2008 Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Awards
Presented each year at the annual NYS Child Abuse Prevention Conference by PCANY and the NYS Children and Family Trust Fund, the Excellence awards honor special individuals who have gone the extra mile, personally and professionally, to see that children live in families that love, nurture and protect them. This year's awards reflect the featured themes of the conference: parenting education, kinship caregiving, and fatherhood.
Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award:
Excellence in Parenting Education
Margaret Kojac, Family Nurturing Center of Central New York
For 20 years, Margaret has been a parenting educator at every level: group parenting education, consulting with individual parents, training and supervising new facilitators, conducting home visits, and assessing parents' strengths.
She found her "calling" as a parenting educator when she transitioned from volunteering with Parents Anonymous to becoming Coordinator of the Nurturing Parenting Programs at the Family Nurturing Center. She now also works with Supervised Visitation Services—TANF Family Resolutions Program—and a TANF Corrections Program.
Every program in which she's involved, and every interaction between Margaret and a parent or caregiver, is grounded in a family strengthening approach. She is adept at guiding parents to figure out what they need, within a program and in their daily lives, and continues to support families to move forward—long after the post-tests and graduations.
Margaret is known as a parenting educator who specializes in working with the most challenged families, including the most serious cases of child abuse and neglect. When she does not see positive change (a "spark”) developing in a parent, she works even more intensely. These parents may start out angry but they end up grateful, because Margaret shows her faith by working through the process with them, however long it takes.
Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award:
Excellence in Parenting Education
Mychal Sledge, The Sledge Group
Mychal is the founder and director of the Sledge Group, Inc, whose mission is to empowering "at-risk" youth through education and life experiences. He and his wife Debra are deeply committed to helping underserved youth overcome the cultural, familial and social challenges which often hinder their personal achievement, fulfillment, growth and success.
The Sledge Group, Inc. provides one-to-one mentoring and tutoring amidst a diverse range of supportive services to adolescents in Harlem and South Bronx communities. Mychal also hosts monthly parent meetings, where he works with parents in navigating the red tape of the public school system.
Since 2001, the Sledge group has provided support to more than 1500 children and their families, with limited resources—1500 children who, for several hours a week, have been exposed to a healthy, positive environment with a group of caring adults, who are there not for pay, but because there is a need for grassroots help. Most of the young men and women in the program live with single parents, often without a strong male figure, and Mychal helps to meet that need. He is a steady, positive role model, a voice of compassion, authority, and unconditional love.
David Brooks, who nominated him says, "I wish there was such a program for me when I was growing up fatherless. Yet Mr. Sledge doesn't wish to become a replacement father, but rather an example of what determination, education, family and community support, and a spritual foundation can do for an individual working toward becoming a productive member within his family and community." And all of this is done with limited resources.
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Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award:
Excellence in Kinship Caregiving
Denyse Variano, Cornell Cooperative Extension Orange County
After she was approached by grandparents who were in her parenting classes abut their special role as primary caregivers for their grandchildren, Denyse brought the Relatives as Parents Pogram (RAPP) to Orange County in 1998.
Through her vision, guidance and direction, RAPP has flourished these past 10 years and now serves over 200 caregivers. Under her leadership, the simple support group has expanded to meet the needs of families by including a youth component, parenting education, nutrition education, mental health counseling, legal consultations, financial management services, and a peer-to-peer mentoring program. As the RAPP coordinator says, "She has a wealth of new ideas and never allows our program to grown stagnant or stale."
Denyse also designed the successful and nationally recognized "Family Portrait Project" that gives RAPP youth a chance to tell their stories, recording their history and future goals, co-authored the "Parenting the Second Time Around" workshop series for relative caregivers, which is used throughout the country, and is an active member of the NYS Kincare Coalition and co-chair of the Cornell Parenting Work Team.
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Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award:
Excellence in Kinship Caregiving
Linda James, Family Resource Centers of Crestwood Children's Center
Linda has been the primary caregiver of her two grandchildren, who are now 17 and 19 years old, since they were babies. She also is coordinator for the Skip Generations Program, which provides support and educational services for grandparents raising their grandchildren.
Program participants speak of the power of Linda's leadership and how she has made a critical difference in their lives. They cite her warm acceptance and personal encouragement, her persistent challenge to be open to change, and her tremendous capacity to listen, as well as her kindness and empathy.
Linda's hard work in her community has resulted in many innovative programs, including a mentoring program, that are being duplicated around our state.
On the advocacy front, she has made innumerable trips to Albany to speak with legislators, and has been instrumental in the passage of 3 state laws affecting kinship caregivers and their children. In addition, she raises funds so the caregivers in her group are able to attend grandparent rallies in Albany and D.C.
Linda's contributions are recognized across the state and nationally. She currently serves on the Governor's Caregiver Council and is a Board Member of the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights, as well as participating in the Kinship Care Resource Network, the NYS Kincare Coalition, the Rochester area Kinship Care Alliance, the NYS Parent Education Partnership, and Winning Beginnings' Seniors4Kids.
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Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Award:
Excellence in Kinship Caregiving
Reginald Cox, Peter Castle Family Resource Center
Reggie Cox is the Coordinator of the Fathers' Program of Family Resource Centers of Crestwood, in Rochester, where he has facilitated a weekly fathers' group for the past 3 years.
A father of 10 children, Reggie is recognized as one of them by the dads in the program. He is respected as a strong role model, a passionate advocate for fathers' involvement in the lives of their children, and a challenging—yet supportive—partner to them in their efforts to improve their parenting skills.
Reggie has also facilitated the "Family Talk" workshops in the Monroe County Correctional Facility, for dads with short-term sentences who anticipate returning to their families as an active parent in the lives of their children.
Recognizing Reggie's superb skills and experience in working with fathers, the Office of Children and Family Services in Buffalo asked him to assist in training workers across the state to the challenges of partnering with fathers. The Dads in his group can best tell us what make Reggie so very special. Some of their comments: He's like a brother, a good man, a father himself; he brings us into his life; he shares his own mistakes; he demonstrates the hallmarks of real manhood: how to be receptive and approachable to our children and family and knowing when to admit when we’re wrong and apologize.
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