Social Empowerment Texas

Social Empowerment Texas exists to empower child welfare professionals and social workers in Texas by providing encouragement, relationship and support so that they stay in their job longer, support children towards permanency quicker and foster parents foster longer.

History:

Social Empowerment Texas was created by Lauren Welch in January 2026 after years of experience working with social workers - as a foster and adoptive parent and professionally - through past work experience supporting foster/adoptive and kinship families, social workers and aged out foster youth. Over the years, Lauren started stepping into the lives and caseloads of social workers to find out - how can we make this better for the social worker, the foster family and the children in their homes? Social Empowerment Texas was born out of a place of care for the system and those that are affected by it - and the enormous trickle effect that caring, encouraging and empowering social workers does.

Geographic Focus:

Social Empowerment Texas serves all Region 7 counties through the Department of Family and Child Services (DFCS) including: Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Coryell, Falls, Fayette, Freestone, Grimes, Hamilton, Hays, Hill, Lampasas, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Llano, Madison, McLennan, Milam, Mills, Robertson, San Saba, Travis, Washington, and Williamson. There are over 250 DFCS offices employing roughly 13,000 staff across Texas, estimating over 1,400 in the 28 DFCS offices within region 7.

Programs:

We provide one-on-one relational support, group events (appreciation and pop-in events) and resource and support for the child welfare system regionally.

Supporting social workers directly strengthens child abuse prevention. By lowering burnout and turnover rates, we allow social workers to conduct earlier interventions, reduce the stress of foster families (supporting them to foster the child in their home as long as needed) and implement trauma-informed care. When well supported, they can manage safer caseloads and provide the resources and support needed for foster and biological families for reduced child abuse in homes.