Earning his MSW in 1990, Brad DeLong his social work career with Correction Services Canada before continuing on to work with the John Howard Society in Ottawa from 1992-96, where he became the Supervisory for the program. During his time there, he was approached by a Colorado Company, Rebound, to design and initiate the clinical component of a boot camp in Florida.
When he returned, he was approached by the Premiere of Ontario to bid on and open a Young Offenders Boot Camp, which became the first strict discipline camp in Moonstone, Ontario. Brad worked with an interdisciplinary team and developed and implemented the clinical component of this camp before turning to work at Kinark Child and Family services and, then, returning back home to New Brunswick.
From 2000 to 2011, Brad worked at Family Plus in Saint John, NB as a private clinician for children, youth, and families. It was during these 11 years that Brad developed the Families in Transition (FIT) Program and trained the staff. The basis of this wrap around program was to work with families in their own homes and collaborate with other agencies/practitioners solely focused on the individual child and parents; the program targeted families in crisis with the potential of the children going into foster care.
The FIT Program was a paradigm shift in the region. The concept was very well received by multiple government agencies and was very successful as the key was providing the particular child and family the necessary social services in the family home and not in an office.
In 2008, Brad opened his own private practice called Family Matters and he continued to work in the private sector, even after joining the Child and Youth Team at Mental Health Services in Sussex, NB as the Supervisor. He then became the Supervisor of the Hampton Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) Team from 2016 until his sudden passing in March 2018.
Throughout Brad’s many years as a social worker, he supervised MSW and BSW students, he was trained in CBT, MST, VTRA Levels 1 & 2 and working with sex offenders, he was a huge advocate for the profession, and he simply loved what he did, which is evidenced by his daughter following in his footsteps and numerous clients expressing a desire to be helpers in the youth worker type fields. He also encouraged all social workers with a BSW to get their MSW.
Brad was also a huge advocate for his clients, attending court with them as a support, going to school meetings, writing letters of support, or advocating for them. Brad was exceptional with the teen population and would go above and beyond to help them, however he was unassuming and never took credit for the impact he had in his clients’ and colleagues’ lives.
Brad also volunteered his time by supervising the “Out of the Cold Program” for 3 years when in Barrie, Ont. This program was for the homeless where he and his wife would collect clothing then distribute it and every Monday they would serve a hot meal to those in need. Also, from 2001-2009, Brad was a “behind the scenes”
volunteer for the “Run for the Cure” and every weekend before Christmas, he and his wife would wander around Toys R Us for hours handing out gift cards, which he paid for by restoring antique furniture and asking to be “paid” in Toys R Us gift cards. Finally, every Christmas, Brad and his wife adopted a Christmas family where they provided gifts for the kids as their father had passed away from ALS.
Although Brad has since left us, his memory will live on in anyone who was truly blessed to be able to call him “boss”, “colleague”, “friend”, “counselor”, “dad”, “grandfather”,
“son”, “husband.”