“It’s an opportunity to make a difference every day.”
Jamie Estep made no bones about that sentiment being attached to the work she does as a social worker for Fairfield Community Schools.
To say it’s as simple as just showing up to one of the buildings and turning a frown upside down, no way. But Estep has made it part of her work mission to debunk the myth that she just deals with crisis after crisis.
“People think we’re DCS or CPS, that we’re here to take children away from their families and we’re nefarious,” commented Estep. “We work in school systems and we have access to children, so there’s a stigma there. A lot of my job is dispelling what we are not, what we don’t do.”
Estep continued, “I do a lot of supporting with school counselors, skills training groups. Grief groups, coping skills, a lot of skills with anxiety. A lot of clinical issues. Some one-on-one counseling with students who need help face-to-face. There’s so much we do, and it’s always different day by day.”
Estep is currently the lone social worker for FCS as workmate Dawn Ernsberger stepped away from her position last week to try her hand at a different career venture. As this week is National Social Worker’s Week, Estep isn’t feeling any additional pressure, but enjoys what each day brings. And no two days are ever the same.
Estep does have schedules with groups, planned and set. Otherwise it’s left open to daily needs. Unknown actions, behaviors. Regulating disregulated students. Filing DCS reports. Attendance verification. State reporting with mandated laws. There’s all kinds of angles to what Estep might oversee.
There are a multitude of organizations and people Estep works with to provide support to those in her care, including relationships with Ryan’s Place, Monique Burr and Blessing In A Backpack. She’s also seen families turn it around enough to want to return the favor.
“One of the biggest wins we had this year, a family we support a lot had a lot of deeply embedded trauma,” began Estep. “We went to Triple P with them. Supported them through the holidays. They said, we’ve been supported so much, we really want to give back. And so, it was very sacrificial for them to support another family, but they provided a Thanksgiving meal for another family. It was a single parent who was able to help another single parent in a similar circumstance.That felt like a huge win to be from needing support to being a place to give.”
Another peek around the curtain is the emotional side of the job, what Estep has to regulate like everything else. Sometimes, those emotions still surface.
“I go to high school graduations, and I just cry,” admitted Estep. “I’ve been here long enough to have seen kids all the way through. Kids that no one would have bet would have graduated. When I go to commencement, I am the biggest mess in the building because I know the backstory and what they’ve overcome to get to that point, to get that diploma.”
One program Estep wanted to enlighten the Fairfield community about it the Triple P workshop involving screen time. The session on Tuesday, March 5, at New Paris Elementary will hopefully help parents find a resolution to some screen time issues students are developing. And maybe a tip or two for parents who could use a break from their own iPhone.
“Time in front of a screen is time not interacting with real people,” Estep said. “Strategies we used to have don’t work anymore.
“We see kids who are overtired and overexposed all the time. Social buzzwords out of second graders - fat shamed, bullying - things they shouldn’t have but they have access to technology. Kids need instantaneous gratification. Here, take this device, and that’s now their coping mechanism. They can’t function without it. That’s how it’s changed for us with this new generation of kids.”
Estep closed the conversation with, “We’re starting to see some new families taking initiative to raise their kids differently, because they are seeing that effect to what screens are doing. I’m hoping a combination of research and personal experience will change behavior.”