Soon after I began working as a caseworker at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 1981, it was announced that my team would be relocating from Chicago's North Side to the city's West Side. Because such a move would have seriously interfered with my driving my two young children to and from pre-school and daycare, I switched places with someone from another North Side team. I was now on a team supervised by Jane Archer.
Jane was a smart, honest, and outspoken one-of-a kind supervisor. The daughter of a Milwaukee newspaper man, she taught school before becoming a social worker and exuded the determined truth-seeking qualities of a reporter with the intense passion of a true old-fashioned social worker. Jane supervised a team of seven caseworkers at a time when the average caseload was between 80 and 100. During regularly scheduled meetings held with each worker, she would reference notes she had written on small index cards, at least one for every single family. She would have recalled much even without the cards. Never one to spew forth trite clichés or to settle for simplistic explanations, Jane would adamantly help guide one's thinking in the direction supported by the evidence.
Jane was known for the fierce support she gave her workers. And that was no easy task given the often mindless bureaucrats she was up against. But she was principled and a fighter who never tired of speaking out about what she believed was right, right for her workers and right for the families they worked with. Jane was certainly not motivated by the fear of making an error or protecting her job. Indeed, her honest efforts saw to it that she was never promoted.
Yet, many considered Jane to have been the best supervisor in the whole Illinois child welfare system. It was said that the best workers, supervisors and administrators had at one time been on Jane Archer's team. Even years after she retired, the IDCFS executive deputy director spoke about bringing her back to teach others how to work with families and how to guide those who did. What a missed opportunity that it never materialized.
Jane never had an agenda but rather understood the purpose of the child welfare system and then within that conceptual scaffolding used critical thinking to look at evidence and to proceed from there.
You can only imagine how most of the team felt when in 1988, Jane told everyone that she was about to retire. We planned a party for her and I was asked to write something to be engraved on a plaque for her. I received a note from Jane after the party in which she wrote that she "was sorry that I haven't been able to do more about giving [the team] better conditions. I'm a little pessimistic but we must keep trying."
Jane and I remained in contact, speaking frequently via the phone after I moved to New York City. In June 2010, I went to Chicago for a few days to see her. We visited the Chicago Botanic Garden together and, though she was more quiet than in the past, we spoke about child welfare. Our phone conversations continued when I returned to New York, but in November of that year Jane passed away at age 83. I miss Jane. I miss her very much.
Jane was a smart, honest, and outspoken one-of-a kind supervisor. The daughter of a Milwaukee newspaper man, she taught school before becoming a social worker and exuded the determined truth-seeking qualities of a reporter with the intense passion of a true old-fashioned social worker. Jane supervised a team of seven caseworkers at a time when the average caseload was between 80 and 100. During regularly scheduled meetings held with each worker, she would reference notes she had written on small index cards, at least one for every single family. She would have recalled much even without the cards. Never one to spew forth trite clichés or to settle for simplistic explanations, Jane would adamantly help guide one's thinking in the direction supported by the evidence.
Jane was known for the fierce support she gave her workers. And that was no easy task given the often mindless bureaucrats she was up against. But she was principled and a fighter who never tired of speaking out about what she believed was right, right for her workers and right for the families they worked with. Jane was certainly not motivated by the fear of making an error or protecting her job. Indeed, her honest efforts saw to it that she was never promoted.
Yet, many considered Jane to have been the best supervisor in the whole Illinois child welfare system. It was said that the best workers, supervisors and administrators had at one time been on Jane Archer's team. Even years after she retired, the IDCFS executive deputy director spoke about bringing her back to teach others how to work with families and how to guide those who did. What a missed opportunity that it never materialized.
Jane never had an agenda but rather understood the purpose of the child welfare system and then within that conceptual scaffolding used critical thinking to look at evidence and to proceed from there.
You can only imagine how most of the team felt when in 1988, Jane told everyone that she was about to retire. We planned a party for her and I was asked to write something to be engraved on a plaque for her. I received a note from Jane after the party in which she wrote that she "was sorry that I haven't been able to do more about giving [the team] better conditions. I'm a little pessimistic but we must keep trying."
Jane and I remained in contact, speaking frequently via the phone after I moved to New York City. In June 2010, I went to Chicago for a few days to see her. We visited the Chicago Botanic Garden together and, though she was more quiet than in the past, we spoke about child welfare. Our phone conversations continued when I returned to New York, but in November of that year Jane passed away at age 83. I miss Jane. I miss her very much.
RSS Feed