COVER STORY .

Pearl Knox

Social Work Trainee, Department of Human Services


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Apr 29, 2009

Pearl Knox, 38

Social Work Trainee, Department of Human Services

Salary: $40,291

Union: DC 47

Last Thursday, Pearl Knox got a call: One of her clients, a 17-year-old with an infant child, had been kicked out of her mother's house after an argument, and had no place to go. Knox had to change that. She set out to find a foster home that would take a 17-year-old with a child; she found one, but just for Thursday night. On Friday she had to find another place, and also dissuade the 17-year-old from just moving in with her boyfriend (a bad idea, Knox felt). She finally did. Now she'll get back to work on getting the girl back in school, and her mother into drug and alcohol counseling.

Knox has been working at DHS for 14 years, but not always as a social worker. She came in as a clerk, after her husband, a police officer, persuaded her that city employment was the way to go. When she promoted up to secretary, she became responsible for making sure various records were kept and deadlines met. If a social worker missed one, it was Knox's responsibility to go to his supervisor.

She went back to school because the secretary job had no opportunity for advancement. She started as a social work trainee last year; she enjoys the interaction with clients, she says, but has been taken aback by how easily one thing going awry — like last Thursday — can throw off her whole schedule. The way it used to do to social workers she monitored.

Knox and her husband own a home in Southwest Philadelphia. They have four children. Her husband worries about his wife's line of work — the neighborhoods she has to visit, the homes she walks into. Knox doesn't mind, but believes DHS workers don't get enough credit.