A Heart For Kids: Native Spanish Speaker Joins Ranks Of Staff Child Protection Worker

WORTHINGTON --  It takes a special type of person to be a social worker in the Nobles County Family Services child protection unit. Empathy, compassion, patience, discipline, a non-judgmental attitude and stamina are all required.

That’s because it’s never too early in the morning or too late at night to help a vulnerable child.

“We take turns, but someone is always on call,” said Krysta Anderson,  the Family and Children’s Social Services supervisor.

“That means nights, weekends and holidays, around the clock.”

With child protection reports averaging nearly one per day (the department fielded 362 child protection reports in the county during 2015 and to date in 2016 has handled 329 reports), Anderson and her staff are engaged in a job that never ends and is sometimes thankless -- but can be rewarding nevertheless.

Each of the dedicated family/children’s social services staff in Nobles County plays an important role, with employees designated to child protection (four), child welfare (one), children’s mental health (four) and case aide (one).

Several of the unit’s employees speak some Spanish, but when Dulce Adame Murillo joined the office as a child protection worker on Aug. 1, she became the first native Spanish-speaker employed in that capacity.

“I was so excited to have Dulce join our team because we work with a really diverse population,” said Anderson. “Being non-judgmental is a hugely important quality in our work, and while we all possess that, having someone from the same culture to serve a client takes it to another degree and enables  communication.”

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Author: Jane Moore