The Ruth Massinga Awards honor the extraordinary efforts of those who dedicate themselves to improving the lives of children throughout the United States. They hold up to the light the work of people who persevere against great odds and remind us of Ruth Massinga's great legacy of advocacy and service.
Casey Family Programs is pleased to recognize the recipients of the 2006 Annual Ruth Massinga Awards:
Christa Drake (Arizona)—Alumni Award
As an alumna of foster care, Drake has demonstrated her ability as a leader and community advocate. Currently, she is the executive director of In My Shoes, an Arizona organization designed to address the needs of youth transitioning out of foster care, which she also helped found. Under Drake's leadership, In My Shoes has received grants from the Regional Behavioral Health Authority in 2005 and again in 2006. In addition, she has traveled throughout Arizona advocating and teaching best practices to state social workers, judicial officers, behavioral health technicians, and people in the community at large.
Drake has shown an exceptional dedication to volunteer service to organizations such as Helping Us Bridge Support, the Tucson Foster Care Alumni HOPE Council, and the Governor's Reform for Action Plan 5.8. She and her husband have two children whose adoption will be final in 2007.
Kordnie-Jamillia Lee (California)—Alumni Award
Lee, a former foster youth, has dedicated herself to improving the lives of youth in care through public service, advocacy, and mentorship. Since leaving the foster care system at the age of 18, Lee has thrived in her volunteer and employment positions, earning a strong reputation as a facilitator and advocate. What has been less visible to the outside world, but no less relevant to her development, is her simultaneous struggle to achieve economic self sufficiency. While employed full-time and volunteering many hours a week, Lee also has faced periods of homelessness, living in her car or on friends' couches.
Currently, Lee works as a program coordinator for the Center for Human Development in San Francisco, where she coordinates a mentor-tutor program. In 2005, Lee was selected to be on the Honoring Emancipated Youth (HEY) board of directors, and now serves as a board officer. She also has served as an ambassador in Italy at an anti-racism and unity festival through World Bridges.
William Stanton (California)—Alumni Award
Stanton has a long and distinguished history of both professional and volunteer work in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. He was instrumental in expanding and improving the foster care and juvenile corrections programs across the state of Arizona in his more than 20-year career with the Arizona Courts. He currently is a consultant with ICF International Consulting, providing expertise to the National Review Team of federal, state, and regional staff in conducting the Child and Family Service Reviews to help states improve child welfare services and outcomes for famlies and children.
Stanton has been a leader in building the alumni community. He currently serves as chairman of the board of directors for Foster Care Alumni of America (FCAA), where he also was interim executive director for a year. In his position at FCAA, Bill has provided far-reaching and visionary leadershipin establishing this start-up nonprofit dedicated to connecting and engaging alumni of foster care. In addition, he has served as a board member for In My Shoes, a mentoring program matching alumni with current foster youth through the court system in Arizona. Recently, he and his wife have become licensed foster parents in the state of California and have brought two sisters into their home.
Sandra Jimenez (Florida)—Birth Parent Award
As a parent who has been reunited with her eight children, Jimenez is a birth parent advocate, master trainer, and community leader. Sandra began her work as a parent advocate in New York City's child welfare system. She later became the director of and co-developed the Office of Client Advocacy for the New York City Department of Homeless Services and spread the program in two years to three sites.
Currently, Jimenez provides technical assistance through the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Family 2 Family initiative and helps develop parent advocacy programs around the country. She has worked tirelessly throughout the country to promote and train birth parents to assist other birth parents involved in the child welfare system. In large part because of her eff orts, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has initiated a task force to develop parent advocate positions in many of their offices. Her training promotes a team approach that will best meet the needs of each child.
Latrice Ware (Virginia)—Birth Parent Award
Ware is now reunited with her daughter after losing her to the foster care system, and is a proud parent of two wonderful girls. Currently, Ware is the founder and executive director of Youth Business Initiative Programs, an organization that works in partnership with nonprofits, for-profits, and government organizations to promote growth and success of youth in foster care in the areas of postsecondary education, entrepreneurship, cultural enrichment, economic empowerment, and civic participation.
Ware also works to train future foster parents, has presented to Independent Living graduates, and has mentored several youth in care. Ware has spoken at numerous conferences including Casey's It's My Life conference for youth transitioning out of foster care.
Lois Raap (California)—Foster Parent Award
Born into a family that placed a high value on service to the community, Raap has served children and families in foster care for more than 30 years. She has formed a bedrock foundation of hope in her home and community, caring for and nurturing foster children with special needs, including children with HIV/AIDS, seizures, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and bone marrow transplants.
In addition to directly fostering children, Raap works tirelessly to help other parents throughout California navigate educational, mental health, and other complex systems to ensure that children receive the services they need. She also served as a part-time senior attorney at Legal Advocates for Permanent Parenting (LAPP) for the past two years. Raap is currently a member of the statewide workgroup charged with re-drafting all the foster care regulations for the state of California and is working with others to plan the 2007 California Statewide Education Summit for Youth in Foster Care.
Pat Hans (Wyoming)—Foster Parent Award
Hans is an advocate, mentor, and ally of children, parents, and foster parents in the child welfare system. Over the last 28 years, Pat has fostered over 400 children and mentored their birth parents. She is a member of the National Foster Parents Association, founding member and President of Wyoming Foster Adoptive Parents Association, reviewer for the Wyoming Citizen Review Panel on Children and Family Service Reviews, and is using her skills and knowledge to assist with the creation and development of Families Helping Families as an Advisory Board Member.
Alice Carter (Wyoming)—Kinship Caregiver Award
Carter became a kinship provider about 18 years ago, when she began caring for her grandchildren. An alumna of the foster care system herself, Carter committed herself to raising her grandchildren until they reached adulthood and were able to take care of themselves, a goal recently achieved.
In 2004, Carter was approached by Casey Family Programs and Court Appointed Special Advocates to help lead kinship work in Wyoming. After agreeing to help lead the work, Carter has been devoted to building awareness and rallying support to address challenges and identify support services and resources for caregivers in Wyoming. In addition, she volunteers in her community by helping her elderly neighbors with their yard work and preparing meals and providing transportation for them.
Angela Cameron (California)—Kinship Caregiver Award
Cameron has a long history of community outreach and community advocacy. For more than five years, she has volunteered for the community by organizing and chairing the United Neighborhoods Youth Council Committee; chairing the Grandparents On Line Computer Program at the Vassie D. Wright Memorial Library; petitioning the City of Los Angeles to prevent more liquor stores from coming in to the community; serving as a Poverty Sector Representative in South Los Angeles; and holding community meetings on community problems.