Your Views On C.A.S children's aid

i've had a bad experience with them in the past. i was living in a foster home and right before my 16th birthday i moved back in with my birth mother to see how well it would work out. i spoke to my worker and it was agreed it was a trial period. i singed papers stating the fact and that i could come back to children's aid if it didn't work out, even though i was going to be 16 soon. at 16 they don't take people in but if your allready in the system they keep you until 18. because it was a trial period i was suposed to be allowed to come home. all the paperwork was in order. this was the only reason i agreed to give it a try. anyway i moved back home, and after 2 weeks of living at home i got a call from my worker saying i wouldn't be allowed to come back becuase of my age, even though we had previously discussed it. i was not happy. i sufford for a while not sure what to do. for about 2 months i was at my mohter's house and couldn't handle it anymore. so i called my foster mom i had lived with prior to moving back to my mom's. she picked up the phone and all i said to her was, "i can't handle it anymore". she said ok i'll be right there. 30 minutes later she came to pick me up. thank god for her. she took me for free with out asking for anything, until i could get on my own two feet. i was still in high school so i got on welfare and got an apartment. she is such a great person. i'm so glad she was there for me even when the system wasn't there.

The only real experience that I have had with them was while I was a foster parent. And to be honest with you I don't feel like their are that many people who work in the system that you can trust. I have always heard people complain about how the system treated them but didn't believe it until I had seen it with my own eyes. We call it social services or DCFS where I live. I have found that unless you are someone with a lot of money you often get screwed by the system. One social worker even had the nerve to tell me that one family didn't deserve their children back just because they only made twenty thousand dollars a year. In my eyes that is not a reason to dismantle a family. I think that there are some workers who have their own ideas of how to judge whether or not some parents get their children back that aren't fair.

Is C.A.S. a welfare like program or a child protection type program? In either case, I think that both types of programs can offer support that families need but are often abused. In the case of welfare aid, it seems too many people rely on that help long after they should have improved their lives enough to not need it anymore. In the case of child protection agencies, it seems here in the US they're case loads are so heavy that they make poor judgments and do not help the children who truly need their help.