, has been a child-welfare social worker for the past 21 years. She has worked in the foster-care system in Cabarrus County for the past four.
"It never becomes easier. You just get better at dealing with it," Robinson said of the difficult situations she often sees as a result of her work in the foster-care system.
One case that stands out for the veteran social worker involved going to a house where the parents were having a party. There was drinking and drug use, and people hanging out in the yard.
The couple had two small children and were totally detached from them, Robinson said.
"The kids realized these people couldn't take care of them. They were packing their own clothes. I thought, ‘That is so sad,'" Robinson said. "This kid got his own bag and put his clothes in it and grabbed his teddy bear and came to the door like, ‘You have to take us.'"
Viewing videos and pictures and studying possible scenarios in a college class don't fully prepare future social workers for the human part of the job, social workers say.
Most social workers burn out after about two years, said Connie Polk, the administrator of the Cabarrus County Department of Social Services Child Welfare Program.
"At the two-year mark, particularly with (social) workers in the Child Protective Services (CPS), which is the initial-investigation phase, you'll see the turnover a lot quicker," Polk said. "A lot of times, there is hostility with what we call ‘that first knock at the door.' After a while, that really takes a toll on the worker. They'll want to move into another area of child welfare. They say, ‘I just can't do this job anymore.'"
Robinson said working for Child Protective Services has to be something you really want.
"I know a CPS worker in Catawba County who has done CPS work all her career. She probably has almost 20 years. That's her calling, and she loves it," Robinson said. "I've also seen others come in and do it one week, and say, ‘I don't know what I was thinking. I can't do this.'"
Fresh out of school and facing the real job is the hardest for social workers who choose CPS, according to social workers.
Robinson has never married and has no children of her own.
"As much as I give to this job on a day-to-day basis, I know I couldn't go home and have to give it there, too," she said.
The hardest part is knowing she can't take all the children home and keep them safe.
The "save-the-world" ideal quickly falls away, and the job becomes more about the best the social worker can do for the child. "All they can do is to try to make it better," Robinson said. "The situation can't always be fixed."
Robinson said she has seen children born into the system by teenagers stuck in foster care.
"I now have to look at the big picture, and say, ‘This teenager will be aging out soon and becoming an adult. I can't fix it for her, but I can for her child,'" Robinson said.
"You hate to see generations go on in the system."
The part of Robinson's job that keeps her coming back every day is the success stories.
"I look at who's done well and how they may have done it," Robinson said. "I think, ‘If it went well for them, then someone else can have a good ending, too.' You just keep coming in so that other children can have a chance for a good ending."
Robin L. Gardner is a reporter for the Concord/Kannapolis Independent Tribune.
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