Every child deserves to live with a safe, caring, permanent family. Ten-year-old Charlenni Ferreira never got that chance. Her horrible death is a community tragedy, and it should remind us that we have a collective responsibility to protect the most vulnerable among us.

In Philadelphia, it takes more than the Department of Human Services to protect children. Caseworkers should be just one part of the community looking out for the safety of children. School workers, health-care workers, and all of the city's residents must work together to protect children in a broad circle of care.

However, as the community's safety net for abused and neglected children, the department has a unique responsibility. And despite Charlenni's death, DHS has demonstrated clear signs of improvement in recent years.

After The Inquirer reported in 2006 on a series of child fatalities involving families receiving DHS services, a Child Welfare Review Panel was created to recommend reforms at the department. Since then, the department has implemented a series of reforms to increase the safety and well-being of Philadelphia's children.

One of the recommended reforms was more transparency and openness through direct community oversight. The Philadelphia Community Oversight Board for DHS was created in 2007 and reestablished by Mayor Nutter in 2008 to monitor the department's progress. The board, which I chair, includes child and family professionals from Philadelphia and elsewhere, none of whom works for the city.

One key improvement at DHS is a new child-fatality review process implemented in January. It involves an independent, multidisciplinary team led by the medical examiner and made up of representatives from the department, the police, the District Attorney's Office, the school district, and other organizations serving children.

The team immediately examines each death and submits a report to DHS and the mayor identifying strengths and weaknesses in the services provided, while recommending changes that might prevent future deaths.

Although it is too early to know what the review of Charlenni's death will reveal, the process will thoroughly examine its circumstances to determine what DHS and others might have done to prevent her death and others.

The child-fatality review process is not the only area in which the oversight board has noted progress. Others include:

Timely responses in cases of children under 5.

Better child safety assessment.

Consistent handling of hotline calls.

A new internal division focused on monitoring the department's performance.

A new case review process that will allow DHS to continuously improve and learn from its casework.

Better tracking and use of data to improve services and identify problems.

Fewer children in foster care and more adoptions; for the first time in a generation, fewer than 6,000 Philadelphia children were in foster care at the end of last year, and adoptions increased by 11 percent.

The board will continue to monitor the department's progress, focusing on such issues as child visitation, fatality reviews, and safety data. The latter will help the public understand how well we are protecting children from abuse and neglect.

DHS appears to be doing a better job on several fronts. The reforms under way in the department will improve the community's ability to protect the most vulnerable citizens of Philadelphia: children who suffer from abuse or neglect.

Still, it will take more progress before the city has a model child-welfare system. And DHS cannot do this alone.

Charlenni's death was our collective failure. Everyone in the community must begin to regard the Charlenni Ferreiras of Philadelphia as their own.

David Sanders is chairman of the Community Oversight Board for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and the executive vice president for systems improvement at Casey Family Programs.