Janet Miller Award for Family Support Excellence 2009 Recipient Named Claudia Dickinson
Children's Trust Foundation awarded Claudia Dickinson with the 2009 Janet Miller Award for Family Support Excellence at our 3rd Annual Awards Celebration on June 18th. Established in 2007, this award honors a lifetime of achievement by Janet Miller, Children’s Trust Foundation’s key founder and beloved champion. The award recognizes innovation, unique inspiration, and excellence embodied by family support professionals like Claudia and cheers on their efforts with a $10,000 unrestricted grant award.
As the current Executive Director for Angle Lake Family Resource Center in SeaTac, Washington, Claudia is building a program from the ground up, forging new coalitions within her community, and creating opportunities for the members of her community to participate in meaningful ways.
"Claudia is as an expert in building the will to act among community members who don't necessarily walk through the doors of the family support centers. She reaches out to businesses, churches, local government, other nonprofits, and gets them all in the act," states Winnie Corral, Executive Director for Familias Unidas in South Everett and Children's Trust Foundation Board Member. Her skillfulness in developing solid coalitions in only two short years is evident when one reads the long list of supporters and partners listed on the Angle Lake website.
Claudia's ability to integrate and build parent leadership among the Spanish-speaking parents at Angle Lake has applied model practices and encouraged the parents participating in its programs to achieve the highest level of parent involvement. Her efforts are shaping a Family Support Center that is the heart of the community for many in the SeaTac area. As remarkable as these efforts are, even more inspiring is the fact that this is not the first Family Support Center Claudia has transformed. Prior to joining Angle Lake, Claudia was the program manager at the Family Support Center of South Snohomish County in Lynnwood for more than a decade, where she created strong, innovative, and sustainable programs that have continued to flourish.
“I can think of no greater honor and can think of no center that needs the money more,” shared Claudia upon accepting the award. “This will go towards all the wonderful programs we’ve started.”
No doubt Claudia will accomplish great things in her SeaTac community with the award, following in the footsteps of past Janet Miller Awardees .
Nita Lynn, 2008 award recipient and 26-year member of the First Step Family Support Center team in Port Angeles, recalls that the honor was a very personal one for her. Overwhelmed with respect and esteem for the works of Janet Miller and the drive to carry on Children’s Trust Foundation’s determination to “help family support centers survive and thrive,” she devoted the award to her Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program, which helps parents understand their role in their child’s development and how to best prepare them for school and life success.
Jake Weber, Director of FamilyWorks in Seattle, the first Janet Miller Award recipient in 2007, also found that receiving the award proved to be an invaluable contribution to “the best and most relevant FamilyWorks programs which strengthen and empower families and prevent child abuse.”