Dear Editor:
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Back when all the publicity was blasting the DCFS system and the family preservation program, I wrote letters to both newspapers. Other Family First (preservation) supervisors and workers of private agencies did the same. Not one letter was printed. Our intent was to inform the general public that the family preservation program was not just doling out money and things to “bad” families, as public guardian Patrick Murphy would have you believe.
DCFS has many flaws in its system and is overloaded with cases, but the family preservation program was hardly given a chance. In Illinois, it was replaced by two programs that also have as their goal to maintain families together. One is able to provide more intensive services for a select few families. The other has a much larger caseload and families do not receive financial support. No one mentions the families that have been helped by DCFS and private agencies, but there are many. Many parents are struggling to make a good life for their children. For the sake of the children, these families need services.
