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

4 Mayflower Lane
Gloucester, MA 01930-4321
&
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 as well as policy and organizational development in support of permanency.   Bob Lewis is an innovator, an explorer and a story teller in the world of permanence.  In his training and consultation 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 the "What Do You Think?" electronic idea forum, Maureen and Bob 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 has provided 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 several sites in California as well as in New York, MT, MN, KY and others.

Bob is currently working on a vdieo project with social workers, supervisors and programs directors from 6 agencies in 5 states to improve child welfare practice. They are drafting a protocal of questions to be captured on video which record a youth's own story, highlights his/her strengths and gives each of them a permanent voice currently missing in today's child welfare records. Please follow the project and add you thoughts at The Video Project: http://rglewis.blogspot.com/

Married and the father of four grown sons, Bob lives, works and splits his time just off the back shore in Gloucester, Massachusetts and near downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. As a result of a two year sabbatical in Taiwan and China, he speaks Mandarin and is interested in Chinese language and culture. He likes to travel, and enjoys the outdoors, from hiking and sailing to biking and skating. His sons may not believe it, but he is somewhat computer savy and enjoys learning new technology.