Incentives Help Eliminate a Shortage of Social Workers

Between a full-time job and shuttling her children to school and child care, Denise Vasquez didn’t give much thought to college.

It had been 16 years since the 34-year-old cracked a textbook and she wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of taking night classes.

But when Ventura County’s child protection department hired her as a clerical worker last year, Vasquez got an unexpected break. She could take courses to become a social worker--something she had once considered--and the county would arrange a flexible work schedule.

Even better, the classes were 10 minutes from her office--and everything was free. With three classes under her belt, Vasquez is on her way to an associate’s degree in social work.

“Next is a bachelor’s, and if I’m brave enough, I’ll go for that master’s,” Vasquez said.

In its second year, the education program is more than a recruiting tool, county officials say. It’s a way to stem a chronic shortage of social workers by cultivating candidates from the ranks of county government clerks, community workers and receptionists.

Combined with other incentives, the county’s Human Services Agency has been able to fill nearly every vacant social worker position. And once hired, they’re sticking around longer.

Ventura County’s dilemma was by no means unique. Counties across California are offering higher salaries, signing bonuses and education incentives to attract social workers.

During the boom economy of the 1990s, veteran social workers fled the profession for higher-paying jobs, said Janlee Wong, who runs the California chapter of the National Assn. of Social Workers. And the number of new social workers completing graduate programs has not kept up with demand, Wong said.

A 1999 state Senate study suggested that California needs twice as many social workers, he said, to meet minimum standards for supervising children taken into protective custody because of suspected abuse and neglect.

Job Stress, Low Pay Make Recruiting Tough

It takes a certain grit to enter a profession where, on a daily basis, you deal with societal taboos and failing parents outraged that their children are about to be taken away from them, Wong said.

“Eventually, after their first year or second year or third year, they will be really burned out,” he said.

The best thing counties can do is to raise salaries, Wong said. In the Southern California region, starting wages range from $48,000 to $51,000 for a social worker with a master’s degree. Salaries top out in the upper $60,000s, he said.

Nationally, social workers earned a median income of $46,000 in 1999, the latest year for which figures are available. But compensation climbs higher when they move into private, for-profit organizations. Median salaries there are $51,900, but top out near $73,000.

Wages were a factor in Ventura County’s shortage, said Ted Myers, director of the county Department of Children and Family Services.

“By the end of ’98 and ‘99, people were turning us down to go to nonprofits” for better pay, he said. “And that was unheard of.”

Compounding the problem were Ventura County’s high housing costs, which made it difficult to attract social workers from out of state.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors took action in late 1999, designating social workers as “difficult to recruit.” That allowed the county to offer a salary 5% higher than it normally would. Existing staff members also got bumps in pay, Myers said.

Administrators then formed a labor committee to identify other recruiting tools and switched to a management style that focused on rewards and incentives. The education component is another crucial change, Myers said.

Ventura College agreed to send instructors to work sites to make classes more convenient. Oxnard and Moorpark colleges are also participating, said Judy Nash, who coordinates the program for Children and Family Services. The Human Services Agency covers the cost of tuition and textbooks.

The class that Vasquez attends is held at 4 p.m. Thursdays at the county’s job center on Ventura Road in Oxnard. The three-hour class is so popular that Vasquez has to arrive 15 minutes early to get a seat.

“All are people like me who have put this on the back burner for a while because they didn’t have the time or support from their employer,” she said.

She makes up the time she misses at work by arriving a little earlier on days she has no classes, Vasquez said. A 16-year Oxnard resident, Vasquez said she and her husband, an air-conditioning technician, intend to stay put once she earns a degree.

“I am here for good,” she said. “I plan to stay here and follow through.”

Program May Offer Bachelor’s Degrees

In addition to an associate’s degree, county employees can earn a master’s degree in social work through a program administered by the Cal State system. Students listen to televised lectures given by professors.

The gap between the two degrees--a bachelor’s--may soon be closed. County officials are talking with administrators at the Cal State Channel Islands campus near Camarillo about offering the needed classes, Nash said.

County social workers typically have at least a bachelor’s degree. But if an employee has experience working in the county’s Human Services Agency and has completed the associate’s degree program, he or she could be moved more quickly into a social worker position, Myers said.

Starting next year, the county will add a paid internship that gives workers on-the-job experience in social work. Jackie Moody, who works in a Simi Valley office helping people apply for the state’s Medi-Cal health program, intends to sign up for it.

Moody has already completed six units of course work and is taking two additional classes this semester. The county pays for everything, including the gas she uses driving to classes in Ventura and Oxnard, she said.

“For me, it’s always been about child care, time and money,” said Moody, who recently married and has a 10-year-old son. “And every single barrier I had was removed. They do everything but physically walk you to class.”