Part 1 of a 3-part blog series about The Coalition’s National Program Advisor, Ian Forber Pratt
Ian Forber-Pratt went to the courthouse in 2009 to begin his first case as an Extreme Recruiter. He entered the courtroom to the sound of screaming. Ian backed against the wall as Mallory*, age 14, was wheeled out of the chamber, strapped down to a gurney.
In many ways, Mallory was typical of the kids served by Extreme Recruitment®. She was a teen. Her mother struggled with opioid addiction. Her father unknown. As a child in foster care, Mallory did not live with a foster family. Instead, she bounced from institution to institution. At 13, she had a child of her own who was quickly separated and placed with another family.
Ian did not fit the profile of someone working directly with the hardest-to-place youth in foster care. In his second year of a Master’s of Social Work program at the Brown School at Washington University, most of his peers were auditing policy and beginning academic research. But Ian’s passion was always to directly impact the lives of vulnerable children. As he searched for a practicum opportunity, he found a group of reform-minded social workers at the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition. He cold-called for a job.
When Ian started as a practicum student at The Coalition, the child welfare landscape was radically different. Though Washington University taught a curriculum of data, outcomes, and measurable success, those doing the work did not speak the same language. Social work was largely based on what felt right. The Coalition was looking to inject more rigor into the system.