Great thanks are due to Dan Rodricks who recently took the time to learn more about our groundbreaking work at the Baltimore City Department of Social Services ("Getting to Baltimore's at-risk kids before it's too late," June 30). I am grateful to all the people — staff, foster parents, advocates, experts — who have helped bring BCDSS to its modern state. It is ever more likely to be a place where families get the help and support that mean a better future for their children.
Armed now with all we have learned, we enter the frontier of social services: How do we reinvent our work so that we know, at the earliest possible moment, which family needs us? How do we avoid waiting so late to intervene that the only answer is foster care? I imagine a city where children are safe in their own homes and families have the resources they need to make ends meet. I imagine a Department of Social Services that leverages this success.
It turns out we won that award from the think tank Dan mentioned, and we are off to create a blueprint that will turn this idea into reality. Stay tuned.
Molly McGrath Tierney, Baltimore
The writer is director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services.