Elmer Smith: What DHS can do, it must do well

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, August, 2008

DHS strives to protect children from abuse, neglect and delinquency. We also work to strengthen them and provide for families by enhancing community-based prevention services.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure the safety and permanency of DHS Youth in nurturing environments.

 

THAT STATEMENT from the Department of Human Services Web site describes an expansive mandate that no public or private agency or combination of agencies could ever hope to fulfill.

Some 20,000 children receive sustained services from DHS each year. But on any given day, the term "DHS Youth" could refer to three times that many.

It refers to all of the children who go through the Youth Study Center, all of the children who have been adjudicated delinquent or even accused of...