by Chris Hilburn-Trenkle
Rodney Little has worn many different hats and held numerous titles during his 35-year career in social work.
He’s worked as a crisis manager in a hospital, a bereavement coordinator in hospice care, and spent 10 years as a child welfare worker and supervisor.
Since 2006, he’s worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work as a clinical assistant professor in the Family and Children’s Resource Program (FCRP).
Nearly 20 years after joining the School of Social Work, Little is retiring this January. We spoke with Little to learn more about why he joined the School, the impact he hoped he made, and more. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
What made you decide to initially join the School in 2006 following your time with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS)?
I had been supervising for 10 years at the county level in North Carolina in child welfare, then began my work training at the division of social services. While training with the division I saw an opportunity to expand my knowledge base through the University and applied for the position. The University is so rooted in the research and cutting-edge work that’s being done in child welfare, and I knew I wanted to be a part of that model. The boldness to try new things, look for the latest and best evidence-based practices and apply them were all part of my decision to work with the University.
I was also excited to be part of an organization like the Family and Children’s Resource Program. Not only had I taken their trainings, but I knew the instructors and trainers that were part of the program, so I knew the quality and how hard they all worked to improve social work practice across our state.
Once you become a trainer, you’re no longer carrying cases or supervising a caseload of social workers. It’s easy to lose touch with what’s really happening on the frontlines of social work. I always wanted to keep as much connection to the agencies across our state, the workers and supervisors, so my trainings would be rooted in what people are experiencing day to day. It was always a balance of what is best practice and what is achievable across 100 different counties and agencies, each with different resources.
How would you describe the impact you’ve had with FCRP and helping others over your stint?
First, I think it’s important to say that it has all been a team effort. There is no individual in what we’re doing. I couldn’t write a course alone; I couldn’t research a course alone; I couldn’t develop a course alone and I couldn’t deliver a course alone. It takes that entire FCRP team of technology, administrative support, good leadership, and partnerships. Any impact I have had is only a part of the larger impact the whole team has, and that’s where FCRP excels.
With that said, I believe we have changed the way agencies see families and the way families perceive the work that we do. My hope over the years is that agencies stop seeing the families as clients; we see them as people. People who we might be encountering on the worst day of their life. [I hope I have] helped social workers take a moment to step back from all the paperwork, all the policies, all the procedures and for just a moment realize that family is so much more than anything that is written on a piece of paper.
If I can instill in someone the empathy, the compassion, the love of humanity to help them see that person in that way, that’s how we change lives and improve outcomes. No piece of paper and no policy — nothing in best practices — is going to change any of that unless it comes through the human social worker and that person feels seen and heard.
I also hope I was able to impact best practices, and I worked to use stories and words to make that come alive in the classroom. If classes can’t relate to what you are saying, nothing you say will matter because it won’t create real change, but if a class can relate to something you say, it can create a desire to try something different, work to improve practice, or see a family in a more positive light. That’s where real change begins.
In what ways have you seen social work practice and understanding evolve?
I’ve seen an evolution in the way families are seen, a shift in the one-size-fits-all philosophy of social work. We’ve worked to change the language. We used to say things like, “Their drug test was dirty;” “They’re not clean;” “They have an addiction.” Now we use terms like substance use disorder, the test was positive and refer to parents as “the protective parent.” We’ve adapted what we call things and how we title things to see families as bigger than the problem or challenge that’s in front of them.
I think that if we speak good words to people, people are more likely to live into what we say. If we treat people as they are, we frequently continue to see the same behaviors and the same challenges. I think we do a much better job of motivating families to change than what I experienced in my early work in social work. In our classes, I always tell social workers, “If screaming at clients, berating, and threatening them created real change, they would have changed years ago.”
Most of the clients that agencies encounter have already heard all that from the people around them. If we say the same things, we’re going to see the same failed outcomes. We have to be better than that, and work to find what motivates that client for change. The goal of good social work is that we create lasting change. Otherwise, we have simply created compliance, and in the long term, that’s not sustainable change that benefits the children and family.
For me, social work is about evolution and change. We’re better than we were five years ago; we’re better than we were 10 years ago; and I pray that we’ll be better in five more years than we are today.
How does it feel to conclude your time at the School?
Lots of mixed emotions. On the one hand I’m excited about moving forward. I’m beginning work at our church in our community for 15 hours a week to coordinate and head up our mental health ministry. I see the need for mental health resources all around us and hope I can be part of meeting some of that need. On a more personal level, I’m excited about more opportunities to spend time with my grandson Luke and teach him more about our farm and how to care for the animals and fields. We live on a family farm that was started by my wife’s grandfather in the early 1940’s. We have cattle, goats, chickens, and even some alpacas and llamas, along with crop land here in Union County. Farming has always been close to my heart and I’m looking forward to being more a part of the farm.
Of course, I have mixed feelings about leaving something that’s been a part of my life since 1990 when I graduated with my master’s degree. Social work has in some capacity been at the core of every waking morning. It was a part of my work life and it’s a part of my personal life. Being a social worker is not what you do but it’s who you are. Now, I’m going to need to find other places to continue that work. The church and our community are going to provide me with a lot of that opportunity. Also leaving a group of people as special as my colleagues at FCRP was the hardest part of the decision. I know the work we did made a difference, and when your co-workers become like family, that makes it a very special place to work.
Is there anything else you would like anyone to know about yourself or your time as a social worker?
I wish for everyone in the field of social work, they could experience the support I felt at UNC. The opportunity to be a part of the program at the School of Social Work not only made me a better professional, it also made me a better person. I was challenged daily to look in the mirror and say to myself, “You’re telling other people these best practices about how they should treat people. Are you doing what you tell others to do?”
I had to challenge myself every day to live into what I was telling other people was important about how we treat people. It made me a better person, a better dad, a better husband, and a better neighbor. That’s the impact the School had on me, and I will carry that with me always.
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