Core Value Descriptions:
Everyone at DCS, service providers and foster families are accountable for their actions. We hold ourselves to the highest levels of professionalism. We embrace practice and process standards in order to provide the very best services consistently. We act with transparency while maintaining privacy for the children and families we serve.
At DCS we believe that everyone has the capacity to change. People can change, families can change, organizations can change and even systems can change. It is our charge to foster change in the families we serve, within our organization and throughout our community to create a place where Arizona's children thrive.
Family reaches beyond the home. As the DCS family, we strengthen each other by connecting people with their communities so that all can thrive in a safe and supportive environment. We also support the families that we touch, hoping to always be a source of strength and guidance for happy and healthy Arizona families.
Engagement means listening and being responsive to earn the trust of all we encounter. Through engagement, we make discoveries together and build upon individual strengths. We involve families in decisions and help them find family-specific solutions.
Every day, we work with empathy and respect for all. We lead with kindness in understanding that families are influenced by their experiences. We treat every child, family and caregiver as if they were our own, and connect with people by seeking all points of view. (Compassion)
The best decisions are made together as a team. We use our collective knowledge and consider everyone’s viewpoints to identify opportunities, solve problems, and provide the best possible outcomes, because child safety is a responsibility we all share.
When children can’t speak for themselves, we can. As leaders in child well-being, we advocate to make the world a better place for children, while helping their families improve and heal. We champion actions that strengthen communities, families and our staff.
We fulfill our mission by enhancing our cultural competence, identifying and respecting our differences, and improving our policy and practice to ensure equitable outcomes for all. We work to secure equal opportunities and a better future for all children and families by reducing risk factors and building protective factors. We are committed to equal opportunity and to diversity of experience and backgrounds.
Safety is the responsibility of all of us by creating safe spaces for our children and families we serve throughout the community. At DCS we consider our licensing providers and foster families safety advocates. Having to create physically and psychologically safe environments for children, families, caregivers, and service providers is of the utmost importance.
