Illinois DCFS Honors Child Abuse Prevention Month
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
Safety First. Safety Always.
In every community, there lies an undeniable responsibility to protect and nurture its most vulnerable members – children.
Illinois DCFS is an agency made up of people who pour their heart and soul into their work because they are tasked with the most important job in the world: to ensure the health and safety of our children. At Illinois DCFS, there are nearly 3,500 employees all over the state who work tirelessly to provide the best possible services, care and resources they can to approximately 24,000 children.
Our team takes their job very seriously. It is impossible to limit our work to a typical 9-to-5 shift when our job is to keep a child safe. That child instantly becomes a part of you, compelling you to tirelessly seek ways to help. The DCFS team knows the decisions they make from that point forward, based on the hundreds of hours of training and fieldwork, have consequences.
And this is what makes Illinois DCFS so special.
Our leadership and staff disseminate best practices and work to develop innovative approaches to strengthening families. We continue to grow our team, have enhanced our program to support children who have been victims of human trafficking and expanded our intact services programs so families can stay together whenever it is safe to do so. Thanks to Governor Pritzker and the General Assembly, we continue to invest in meeting the needs of children and families through specialized therapeutic residential programs, high quality wraparound, enhanced adoption and guardianship services, increased colleges scholarships for youth in care and specialized treatment foster care and other supports for youth with complex needs.
Illinois DCFS continues to educate whenever, however and as often as possible, about topics like preventing child abuse and the connection between family violence and child abuse. In addition to public education, we provide treatment, classes and other resources to help realize our vision of strong, healthy families across the state.
Approximately one in four children experience abuse or neglect in their lifetime. No child deserves that kind of trauma. It is a collective social responsibility to provide children with a safe, secure and loving environment in which they can grow and thrive. Every person needs to take child abuse and neglect seriously, and most of all, we encourage you and others to be the voice for a child who may need you.
Tierney Stutz is the executive deputy director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.