The child welfare system can foster future social workers. People who grew up in foster care are often able to connect with other vulnerable youth and understand the unique needs of those in foster care. Many who choose to become social workers as adults were inspired by the professionals who helped them along the way.

Most people understand that foster care is a way to help children whose parents are, for various reasons, incapable of raising them. But not as widely known is that some of these young people eventually "age out" of the foster care system that was set up to help them. For many in this situation, their 18th birthdays signify not an exciting step into adulthood, but a fearful journey into the unknown.

There is not just one agency or one profession that can prevent child abuse and neglect in this country. There needs to be a joint commitment on the part of social work, education, health care, law enforcement, the courts, communities, parents and families to ensure that our children grow up healthy, productive and safe. Multiple programs and strategies focus on prevention and social workers have critical roles in each.

Several years in the making, the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption makes the majority of international adoptions in the U.S. a federally regulated practice. The goal of the Convention is to set a higher standard of quality and care concerning international adoptions. Its key principles include: ensuring that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interest of children; and preventing the abduction, exploitation, sale or trafficking of children.