Reunification Director: Samantha Walker

(We are delayed in getting our remaining Reunification Month episodes out)

This week we welcome Samantha Walker, Reunification Director for Georgia Division of Family and Children's Services. We discuss reunification month in June, types of reunification, conditions to return and why it's important to not only work and support children but families as a whole.

Samantha N. Walker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of New Orleans and a Master of Social Work degree from Southern University at New Orleans. After college, she began her career as a CPS investigator. In 2008, Samantha moved to Georgia and began working for the Division of Family and Children Services as a foster care case manager. During her twelve- year tenure with the Division, she has served in many capacities, including: foster care case manager; kinship assessor; permanency supervisor; permanency administrator; and permanency program director. She currently serves as the Division’s Reunification Director.

Samantha is passionate about supporting families in the home whenever possible by exhausting all reasonable efforts prior to requesting legal custody of a child(ren). Providing consistent, quality services to parents along with helping families identify and create their own informal support networks are the cornerstones to supporting and encouraging reunification. She strongly believes in building consensus with the family at the onset of engagement, and that early-on identification of the safety issues leading to out-of-home care will assist in achieving reunification. When conditions for return are clearly
established and communicated with all pertinent entities including families, courts, relatives, and partnership parents, successful reunification for families is highly achievable.

Welcome to the conversation!

Email: thefwordfostercare@gmail.com  familiesanchor@gmail.com

Twitter: @families_anchor @FWordFosterCare

Facebook: www.facebook.com/familiesanchor
(Georgia Virtual Parent Support Group information can be found on Facebook)

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com