ABOUT
David’s work has been influential globally for more than four decades.
History
David Tobis’ catalytic work led to the movement in New York City to give parents with children in the child welfare system, influence in that system. He is an international leader in the fight for child welfare systems to respect the rights and meet the needs of parents and their families.
His book, From Pariahs to Partners: How Parents and Their Allies Changed New York City’s Child Welfare System (Oxford Press, 2013) documents the 25-year struggle to reform NYC’s child welfare system. That struggle reduced the number of children in foster care from almost 50,000 in 1992 to fewer than 8,000 today. He has been invited by governments, NGOs, universities, UNICEF and parents’ groups throughout the world to speak and strategize about reforming child protection systems. Countries in which he has given keynote speeches on parent advocacy include Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Australia, and throughout the United States.
He was the executive director of the Child Welfare Fund from 1992 to 2009. The Fund provided grants to organizations to increase the influence of parents and young people affected by the child welfare system in New York City. He then founded the Fund for Social Change in 2002 and remained its executive director until 2012. This Fund administered collaborations between governments, service providers, communities and foundations.
Tobis has worked to reform child welfare internationally as a consultant to UNICEF, the World Bank, Sida (Sweden), the Oak and GHR foundations, and state and national governments. He was a founding partner of Maestral International. Beginning in 1991, he worked to prevent children, the disabled and the elderly from being placed in long-term residential institutions in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. At UNICEF’s request, he led a team to conduct the first-ever assessment of the child protection system in Romania. The team developed a roadmap that contributed to a dramatic reduction in the number of children in residential institutions. His monograph published by the World Bank, Moving from Residential Institutions to Community-Based Services in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union became the basis for the World Bank’s deinstituionalization and community services strategy in the region.
Sophia, Bulgaria 1992
David began his social activism in Mississippi in 1965 first rebuilding a burned African American church that had been used for civil rights meetings. He returned as a civil rights worker to register people to vote and to teach in a Freedom School. He spent the next decade as an anti-Vietnam war activist, traveling to North Vietnam in 1968 as part of the first student delegation to visit that country.
He was a Fulbright Scholar to Guatemala in 1966–67 and co-edited with Susanne Jonas Guatemala: And So Victory Is Born, Even in the Bitterest Hour (NACLA, 1974). He was a Revson Fellow at Columbia University in 1987–88, an award given to individuals who have worked to improve New York City. He has authored numerous reports and articles on New York City’s child welfare system that have led to significant changes in service delivery.
He wrote the article for the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Book of the Year on the Child Welfare Crisis throughout the world and was the Associate Editor for the global south of the International Journal of Social Welfare. Previously he was Director of Human Services for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy and led that office’s successful efforts to reform New York’s foster care system.
He served on the Board of Directors of the Urban Justice Center (chairman 1987–99), High Tide Dance, Inc., the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership (GRASP, chairman 2008–2010), and the Carlo Pittore Foundation (President, 2005–2010). He graduated from Williams College and received a PhD in sociology from Yale University.
Abuja, Nigeria, 2013 David meeting with members of the Igbo Jewish community in Abuja, Nigeria.