Meet the Award Winners

Nine individuals were honored at the Partnerships for Well-Being Institute in June 2022. These award winners were selected for their outstanding dedication to their work and their impact in improving outcomes for children and families involved with California’s systems of care. 

Let’s learn a bit more about them!

Parent Partners Award

Angela (Noland) James

Angela James is a parent partner for the organization “Through the Looking Glass” in Alameda County. Angela is dedicated to what she does and utilizes her life experience as a resource to help with any issue at hand. Her willingness to help and follow through with any task has been inspiring to those she works with, and she reminds people of the power within them. She empowers her clients, who then empower their families, who eventually empower the community they live in.

 

 

 

Jody Rodgers

Jody Rodgers has served as a parent mentor in Sonoma County for over five years after having her own experiences as a birth parent in the foster system. She has mentored hundreds of families and supported them by sharing her own experiences with personal loss, homeschooling her children and becoming a foster guardian for many. Jody has created a variety of toolkits to support families through their hardships and highlighted the importance of engaging fathers within the process. She developed and facilitated a support group for others to share stories and perspectives on their experiences within the foster system. Jody ‘s contributions were made invaluable to families from foster care backgrounds as her trauma-informed practices guided them.

 

 

Collaboration & Integration Award

April Ford

April Ford is a social worker working for the Mendocino County Dept of Social Services. She began as a parent partner for the Wraparound Program in 2015, where she worked to advocate and resource the families with whom she worked. Ford has been promoted several times from Family and Children's Services, Continuing Unit and then eventually, she moved back to her initial Wraparound Program in 2021. April is one of Mendocino County Wraparound Program's primary facilitators. She has worked tirelessly to coordinate services over the last seven years, develop individualized plans with the families she works with, mentor her peers and ensure the family's voice is an integral part of the planning process.

 

 

Ellen Prose

Ellen Prose has been a children's clinician at Glenn County HHSA Behavioral Health for several years. She has worked above and beyond to guide children through their complex trauma and begin healing through various trauma-informed tools. She has demonstrated exemplary leadership as the Behavioral Health Children's Unit manager. She was crucial in promoting secondary trauma support across systems for both Behavioral Health and Child Welfare Services staff. On top of everything else, Ellen has been an active member of the Children's Interagency Coordinating Council and has utilized grant funding to ensure that a clinician is present in every school in the county. Easier access to clinician support has been critical for children and youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

Wraparound Champion Award

Jennifer Hunter

Jennifer Hunter has been a supervisor of the Wraparound program for over eight years. She has provided many resources and training programs for families working with social services to reflect the values of Wraparound. She is passionate and dedicated, particularly in handling multiple roles within the program; on top of her current responsibilities, she plans to become a fidelity liaison and formal coach soon. Jennifer is said to have a natural ability to connect with others and support them through professional coaching strategies, and this skill has helped in supporting families during hardship. While she's had many changes in her life, she is committed to Wraparound and the youth and families that the program serves.

 

 

Maribel Carvajal

Maribel Carvajal is a deputy probation officer in the Wraparound program. She is admired for her attention to detail and application of trauma-informed practices and skills. Her bilingual background facilitates engagement with youth and their families, which allows her to gain insight into family dynamics and other helpful information to provide proper care. She can easily connect with youth and their Spanish-speaking families residing in neighboring Mexico-U.S. cities. Maribel is a professional in motivational speaking and interviewing; she empathizes and develops a sense of optimism within the interviewee, which ultimately gives her the accurate information to prescribe a method of care. 

 

 

Youth Champion Award

Mia Villa

Mia Villa is an outreach case manager for the Foster Youth Services program in Glenn County, currently pursuing her schooling to become a Social Worker while raising her son. She was previously a Youth Ambassador for the Youth Engagement Program for the Glenn County Office, allowing her to share her lived experiences in the foster system to help others overcome their adversity. She used this role to voice her concerns and improve the child welfare system by emphasizing the importance of utilizing youth as a resource to include children's voices in the decision-making processes of youth services.

 

Amal Elmansoumi

Amal Elmansoumi is a foster youth mentor at Woodland Community College through the FYI AmeriCorps program. Throughout her childhood, she experienced adversity, multiple moves various other challenges within the foster care system. While her hardships have impacted her, they have not set her back in accomplishing her goals. At 18, she enrolled in college, completed her degree in Social Work and became a recurring participant in Yolo County's Independent Living Program (ILP). Her active involvement in the ILP demonstrated her ability to cultivate positive relationships with foster and probation youth. Amal has earned the youth's trust as they allowed her to assist with their academics, financial questions regarding credit scores/cards and housing options when they turn 18. Beyond her full-time AmeriCorps position, she recently completed her AA transfer requirements and started a medical assisting certificate program.

 

Makayla James

Makayla James is a social worker, organizational leader and a former foster youth determined to improve the child welfare system for all influenced by the system, which includes children, youth, young adults, caregivers and social workers. She completed her Bachelor of Social Work degree at the California State University, Chico, which further drew her interest in policy and her passion for creating change within the foster care system. Makayla is dedicated to advancing youth voices, fighting for social justice and building a platform of inclusivity. She aspires to make a legislative platform that highlights lived experiences in an effort to create a more inclusive system for the next generation of foster youth.