CIRCLE OF CARE

Cynthia Herndon

BRIAR CLIFF UNIVERSITY

Easy Bay Agency for Children —Circle of Care
 Cynthia Herndon

Placement Agency Paper

Field Experience

East Bay Agency for Children (EBAC) provides a plethora of services to the community

within Alameda County in California. They serve a wide variety of clients in many different

ways within schools, family resource centers, and other locations. Their mission is to “[improve]

the lives and well-being of children, youth, and families by reducing the impact of trauma and

social inequities” (EBAC, n.d). Circle of Care is one service that is offered to children and their

families who are coping with the death of a loved one. They provide peer support groups to

children ages four through seventeen and their caregivers on a bi-weekly basis. Currently they

have transitioned to being on a virtual platform but hope to soon return to in-person groups.

Circle seeks to create a sense of community among each peer support group so that long-lasting

relationships are formed.

Circle of Care provides peer support groups to children ages four through

eighteen. The kids are placed into one of the three main peer groups depending on their age: the

littles (4-6), school age (7-12), and teens (13-18). According to Piaget’s four stages of cognitive

development “child development is determined by biological maturation and interaction with the

environment” (McLeod, 2018). Although Piaget’s four stages of development are categorized by

age groups, he did not claim that a child would reach a stage by a certain age but rather move

along the stages as they interact with their environment.

Children ages four through seven may be in the preoperational stage where they think

about things symbolically and may also have difficultly viewing situations from the perspective

of others (McLeod, 2018). This may come into play when trying to make sense of the death of a
loved one. They may ask their parents/caregivers questions related to what happened to their

loved one or try to figure out where they are now. During groups, play and art help facilitate

conversation among the children in the little group and create space for them to talk about their

thoughts and feelings around the death of their loved one.

Children ages seven through eleven may be in the concrete operational stage. During this

stage children begin to form more logical and concrete thoughts about their surroundings and the

information they learn (McLeod, 2018). During group, kids in this stage may process stories that

their peers share in a more concrete manner. It may be easier for them to put themselves in

other’s positions and empathize with their peers. During the formal operation stage children over

the age of eleven are able to think about abstract thoughts and apply logic to different situations

(McLeod, 2018). As they participate in group they may be able to think about situations that their

peers share and imagine how they would have handled those same situations.

Many of the families that come to Circle of Care share similar characteristics. They have

all experienced the death of a loved one and are learning to cope with their grief. Some families

have newly become single parent households due to the death of one of the parents and some

children are now under the care of a caregiver as a result of losing their parent(s). As a result of

shelter in place more of the families rely on the internet and their devices to connect virtually

with their peers. All of these characteristics affect the delivery of services in a variety of ways.

Although most of the families have now transitioned to a virtual platform for the children’s

schooling, many still struggle with connectivity issues or do not have enough devices for

multiple members of the family to use a separate device at once. Thankfully Circle experienced

this issue during the end of their spring semester when the pandemic first began so they were

able to get feedback from the families and adjust the times that groups started as well as shorten
the time that groups met. Circle has also been practicing with their interns on how to facilitate

group activities on a virtual platform in a way that facilitates interaction and community in a

caring and empathic manner. They have also gathered many resources within the surrounding

community to be able to refer families to other services that they may need before being able to

join groups such as food, hygiene supplies, rent or bill assistance, and individual therapy.

One of the main human biology issues that needs to be considered with the families that

Circle of Care works with is how trauma manifests in the body. EBAC prides themselves on

providing services that are trauma-informed and Circle of Care holds true to that value. Although

some families are coming to receive services as a result of losing one special person, others have

had a long history of losing family or friends due to violence or accidents. Those families who

have suffered the loss of a loved one in a violent or tragic way may also have a high number of

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Studies have shown that a high ACEs score can give

insight to various long-term health issues that may arise (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, 2020). By being aware of this, group facilitators may be able to educate the

parents/caregivers on what to be aware of in themselves and their children and refer them to

appropriate services as needed.

Trauma impacts a majority of the children who receive services at EBAC, especially in

those children and families who participate in Circle of Care. Many of them have experienced

losing a loved one in a traumatic or sudden manner. Others have gone through horrendous

conditions during the immigration process when immigrating to the United States. Some parents

reach out to Circle so that their children can build community with others around their age.

Spiritual backgrounds vary among families. Some may self-identify as Christians, Muslims,

Jewish, Catholics, etc... During groups, facilitators do not speak to the children about their own
personal beliefs however, should a child ask their peers about what they believe happens once a

person dies, the conversation is encouraged so that children learn and share about one another’s

spiritual beliefs. This topic is a great way for the children to learn more about their peers and also

encourages conversation between the individual kids and their parents/caregivers as they acquire

new and different information.

Currently within Circle of Care there about 32 active participants. It is important to

clarify that only 23 participants chose to disclose information regarding their race/ethnicity and

gender, and no information was collected about their sexual preferences nor their religious

backgrounds. Among the 23 participants that disclosed information, 15.63% self-identify as

being mixed race, 15.63% self-identify as African American/Black, and 18.75% self-identify as

Latinx/Hispanic. While the final 21.88% self-identify as White.

In Circle of Care and in EBAC as a whole, Hispanics or Latinx persons are over

represented. This is due to a variety of reasons. EBAC’s main office is located in Oakland,

California where there is a high Hispanic/Latinx community and therefore a large amount of

clients served at EBAC come from that community. African Americans also make up a large

percentage of participants at Circle of Care. This is also a result of high population rates of

African Americans in and near Oakland. Both groups also make up a large part of Medi-Cal

receivers in Alameda County and therefore qualify for many of the services that EBAC provides

as they are a non-profit organization that requires participants to have or be eligible for Medi-Cal

to pay for services.

Being aware of different racial and ethnic backgrounds as a social worker is essential.

People vary in many different ways such as cuisines they eat, music taste, historical oppression

or power, and religion to name a few. It is important to maintain an open mind and to present as
a learner when working with families. I have found myself not knowing many aspects of a

child’s race/ethnicity and have had to gather my own research about their race or ethnicity to

better understand them. Viewing a person in their environment allows for a more detailed picture

into why certain behaviors exist in some families but not in others. Also being aware of my own

oppression or privilege can help me be aware of how I interact with families as well as how they

may perceive me.

I believe EBAC is doing an overall great job in trying to provide services to and

education for the surrounding community to reduce inequities to resources, opportunities, and

services. One area where they can improve in is providing linguistically appropriate services to

members of the Guatemalan community who mainly speak the dialect Mam. I have seen how

many of them struggle to communicate with Spanish speaking staff as their first language is

Mam and most of the time they do not speak Spanish fluently, if at all. Very recently EBAC

hired one Mam speaker on a part time basis but the need to so great that different employees are

trying to advocate for her to be hired on full time. I am grateful that EBAC is aware that there is

a great need within the Mam speaking community and making some efforts towards reducing

barriers to accessing services.

 References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, April 13). About the CDC-Kaiser ACE

study. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html?

CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Facestudy

%2Fabout.html.

East Bay Agency for Children (EBAC). (n.d). Home. Retrieved from

https://www.ebac.org/services/circle.asp.

McLeod, S. (2018). Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology, 1-9.