Ed Herman- Providing Moments of Joy

March is Social Work Month! Pathway social workers meet daily challenges with flexibility, tenacity, and creativity to provide the best possible care. Each and every one tirelessly give their time and dedication! They are the heart of our mission to help children and families realize the possibilities of their lives!

Ed Herman, LSW is a Foster Care Case Manager. Ed will celebrate 40 years at Pathway in 2023 and began his journey as a Resident Counselor in the Boys Group Home. He found an ad for a job in the newspaper and that led him to Pathway!

Ed is always up for a good laugh, makes really delicious chili, and can bring a smile to anyone’s face- especially to the foster kids he works with.

Ed shared:

Being a big, goofy kid myself, I love interacting with kids. I especially love the opportunity to provide a moment of joy and laughter or a sliver of comfort and hope to their wounded hearts.

When I started 10 years into the Pathway process foster care was in it’s infancy with maybe 10 kids in care. We full-time frontline group home staff (about 3-4 of us with another few part-time staff) were called Resident Counselors for my first few years. We were assigned 3-4 kids each to meet with weekly to see how they were doing.

In 1986, 3 years after I started, Pathway bought a second group home at 1513 Harvard Ave. Jim asked me to move over from Spring Ave to manage it. That was an adjustment since my priority had always been supervising/managing just the boys, not a whole group home we were trying to get off the ground.

Harvard was open with the idea that they would serve the younger teen youth, the ones we began seeing from Children Services. Spring remained open for the older teens.

Fun Facts about Ed:

I am the oldest of 6 kids, so I’ve always had a heart for helping children.