CFS Presents 2010 Community and University Partner Awards
The Department of Child & Family Studies held their annual Fall Luncheon and Awards Celebration on November 15 to honor exemplary community and university partners as well as outstanding faculty and staff achievements.
Each year during the luncheon, CFS recognizes the importance of successful partnerships – both on campus and in the community – that have a shared vision of generating hope and solutions for the complex issues confronting children, youth and families. Awardees are selected based on their leadership and involvement in projects and research that support the development of new knowledge and innovative practices aimed at improving outcomes for our most vulnerable families.
Community Partner awards this year were presented to Clara Reynolds, CEO of Success 4 Kids & Families (S4KF) and Amy Haile from The Children’s Board of Hillsborough County. Lisa Bonilla from USF Travel & Compliance received the Outstanding USF Partner award.
Mary Armstrong, PhD, Director of the Department’s State & Local Division, presented the award to Clara Reynolds and commended her for “never giving up on the most troubled children and families.” She applauded her numerous leadership roles, which began locally with the SEDNET program, continued to FASST and THINKids before advancing to her CEO position with S4KF. Dr. Armstrong said that at both the local and national levels Clara is a leader in modeling how provider agencies can implement a business model that operationalizes and supports vision and values.
S4KF serves children, youth, and families that vary in the complexity of their needs and strengths from early intervention programs to more intensive intervention. CFS researchers have worked with Clara and S4KF staff to assess the degree to which their system of care (SOC) philosophy is implemented at the practice level. Clara and John Mayo (Dep. Exec. Director of S4KF) are also working with CFS faculty on the use of the CANS (Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths) instrument, which measures functional improvements in children.
Amy Haile received her award from Lise Fox, PhD, Director of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities. Dr. Fox described Amy as being the champion of Early Childhood Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support (PWPBS), with the ability to "think outside the box," to problem solve, and find solutions in collaboration with early childhood professionals.
Amy’s efforts have been instrumental in developing the pilot phase of Hillsborough County’s early childhood System Wide Inclusion Supports (SWIS) by facilitating partnerships between PWPBS, Care Options, and School Readiness.
“Amy is an outstanding citizen who continually gives back to our community. We are grateful for her leadership, guidance, investment, and thoughtful support," concluded Dr. Fox.
Lisa Bonilla was honored by CFS Associate Director Glenda Kipatrick as an Outstanding USF Partner for her very large contribution to the implementation of the FAST Travel Module, and for the tireless perseverance with which she has assisted CFS in troubleshooting system problems and ironing out processes. She has been a real problem solver, and has worked closely with the Department, not only in the systems implementation of the Travel Module, but in working through department processes and procedures to make the work flow more smoothly.
Faculty and researchers from CFS spend many hours on the road to fulfill grant and contractual obligations for training and technical assistance, evaluation activities, meetings, presentations, etc. (Numbers gathered in 2009 showed CFS administrators input 17,893 travel items into the workflow system, and 3,085 complete reports!) The huge workload generated by CFS alone requires a special working partnership with USF Travel & Compliance. "As Accounting Manager for Travel," explained Glenda Kilpatrick, "Lisa has listened to our Department suggestions, complaints and problems and has helped devise solutions that now can result in the traveler being reimbursed in a matter of days rather than months."
Photos above: Top left, Clara Reynolds, right, Mary Armstrong; Middle left, Lise Fox, right, Amy Haile; Bottom left, Glenda Kilpatrick, right, Lisa Bonilla.