Empowering clients: Meet case manager Harry Fox
May 14, 2020
Empowering clients: Meet case manager Harry Fox
Child Protective Services workers aren't usually welcome guests in the homes of their clients. The thought of having someone evaluate their parenting with the potential to move their child can be upsetting and downright horrifying but in Cordele, Georgia, there’s one CPS worker who manages to bring comfort and even care to the residents and his clients.
Meet Mr. Harry Fox.
Mr. Fox is a former police officer and current case manager for the Crisp County DFCS.
He approaches his job as a CPS case manager a bit differently to form a bond with the residents of Cordele.
A lot of people know him as a local football coach. Mr. Fox also mentors young men and boys in Cordele. He helps them get out of high school and into college. With younger children, he’ll take them fishing and teach them how to tie a tie and fill out a job application.
“Teach them how to be daddies, keep them off the streets,” he says.
In a town like Cordele where about 46 percent of residents live below the poverty line, many DFCS workers are hard pressed to find the resources necessary to serve their clients.
“Cordele is a lot different than Atlanta so we can't do as much, but it's hard. Sometimes you see people struggling and you know them so you kind of use your own resources,” Mr. Fox says.
Many residents picture DFCS and CPS workers as officials coming in to take their children and create havoc in their homes but staff like Mr. Fox have been able to change that narrative and show residents that DFCS is here to help and Child Protective Services can be a beacon of hope.
”Now people don't just take kids out of homes. They try to work with them,” Mr. Fox says. “I like the model. I like everything we do.”
Mr. Fox visits a client who had overcome substance abuse to regain her parental rights, get a job and establish a home for her children. She was almost at the finish line of her case and soon to be processed out of the system.
Mr. Fox greets his client as if she were family. He extends a great big hug to her young son who beams with excitement to see Mr. Fox, a pleasantly unusual response of a young child and parent to a visit from a CPS worker.
Mr. Fox makes small talk with his client, but not that awkward small talk that you have to do because you want to be polite. It's the kind of small talk you do when you've developed a caring relationship with the person.
He checks on the client’s job and ability to get to work. He asks if her young son has started crawling and offers help with getting stair gates to keep the boy from falling.
He ends the visit by doing a final walk-through of the house. Yes, he checks to make sure that everything is in compliance, but he also checks to make sure that his client is feeling comfortable, confident and excited about the future.
“Anything you need from me...you call me,” he tells her. “I'm here for you. I just want to see you finish the race. “
Between his work with local youth and his visits with clients, Cordele residents have come to know and love Mr. Harry Fox. So while a CPS home visit from him isn't anyone's favorite thing in the world, they know that he cares for them and wants to see them do better. And in an under-served town like Cordele, they truly need this hope.