SC

SCDSS “Signs Of Safety” Program Raises Concerns

RACIAL REMARK UPSETS AGENCY’S BLACK EMPLOYEES By FITSNEWS || Sources at Nikki Haley‘s Department of Social Services (SCDSS) tell FITS they are concerned with a new child welfare program being implemented at the agency called “Signs of Safety.” Developed in the 1990s in Western Australia, SCDSS began working with the…

RACIAL REMARK UPSETS AGENCY’S BLACK EMPLOYEES

By FITSNEWS || Sources at Nikki Haley‘s Department of Social Services (SCDSS) tell FITS they are concerned with a new child welfare program being implemented at the agency called “Signs of Safety.”

Developed in the 1990s in Western Australia, SCDSS began working with the organization that administers this program earlier this year.  In fact according to the organization’s website, one of its top executives “was in South Carolina in May 2014 working on Signs of Safety implementation with the South Carolina’s Department of Social Service.”

This included “planning workshops with executive leadership and partner agencies and then a one day workshop for 300 staff and partners to ‘kick off’ the Statewide implementation.”

In other words, the program was being ramped up less than one month before the resignation of former SCDSS director Lillian Koller.

Hmmmm …

Koller was forced out of her job for a number of reasons: Dead kids, cooked books, botched boondoggles, manipulated data and questionable consultant payments.

Despite Koller’s departure, “Signs of Safety” is still being implemented.  In fact SCDSS held a major training session for the program earlier this week – one that has caused a storm of controversy within the agency.

Child care advocates tell FITS “Signs of Safety” is a clinical tool that is designed to assist caseworkers.

“Basically it’s an assessment out of Australia that asks families: What are we worried about, what’s working well, what needs to happen, et cetera (in order to) to determine an action plan for the family,” one advocate explained.

According to multiple sources familiar with the training session for the program, though, an administrator made a comment regarding its implementation that offended the agency’s black caseworkers.

“They said the program was just for blacks,” one source told us. “That it was just black families that needed it.”

Needless to say, the remark did not go over well.

“What a slap in the face to all the African Americans employed with (the) South Carolina Department of Social Services,” another added in a written message. “We don’t just serve blacks; we serve whites, Hispanic, Indian, Latinos and others.”

“I am outraged that this program was not screened more before being forced upon SCDSS as an agency,” the employee added. “This agency is a mess and it keeps getting worse.”

Another source at the agency who did not attend the “Signs of Safety” training session told FITS that racist views on the part of the agency’s upper management was a “pervasive problem” at SCDSS.

Wow … racial dram.  Just what SCDSS did not need as its interim director, Amber Gillum, struggles to respond to its ongoing crisis.

FITS first began exposing problems at SCDSS more than two years ago (while the rest of the state’s media was sound asleep).  These reports that have since mushroomed into a full-fledged debacle for Haley – one that keeps getting worse as we glean more insider information from the agency.

Oh, and as the public learns more about the disaster thanks to the efforts of a handful of state lawmakers led by S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy and Jenny Horne.

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18 comments

FedUp October 8, 2014 at 12:21 pm

See South Carolina. Visit the third world in your own backyard… Thanks Nikki…

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Beartrkkr October 8, 2014 at 10:15 pm

Smiling faces, retched places…

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John October 8, 2014 at 12:45 pm

See, the GOP is making things work at DSS.

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john October 8, 2014 at 1:09 pm

Did you not read the article I advise you to read it. DSS IS NOT BETTTER IT’S GET ING WORSE. SITTER DO YOU MORE WHITES HAVE MORE ABUSE CASE THANK AFRICAN…MEXICAN OR ANY RACE. They also have the highest application and approval for medicaid.

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Jon October 8, 2014 at 1:18 pm

I think he’s being sarcastic, john.

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John October 8, 2014 at 1:27 pm

Big T, is this your new screen name?

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john October 8, 2014 at 2:05 pm

No it common sense…see the truth hurt. When do you use your EBT AND MEDICAID CARD…

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Kimani Wa Karanja October 8, 2014 at 12:59 pm

“What a slap in the face to all the African Americans employed with (the) South Carolina Department of Social Services,” another added in a written message. “We don’t just serve blacks; we serve whites, Hispanic, Indian, Latinos and others.”
Read more at https://www.fitsnews.com/2014/10/08/scdss-signs-safety-program-raises-concerns/#GwCYPMwfPsxzIHe5.99

You must never have been in the Richland County DSS building on any given day. It looks like feeding time in some little African village.

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john October 8, 2014 at 1:15 pm

No its the fact that whites get the jobs in upper management and blacks gets the front line or as you may call field hand worker’s. White prefer completing their application online so people like you want know they are receiving assistance from the state. African Americans and Mexican shops all with their EBT Card but white American shops late mid night hours or the dawn of the morning b so no one can they swiping their EBT CARD OR WELFARE CARD. SINCE YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO I WOULD ADVISE YOU JUST TO GET A CHAIR AND SIT IN FRONT OF STORE CASE AND WIPE YEARS WHEN SEE HOW MAY WHITE AMERICANS ARE SWIPING. THEN YOU CALL YOUR SELF REDUCING GOVERMENTAL SPENDING HIRING BEHIND CLOSED DOOR AND IN THE DARK.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein October 8, 2014 at 9:39 pm

English is your second language, yes?

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john October 9, 2014 at 7:25 am

1st fool. The truth hurts right

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NAACfits October 8, 2014 at 1:07 pm

LMAO!!!!! Trying to smear and slander Haley with the DSS debacle didn’t work, the unemployment numbers were manipulated in southern states governed by Republicans so the “jobs” attack is out …..so Fits is apparently left with joining Vinny and playing the racecard on South Carolina voters.

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Bible Thumper October 8, 2014 at 1:24 pm

“Rising Jobless Rates Are a Southern Mystery”
This has occurred in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana since April. No proof of BLS manipulation, but it does contradict other data.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/rising-jobless-rates-are-a-southern-mystery-1412542422

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Bible Thumper October 8, 2014 at 2:08 pm

Racism rears its ugly head. It’s not hard to understand. You’re white. Grew up in a white middleclass society. White neighborhood, white friends, white church all middle class of course. Didn’t meet many black middleclass people.

Never thought you had a racist bone in your body. Cosby and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were your favorite TV shows. Now you’re in a job where most of the families you meet are black, all severely dysfunctional. These are difficult problems which government has no easy solutions for. What’s the easy out? Not hateful racism, but a racism of low expectations. You are over worked and looking for a short-cut.
Examples: Let’s just check the immigration of Hispanics only. Let’s body search all twenty and thirty year old males who appear to be of middle-eastern background at the airport.

Then it happens. “This program was just for blacks,” “It was just black families that needed it.” This is not right-wing racism. This is liberal racism.

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shifty henry October 8, 2014 at 2:14 pm

SC DSS definitely needs a NEW entrance sign…

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Leroy October 8, 2014 at 4:03 pm

Nikki Haley considers blacks as non important in this state they are no threat to her come voting time and she knows it.

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Guest October 8, 2014 at 4:37 pm

One sign of safety would be no evidence of Jihad training by DSS Muslim clients.

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RHood2 October 8, 2014 at 5:34 pm

“Koller was forced out of her job for a number of reasons: Dead kids, cooked books, botched boondoggles, manipulated data and questionable consultant payments.”
If I were Sheheen or Ervin, I’d make that my campaign slogan.
Vote Ervin, put an end to dead kids, cooked books, botched boondoggles, manipulated data and questionable consultant payments.
Sheheen for Governor: No more dead kids, cooked books, botched boondoggles, manipulated data and questionable consultant payments.

Reply

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