Partners for Our Children is delighted to announce that Laura Orlando was awarded the 2017 Mary Grembowski Staff Recognition Award by the University of Washington School of Social Work. Laura has worked with Partners for Our Children for eight years, with a focus on innovative workforce practice improvements to support family reunification.
For the past three years, Laura has brought her passion, tireless creative energy, resourcefulness, and collaborative nature to the development and testing of Strive. Strive is a parent education and support program developed specifically for parents involved in the child welfare system, with the goal of improving the initial visits between parents and their children.
“Laura contributes 110% to her job and works evenings, weekends, on vacation, all to make certain that she does ‘whatever it takes’ to keep enrollment into the pilot moving forward,” wrote Susan Barkan, Partners for our Children’s associate director of research, in her award nomination letter. “Her approach to meeting our partners where they are at, with empathy for their position and needs, while simultaneously furthering the goals of the Strive pilot, have been essential ingredients to getting the pilot to the point that it is.”
Please join us in congratulating Laura for this well-deserved recognition of her exceptional work!