Staff Spotlight: Emily Anthony
In honor of National Foster Care Month, this month we are introducing you to a staff member who began her “career” with our program as a foster parent. After adopting her foster children, she transitioned to a full-time agency staff member the very next day. Having staff members who have lived experience with foster care and adoption helps us to understand the system from both sides so that we can best support our families and kids.
Get to know Emily:
What is your role at The Salvation Army and what does it entail?
My official job title is Operations Manager. What it entails is a little bit of everything – but the three main areas are new resource family onboarding, managing foster care referrals, and assisting with marketing. Every single referral that we get for a child needing foster care comes across my desk, which means that I spend a lot of time learning the stories of amazing, brave children who are experiencing unspeakably hard situations. While I sadly have to say no to a huge amount of these referrals, it is an absolute joy when I can let a county know that yes, we do have a family that can provide a loving and safe home for that precious child. Oh yeah, and I’m also our office’s self-proclaimed “car seat geek” – I have been a certified Child Passenger Safety Tech since 2022 and received advanced special needs training in 2023. I love helping to ensure that the children we serve are being kept safe in this very basic, but extremely important, way!
What drew you to a career in social work?
When I was in high school, I saw an episode of TLC’s An Adoption Story where a social worker flew to Asia to bring a baby home to her adoptive family. I thought, “I love babies…and I would love to see the world – this is my dream job!” On my first day of college in my Intro to Social Work course, the professor announced that many people are drawn to social work to work with adoptions, but that is only a small part of the field and many people don’t end up working in that capacity. I was determined to be the exception to that rule. And here I am, many years later and after over a decade of working in very different fields (including one where I did, in fact, get to travel the world). Even though adoption is much more complex and nuanced than my teenage brain would have imagined, it turns out it is in fact my dream job and I am so thankful to be here.
If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the child welfare system, what would it be?
I would create an unlimited supply of money so that everyone working in this field had more than enough funding, personnel, training, and time to do the kind of work we know could really make a difference. There are so many times that we know what could really help somebody, but aren’t able to make it happen due to lack of resources.
What is one piece of advice you have for people considering becoming foster/adoptive parents?
There are no perfect parents, just like there are no perfect kids. If you can remain open, willing to learn, empathetic, and most of all flexible, you can make an enormous difference in a child or children’s lives!
What are you doing for self care these days?
I’m trying to be better at this in 2024. I love creative projects, so I finished two paint by number paintings and started a diamond painting. On a more practical level, learning my limitations and allowing myself to say no to things that I know I don’t have the mental, physical, or social energy for has been very freeing!
Just for fun…what are your favorite:
- Animal – Bunny – it was my first pet at age 5 and also reminds me of my twins since they were born on Easter
- Color – Pink (specifically blush; I realized this might be my favorite color when one day I looked around my house and realized that everything from my phone case to my children’s high chairs were all a very similar hue)
- Food – I love trying new foods especially from other cultures – some favorites are Mediterranean and Indian
- Ice Cream Flavor – anything with lots of chocolate
- Sport – I really don’t like any sports but if I had to pick one it would probably be ice hockey because it reminds me of my dad and going to games with him when I was little
- Vacation Destination – Anywhere beautiful where I don’t have to work too hard and get to eat lots of yummy food and relax. This year I’m excited to take my kids on their first cruise and I definitely think that will fit the bill!
Want to get staff spotlights and other helpful content delivered to your inbox each month? Sign up for our email newsletter here.