{"id":42749,"date":"2019-08-04T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T13:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=42749"},"modified":"2019-08-05T11:25:11","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T15:25:11","slug":"unwavering-heart-child-welfare-advocates-sustained-by-their-belief-in-human-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/unwavering-heart-child-welfare-advocates-sustained-by-their-belief-in-human-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwavering Heart: Child welfare advocates sustained by their belief in human potential"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"highlight highlight-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crossroads\/2019\/05\/24\/on-a-path-of-infinite-possibilities-roberto-wingfield-15\/\">Read more alumni profiles in the latest Crossroads magazine.<\/a><\/aside>\n<p>Social worker <strong>Heidi Hochstetler \u201903<\/strong>\u00a0arrived at EMU not knowing what \u201csocial services\u201d were. On cross-cultural in Tanzania as a sophomore, however, the native of rural Holmes County, Ohio, grew close to trip leader and then-professor of social work Nancy Fisher, who told her about the field \u2013 and said that Hochstetler had \u201cit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was a social worker at heart, which is something that no one can learn or be trained in,\u201d Hochstetler remembers Fisher telling her. \u201cAfter 16 years in the field, I think \u2018it\u2019 is an unwavering belief that people can change and become better. Now, I can recognize \u2018it,\u2019 too, both in my colleagues and new employees. You have to have that belief to carry with you. This is hard, difficult work walking alongside people who are sometimes having the worst times in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both child welfare advocates at the nonprofit agency Turning Points for Children, Hochstetler and colleague\u00a0<strong>Scott Eldredge \u201982<\/strong>\u00a0have long outlasted the average social work career length of just over seven years. Sustained by their commitment to children and their belief in the power of human potential, they\u2019re providing important leadership in a new era for the city.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_42746\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42746\" style=\"width: 3000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-42746 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-6web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-6web.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-6web-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-6web-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-6web-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-42746\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heidi Hochstetler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Eldredge was indelibly shaped by growing up in a Christian group home for young people with a variety of challenges managed by his parents. \u201cLiving in service to others was a commitment first modeled by my parents,\u201d he said. While at EMU and after graduating, he worked with troubled teens in a variety of contexts, including alternative schools, residential treatment homes and wilderness programs.<\/p>\n<p>Eldredge\u2019s 37-year career is marked by an almost entrepreneurial zeal for administration, beginning with his first part-time position. \u201cThey gave me the state regs and said, \u2018If you can create a new foster care program and get funding for it, you\u2019ll have a full-time job.\u2019\u201d Eldredge did this \u2013 the program eventually provided care for 638 children in community settings \u2013 and more, adding specialities of treatment foster care and adoption.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_42747\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-42747\" style=\"width: 3000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-42747 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-21web.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3000\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-21web.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-21web-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-21web-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2019\/08\/20190320-Heidi-Hochstetler-and-Scott-Eldredge-21web-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-42747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scott Eldredge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After 14 years at that agency, he moved to a second agency to start and direct their child welfare division, eventually becoming part of the senior leadership team and director of family services. In 1987, at the height of the AIDS crisis, just a few months before Princess Diana was photographed shaking an AIDS patient\u2019s hand without wearing gloves, Eldredge founded a nonprofit that became the leading provider of medical foster care for HIV positive children in southeast Pennsylvania. While working a full-time job, he also served as executive director, supervising a staff of 62 that supported more than 330 children in need.<\/p>\n<p>More recently, Eldredge\u2019s administrative skills have contributed to the city\u2019s social services reforms, implemented after the 2007 horrific death by neglect of disabled teenager Danieal Kelly. Under the public-private partnership, the city was divided into 10 neighborhood-based regions and private agencies are contracted to provide child welfare management services.<\/p>\n<p>Eldredge and Hochstetler now direct two of these Community Umbrella Agency (CUA) regions. Each supervises approximately 115-135 case workers and other staff who provide integrated, comprehensive services to about 2,500 children and their families in crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Eldredge\u2019s CUA 9 was recently ranked first on the Department of Human Services\u2019 annual \u201cscorecard,\u201d which measures success through positive outcomes for clients and their families. Hochstetler was a case management director in CUA 3, ranked third among the 10 areas, until her promotion earlier this year to take over and help improve CUA 10.<\/p>\n<p>Though the work is challenging, relationships with the children they serve, with foster and adoptive parents, and with the case managers and staff they supervise give them both strength and hope.<\/p>\n<p>Eldredge\u2019s service isn\u2019t just professional; it\u2019s also personal. He and his wife\u00a0<strong>Alice Moyer Eldredge \u201981<\/strong>, a school nurse, have fostered 12 children, some with urgent medical needs. \u201cOur years as foster parents were a powerful experience for our family, including my own three daughters. I have learned so much and been affirmed by my time with other foster and adoptive parents,\u201d he said. \u201cNow encouraging and training new social workers is a new reward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In her new administrative position since January, Hochstetler also spends more time \u201cempowering other professionals in their own development.\u201d That work is well informed by her 16 years of experience working and advocating within the welfare system.<\/p>\n<p>One of Hochstetler\u2019s former clients, now 20, reconnected with her after a long search. As an eight-year-old, he had known her only by her first name. He lives several states away, but calls weekly and plans to visit soon. \u201cHe considers me to be family because of the things I went through with him in his childhood as his case worker. That feels incredible and makes me want to do this work for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social worker Heidi Hochstetler \u201903\u00a0arrived at EMU not knowing what \u201csocial services\u201d were. On cross-cultural in Tanzania as a sophomore, however, the native of rural Holmes County, Ohio, grew close <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/unwavering-heart-child-welfare-advocates-sustained-by-their-belief-in-human-potential\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Unwavering Heart: Child welfare advocates sustained by their belief in human potential<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,17562,8845,6287],"tags":[],"feature":[17427,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-42749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-digest","category-emu-at-lancaster","category-social-work","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unwavering Heart: Child welfare advocates sustained by their belief in human potential - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2019\/unwavering-heart-child-welfare-advocates-sustained-by-their-belief-in-human-potential\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unwavering Heart: Child welfare advocates sustained by their belief in human potential - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Social worker Heidi Hochstetler \u201903\u00a0arrived at EMU not knowing what \u201csocial services\u201d were. 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