Julie Christie

1 month ago | inquirer.com | Steve Volk |Julie Christie |Resolve Philly

The problems bedeviling Philadelphia’s child welfare system — too many kids in foster care, worker vacancies, and lawsuits stemming from child injuries and deaths — have all steadily waned in New Jersey in the last two decades. So what can Philly learn from the Garden State? In the 1990s, New Jersey’s child welfare system was among the worst in the nation, with too few caseworkers for the number of kids in need.

2 months ago | inquirer.com | Steve Volk |Julie Christie

A story like this could begin in dozens of places. It could begin with Elliot, an infant shaken so badly that he suffered a traumatic brain injury; or Adeen, another boy, submerged in scalding water; or Samaya, held down and burned with an iron. A story like this could also begin with a mom, like Tytianna Hawthorne, whose daughter Su’Layah Williams was removed from her care by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and placed in a private home where the girl was allegedly murdered.

Dec 26, 2023 | inquirer.com | Steve Volk |Julie Christie |Resolve Philly

A year ago, after a Resolve Philly/Inquirer investigation revealed that the city Department of Human Services routinely took millions of dollars belonging to youths in foster care, City Council passed a law banning the practice. But despite the law, DHS acknowledges that it’s still keeping the money — about $1.3 million in Social Security benefits for 380 foster kids in a typical year, according to the investigation — and plowing it back into the city’s general fund.