Eastern NC social services are woven into the daily fabric of our community life right here in our corner of the state. For New Bern families navigating Medicaid, children in Craven County depending on welfare protections, and neighbors in Pamlico and Jones counties seeking food assistance, DSS workers are the difference between stability and crisis. However, a deepening staffing emergency is quietly threatening these vital services, and our communities are feeling the strain. This report is brought to you by SupportNewBern.com, your trusted voice for Eastern NC community news.
Editor’s Note: This article is drawn from the award-winning investigative series “Dodging Standards” by Carolina Public Press, which earned first place for both investigative reporting and public service from the North Carolina Press Association. The reporting is based on information gathered prior to its original publication in March 2022 and has not been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
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A Math Problem With Human Consequences
Adonica Hampton, director of Granville County’s Department of Social Services, has done the math — and the numbers are sobering. Durham is 29 miles from her Oxford office. Raleigh is 51 miles. Wake Forest, just 27 miles. Burlington, 64 miles. That easy interstate access to larger, higher-paying cities means her office constantly loses trained workers to neighboring counties the moment those workers become qualified enough to attract a better offer.
Of her 100-person staff, 43% have been in their positions fewer than three years. “That means we’re lacking that institutional knowledge,” Hampton said. A social worker II in Granville County started at around $31,000 per year — while the same position in neighboring Durham County earned more than $43,000, according to a 2020 UNC School of Government salary survey. Franklin and Wake counties both paid that position more than $41,000. “It’s the same job,” Hampton said. “I think we are in crisis.”
Eastern NC Counties at the Center of the Storm
For residents of New Bern and surrounding communities, this crisis isn’t abstract. Lenoir County DSS Director Jeff Harrison — whose county sits just west of our region — reported a staggering 61% child welfare turnover rate in 2021. At one point, half of his child welfare department sat vacant with 10 unfilled positions, while his economic services department carried 17 additional openings. “We are in a recruitment and retention pandemic, across the board,” Harrison said.
Right next door to Craven County, Pamlico County’s situation is equally stark. In 2020, Pamlico paid social worker IIs just $34,877 per year — while every surrounding county paid between $7,000 and $10,000 more for the exact same work. “We are a small rural county, and unfortunately, the surrounding counties are able to pay significantly higher salaries,” said Deborah Green, director of the Pamlico County Human Services Center. Beaufort County DSS Director Melanie Corprew echoed that concern, reporting fewer qualified applicants as the pandemic progressed and limited local resources for mental health and substance use support. “When there are not enough resources, staff often must work overtime to try to meet the needs of our families, children and adults,” she said.
What Is “Work-Against” Status — and Why Does It Matter?
When counties cannot find candidates who fully meet state minimum qualifications, North Carolina law permits them to hire workers on what is called “work-against” status. These employees do not yet meet the standards required for the position, but are brought on with the expectation that they will receive on-the-job training and grow into the role over time.
In Lenoir County, 16 of Harrison’s 23 recently hired social workers are currently in work-against status. For income maintenance caseworker positions — the workers who help families access food stamps and utility assistance — 12 of 16 new hires carry that designation. “For income maintenance caseworkers, it’s more common than not to hire employees in work-against,” Harrison said. While directors emphasize they are following state rules by doing so, they openly acknowledge the added burden. “Hiring staff as work-against requires a lot more work and one-on-one supervision,” Harrison said. “I am by no means used to, or completely comfortable with it — but the reality of the workforce today is that is what is available.”
In Pamlico County, Green describes a structured pathway: a newly hired worker enters at a social worker I classification and advances to social worker II after one year of experience, then to social worker III after two years. “Training is ongoing,” she said. The county follows the rules — but the rules themselves reflect a system under serious pressure.
Burnout, Trauma, and the Human Toll
Pay disparities alone don’t tell the full story. The work itself drives many people out of social services entirely. Kevin Marino, interim DSS director for Rutherford County, describes a profession that confronts workers with relentless trauma. “It’s high stress, high trauma,” he said. “You’re going into homes, and we’re investigating things that have to do with domestic violence, substance misuse, children that are sexually abused, physically abused. Because the universities don’t properly prepare them for reality, we get them here and they learn that on the job. And when they get on the job and learn it, they leave.”
The calls don’t follow a schedule. Nights, weekends, and holidays are part of the job. Samantha Hurd, DSS director for Currituck County, acknowledged those demands while also pointing to the rewards: “We find great satisfaction in having an opportunity to make a difference.” Her county pays among the higher rates in the state — around $44,000 for a social worker II — and actively provides trauma and resiliency training to help retain staff.
A Pipeline Running Dry
Beyond pay and burnout, directors across the state point to a deeper structural problem: universities simply are not graduating enough social work students, and those who do graduate increasingly choose hospitals or private practice over government agencies. Statewide, universities graduated 957 social work students with bachelor’s degrees and 807 with master’s degrees in a recent year, according to federal data. In 2020, North Carolina’s county DSS offices were funded for 3,222 child welfare social workers — but only 2,778 positions were actually filled. That year, nearly one in three child welfare social workers left their jobs, with more than half of those departures being outright resignations.
Amanda Tanner-McGee, DSS director for Cherokee County, put it bluntly: “There are very few applicants going into DSSs across the state. The directors have been talking about this. It’s at a crisis level.”
What Would Real Solutions Look Like?
DSS directors and county leaders across Eastern NC and beyond have identified a clear set of priorities. Harrison calls for the state to boost salaries in lower-paying counties to reflect the genuine complexity and difficulty of child welfare work. Tyrrell County Manager David Clegg advocates for a baseline equitable salary statewide, with the flexibility for individual counties to supplement it. Several rural directors have also called for more accessible, more frequent training options — located closer to the communities that need them.
A 2016 report recommended a loan repayment model for social workers serving remote areas, mirroring programs already used to recruit rural healthcare providers. A 2018 legislative report identified salary disparities as “perhaps the greatest factor to inconsistent service delivery in the state.” And a report dating all the way back to 2004 warned that turnover had become so severe as to “seriously compromise the safety and well-being of the most vulnerable children.”
The warnings have been there for decades. The question now is whether the state will finally act on them.
A Dream Worth Fighting For
When Jeff Harrison was asked what a fully staffed, fully trained DSS office would mean for the people of Lenoir County, he paused before answering. “That would be a dream,” he said quietly. “If we were completely, fully staffed — we could provide really good services to our citizens. They could be enhanced services. We could spend more time with the families and children we serve, and it doesn’t become a rapid-fire response, or an emergency response.”
For New Bern and every community across Eastern North Carolina, that dream belongs to all of us. Our DSS workers show up every day for our most vulnerable neighbors — under conditions most of us will never fully see. They deserve a system that shows up for them in return.
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Original Source: Pamlico County Archives — Carolina Public Press. Stay connected with the vibe of Eastern NC at SupportNewBern.com.
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