Robert G. Lewis
M.Ed., M.S.W., L.I.C.S.W.

4 Mayflower Lane
Gloucester, MA 01930-4321
and
602 Bingham ST
Greensboro, NC 27401-3674

978 281 8919
Bob@RGLewis.com
 

Bob Lewis is a consultant, an author and a strategic thinker providing training and technical assistance to child welfare organizations.  He focuses on the development of social work practices in permanency planning as well as policy and organizational development in support of permanency.   Bob Lewis is an explorer and a story teller in the world of permanence.  In his work he tells stories and shares examples of that educate, inform and inspire.

Bob Lewis has a special interest and expertise in the area of life-long family connections for adolescents in the child welfare system.  His book, Adolescents and Families for Life: a Toolkit for Supervisors written with Maureen S. Heffernan, is a training program for social work supervisors to use with their staff to teach effective strategies for adolescent permanency.  Published in 2000 and in its third printing, it is used by many public and private agencies in the U.S. 

The Family Bound Program: A Toolkit for Preparing Teens for Permanent Family Connections, developed by Bob Lewis with Communities For People, Inc., is a unique program for teens in group homes and independent living programs consisting of nine workshop sessions and five weekends with "practice" families. The Family Bound Program is a logical next step for agencies committed to permanency for teens. Pilot sessions were run with four groups of teens in the Northeast and the revised curriculum was published in September 2002.

From his electronic newsletter "What Do You Think?", Maureen and Bob have developed another workbook for supervisors and workers, Families For Teens: A Toolkit for Focusing, Educating and Motivating Staff.  Each unit of FFT focuses on specific area of teen permanence such as "Talking with Teens" and "Finding Families" is available for download at www.TheToolkit.org.  The first two chapters of introduction and key concepts are available for free. This pointed staff meeting tool is also available in hard copy.

Since 2000, Bob Lewis has consulted extensively with New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) on adolescent permanency.  ACS adopted Adolescents and Families for Life for its agencies and staff that serve teens.  They have also encouraged residential providers to use the Family Bound Program.  Bob provides training sessions, consultation and technical assistance for administrators and supervisors from protective services to aftercare in ACS and its provider agencies.  Bob’s work is tailored to the agency’s needs and takes a variety of the forms including case consultations, review of procedures and policies, and program development.  He often meets individually or with groups of the top administrators for each agency, as well as with supervisors and social workers. 

In the last year Bob has also been doing workshops, consulting and working with system changing projects in  the state of Florida and several sites in California as well as in New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and for several national conferences