Place Matters Citation Ceremony

State House, Annapolis, Maryland

Thank you all for joining us today as we recognize the important, difficult work that social services departments do across our state. I also want to thank the staff at DHR for putting together the Place Matters report on this important topic.

The importance of the work you do cannot be overestimated. Every day, you are out there helping our most vulnerable children find a safe, healthy home to live and thrive.

Children and families are a core priority for our administration. Our mission is to strengthen and grow the ranks of an increasingly diverse middle class; to improve public safety and public education in every part of our State; and to expand opportunity to more people rather than fewer. That's why we have set big goals for our kids -- like being the first state to end childhood hunger by 2015.

And your work is vital to achieving the goals we have for our children and our families, and our future as a state. The kids you help today will be the leaders of tomorrow, people who will work together to drive progress toward the stronger future all of us prefer.

One of the values that unites us Marylanders is our belief in the dignity of every individual and that there is no such thing as a spare American, or a spare Marylander. It will take each and every one of us working at our potential to achieve a stronger future for our state and our country. Tomorrow can be better than today, and each of us shares a personal responsibility to help make it so. Every one of you is exemplifying these truths -- that by working hard and investing in one another, we can achieve that stronger future.
Putting Our Kids and Families First

And all of that hard work is paying off. We have already made important progress on behalf of our children who need our help the most. Since we created our Place Matters initiative, we've been able to reduce the number of kids placed in group homes by nearly 39%. We have decreased the number of children in foster care by 15%.

Thanks to the social services staff working at the local level, we have been able to help brighten the futures for kids all over the state of Maryland.

We're here today to recognize the hardworking people that have made this happen.

The nine local departments are being recognized today because they have shown improvement in one of the following five areas: increasing the number of adoptions; increasing the number of children placed in family settings; increasing the number of children reunified with their families within 12 months; reducing the number of children in foster care; and reducing the number of children placed in foster homes.

These nine jurisdictions who have made the most progress and performed the best in these categories are: Allegany County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Charles County, Queen Anne's County, Washington County, Wicomico County, and Worcester County.
Conclusion

Senator Hubert Humphrey once said, "The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

The work that you all do is at the heart of our government's moral obligation to care for the most vulnerable among us. Thank you for proving that each individual can make a difference, and all of us must try.

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