SEIU Member Profile

Mark Fitzgerald
Clark County Department of Family and Youth Services
Las Vegas, NV

After volunteering one summer at Clark County’s Child Haven, a facility for kids awaiting foster or adoptive parents, Mark Fitzgerald dropped all of the classes he was taking at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and changed course.

Mark planned on going to Medical School, but that summer he saw the difference he could make working with abused and neglected children in his community.

He’s now been in the field for 23 years, first as a social worker investigating child abuse allegations and then as a case worker for the Clark County Department of Family and Youth Services. Since 2000, Mark has supervised the Three and Under Team.

Mark’s team is responsible for investigating and monitoring cases involving traumatic injuries, child fatalities, serious medical issues, and significant issues of parental mental health or developmental delay involving children three and under. According to Mark, a majority of the cases he investigates involve some type of drug abuse.

Mark wants presidential candidates to see that case workers and other Family and Youth Services officials are committed to the children in the community and keeping them safe. During his service, Mark says there has been an added emphasis on reuniting families when possible. He thinks we need to do more to make sure there is a safety net for families and children—especially at risk families. Things like educational opportunities for parents, additional funding for family and youth services programs like his, and universal preschool for kids would go a long way in keeping children safe.

Mark’s passion for helping children doesn’t stop when he clocks out. He has been a foster parent for 17 years. One of the children he had from infancy he ended up adopting. His son is now 17 years old.

He continued to be a foster parent after adopting his son at age four. Currently, he cares for a two year old but expects to return him to his mother in the next couple of months. Mark hopes to show Gov. Richardson the struggles of being a single parent as well as a foster parent.