Tanya Hillman

Agency: Devereux Arizona

Term: Fall - 2004

My name is Tanya and I am currently participating in an internship for a wonderful non-profit organization whose aim is to empower and nurture all people. Devereux is an agency that provides support for children, adults and families such as counseling, foster care, home based shelter, life skills training and special education. Additionally, therapeutic services are provided. These services include medical treatments that are necessary for people with severe emotional, behavioral, neurological and intellectual disorders.

There are a number of departments in the organization: Foster Care, Therapeutic Foster Care, Adult Foster Care, Family Based Shelter, Family Builders, Outpatient Care, Residential Treatment, Special Education and Therapeutic Group Homes. I work within the Foster Care program here at Devereux. The main focus of my department is to make sure children are placed in the homes of loving, caring, nurturing and responsible adults. Once a child has been removed from an abusive and neglectful environment, the Foster Care program receives information from the police and from Child Protective Services about the history, condition and needs of each child. My department is also responsible for selecting and training individuals and families that would like to become foster families.

As an intern, I work alongside compassionate, intelligent and very dedicated Foster Care Specialists. These workers are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year! My responsibilities include making phone calls and monthly home visits to all our foster families to ensure that potential problems are addressed quickly. This contact enables foster families to learn and grow and ensures that they have all the guidance and support they need when it comes to making important decisions. I also amend licenses, write reports, communicate with the Department of Child Protective Services and other government departments and attend to correspondence and filing.

I have gained much experience and knowledge about foster care and other community based programs and services. I am more aware of the reasons why children are removed from their environments. I am learning the procedures necessary to re-introduce them to their biological families, and I am learning how to help foster families be successful. I have also learned that the need for foster care is increasing, especially here in Tucson. If we can find more families like those I am working with, then the world can only get better. One family in particular is making this happen. During a home-visit, I had the opportunity to watch the family at work. There is one biological child and four foster children ranging in ages from 11 months to 12 years. Three of the foster children were born addicted to drugs and had encountered severe trauma and neglect. What I observed during this home-visit was that the foster parents treated all the children with care, respect and most importantly-love. Both the foster mother and father knew that life with these children might not be easy. There have been many doctors’ visits, dealings with the biological families, some emotional and developmental setbacks, adjustments to new environments and new faces. Yet the foster parents were able to provide a nurturing and supportive family and home for the children. Talking with this family always puts a smile on my face, as I know there are people out there who really do make a positive change in the lives of the children who need it the most. And I can also be a part of that.

I greatly enjoy working with people and that is why I decided to participate in this internship. The advice I would give to anybody also considering participating would be to realize that you learn from whatever task it is you do. I love making home-visits and phone calls as I enjoy the interaction, however I have also learned many things about Devereux and foster care from the not-so-exciting tasks such as filing and faxing. I am happy to be a part of the Devereux team.

University of Arizona | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
School of Family and Consumer Sciences | Family Studies and Human Development

Emergency Information   |   Privacy Information    |    Copyright Information   |   Web Accessibility

© 2002 Institute of Children, Youth, and Families
All rights reserved