I’m Amber Savidge and have been in child welfare services for about 18 years. I started with Catholic Charities in Baltimore, Maryland. There, I was an overnight child advocate at a group home for medically fragile babies. I knew nothing about babies or foster care but quickly learned how much workers influence families and cases.

When that group home closed, a friend of mine recruited me to work at her agency in Pennsylvania and I became a foster care case worker in 2008 and I was hooked!

Be the light

In 2011, I moved to Florida and continued in child welfare, eventually joining FSS in 2016. It was the best of both worlds, seeing families get reunified and finding forever homes when they couldn’t. I have held multiple positions in child welfare: Case Manager, Supervisor, Safety Practice Integration Specialist, Associate Director, CMO Support Coordinator, and now Group Home Manager. All these areas of child welfare enriched my career and kept me helping families and children. For all these positions, my goal has always remained the same: be someone’s light when they are hopeless.

New challenge

When the group home, Providence House, opened in February 2024, there were a lot of unknowns and challenges. We journeyed through finding best practices and organization for the group home. While it hasn’t been an easy year, it has been rewarding to see growth in the youth that come through our doors – getting to know them, helping them work through their own struggles – so that they can be successful in their next placement.

C.S. Lewis said, “you can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” That’s what being a social worker is to me.  Our youth are like the flowers that grow up through the sidewalk; despite all the odds stacked against them, they are resilient and flourish with the help of just one caring adult.

March is National Social Work Month. The theme this year is “Compassion + Action.” Compassion is one of FSS’ core values. Click here to learn more about the FSS mission and how our core values, P.E.A.C.E., drives our culture.

Click here to see how you can be part of #TeamFSS.