Week 1 at Missouri Department of Social Services – Juvenile Office (part two)

For Friday I got into the office and discussed a little bit more what I learned the day before with Robyn. She explained to me in more depth about the cases we observed in court the day before. I forgot to mention on Thursday she was given five more cases to work on, three of them were child protections cases and the other two were TPR’s. She worked on a few of those cases while I observed and asked questions about her process. She then took me down to intake, which is where the cases first come in and get vetted to decide if they are worth pursuing (meaning if they have enough evidence) or not. I got to talk to the one of the workers who decides if the case is worth pursuing. She shared with me her own process and showed me how there are so many steps before the cases ever gets to the attorneys. When a case comes in and the officer has not given enough detail or evidence she will speak with him and ask them to go more in depth in order for this case to be pursued. I learned a lot from her and Robyn as we all talked and they explained different case scenarios and answered any and all my questions. For next week I am looking forward to learning more about how to use evidence to strengthen cases.