Member Spotlight: Leo J. Clark, MSW from Region G

By S. Jolene Hui, LCSW, Membership Coordinator

Leo Clark has been working with and advocating for children and families for more than a decade now.

It simply made sense for him to choose social work as a profession and to pursue his MSW. In 2010 he entered California State University, Northridge’s (CSUN) program where he officially became a social worker.

While he was completing his undergraduate degrees in psychology and child development at CSUN, he was a volunteer with the University crisis call center as a volunteer and eventually became the training director. Prior to entering the MSW program, Clark was an in-home behavioral therapist working with children with Autism.

Inspired by his love for direct clinical practice, program development and policy, and the fact that one of his best friends is a former foster youth, Clark knew that social work was the field for him. He said that he and his influential friend “had many conversations” about how things may have been different for his friend had there been social workers who had asked more questions or paid more attention to the situations he was in at the time.

On the other hand, Clark’s friend spoke about how it was disappointing when a good social worker moved on to another job. Clark wanted to make a difference for the better and to alleviate some of the disappointments that foster youth face.

Clark entered his MSW program as a CalSWEC student and his first-year placement was at Grandparents As Parents, an advocacy organization that provides support to relative caregivers of children in families who have been in the child welfare system.

Clark’s second-year internship was with an Emergency Response Unit in the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Upon graduating he began work with Ventura County Children and Family Services where he was initially assigned to an Ongoing Training Unit and then landed halfway through his training year with a specialized unit called the Youth Services Division (YSD).

Here, his caseload included Teens and Transitional Aged Youth, youth in long-term foster care, youth in Community Care Residential placement (Group Homes), and AB12 non-minor dependents. In this position, he accomplished one of the things he is most proud of in his career — he and a colleague worked hard to reunite a family after nearly five years in the child welfare system.

About this experience he said, “We recognized the situation and understood the challenges we were going to face. We worked collaboratively to get the family and the children the support they needed, as well as advocating within our own agency to address concerns regarding the reunification … the payoff was helping a family who never thought they would ever get a second chance …”

Currently he is a residential placement consultant for the Ventura County Office of Education under their Special Education Learning Plan Area (SELPA). He collaborates with school districts, parents and residential placement programs to support students who are placed in residential placements through their individualized education plan (IEP).

He says, “What I enjoy most about being a social worker is being in a position to support and advocate for clients in situations that feel overwhelming and impossible. As a social worker I can help to guide clients through complicated systems and get them connected to resources to put them in the best position possible to be successful.”

While in graduate school he found that NASW “had a big presence.” Clark finds it important that NASW brings the value of the social work profession to the public. He said, “Many people have very little knowledge or great misunderstanding of who we are as professional social workers.”

Clark’s plans for the future include becoming an LCSW as well as aspirations to teach social work at the graduate level. He believes that his MSW has given him many options for his future.

Clark hopes that social workers will not only continue to advocate for others but for themselves as well.

He says, “Understand that you are entering into an ever-evolving career where the vast complexities of the landscape are formed by growing research, changes in the economy, and shifts in the political climate. Today, as young social workers entering this field, we have the privilege to enter the workforce with much more education and quality experience then many of our counterparts may have had from the previous generations. There is a lot of value you carry at the start of your career as a professional social worker that may not be initially recognized when you start.”

Jolene Hui, LCSW, is NASW-CA’s membership coordinator and can be reached at jhui@naswca.org.