NYAP News and Views

NOVEMBER 2017

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

employee spotlight get to know teresa hodges Many of you have had the pleasure of working with and knowing Teresa Hodges, NYAP’s Executive Assistant and longtime advocate and employee. She has been a faithful employee with NYAP for almost 22 years, contributing to major events, requests, communication and projects. Teresa is currently transitioning out of her long-time stewardship over News & Views, and as a thank-you we wanted to spotlight her hard work and years with NYAP! Teresa came to NYAP in 1996 where she began as the administrative assistant to Bill Payne, former Director of Ohio.

She assisted Marvena in her transition to Assistant National Director of NYAP, and not long after became her administrative assistant. A few years later she moved to the Executive Assistant position where she has resided since.

Teresa has assisted in countless initiatives and events, helping push NYAP forward to the wide-spread agency that it has become. Her favorite thing about working in NYAP is that she never gets bored! “Things are always changing,” she said. “The variety of the job is what I like the best. You have to be flexible to work at NYAP and that’s what makes it so fun.”

During her time at NYAP, one of her most memorable experiences has been NYAP’s 20th anniversary celebration in 1998. It was held at the Adam’s Mark hotel in Columbus, Ohio over the space of three days with various speakers and workshops. “It was the most intense project I’ve ever worked on, and it was so amazing,” Teresa said.

She loves the people at NYAP and contributes so much of her love for the position to the employees. As a piece of advice to any and all NYAP employees, Teresa said the following:

“Anyone that is lucky enough to work here should really enjoy it, because it is such a good place. I am constantly proud of what we do, and I love the agency. I love working for Marvena; she is one of the kindest people I have ever met and it shows in her leadership. Never take the people for granted, and always keep yourself flexible and open-minded to creative ideas and new opportunities for NYAP.” We are grateful for Teresa’s continuous support and dedication, and we love having her a part of the NYAP family! Thank you, Teresa!

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

august anniversaries 1 year

2 years

3 years

Elizabeth Bogunovich Elizabeth Corporan Rebecca Desantis Alicia Foley Brigitte Green Angel Johnson Sarah Machamer Michelle Matteson Chelsea Mikesell Susan Price Myia Rucker Sylvana Ruiz Bailey Starcher Nicholas Strickland Mariano Bowles Emily Givan-Coots Rayshawn Parnell Marketta Reedus Alberta Ridley Kaci Willey Kizzy Wingfield

Tarsha Turner Felicia Piondexter Todd Dunmore Toni Freeman Tiffany Green Billy Hamm Camille Heller Erin Hewitt Rachel Holmes Samantha Jones Alicia Parker Rosalinda Rodriguez Sheila Sadrerafi Christina Tobler Kiyoko Watts Suanaye Wilson

Erica Gump Laura Knapp Monese Deramus Lakecha Norris

4 years Tina Rogers Kristy Baker-Wick

5 years Rebecca Zellars Casey Brunkhart Cecil Cozart

6 years Gregory Holland Abigayle Koller Tatyana Shats

7 years

8 years

9 years

12 years

Kristen Henson

Monica King Terri Jenkins

Lance Livi

Wellington Chimbwanda Temarra Gray

14 years

18 years

Duron Hebron Mark Lappen

Kacey Rudd

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

september anniversaries 1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years

Gayle Miloshoff Nicole Powell Mallory Covert Keri Carter Kelley Summers Barbara Underwood Brittany Vasquez Marilyn Zink Julie Reynolds Jennifer Contreras Paris Lindsey-Wade Deborah Clardy Deborah Devlin Spring Lepak Charles Kunaka Sam Tzabery

Tina Derricote Reginald Jackson Katherine Mackey Melissa Little Bobbie Marple Michelle Stark-Miller Jessica Mills

Joselyn Woodson Lyndi Sizemore Jason Moore Sherry Greene Tiffiny Kluth Melissa Small Leanne Elkins Rasheeeda Winn Anthony Poole

Danielle Rowan David Word Saundra Cotton Courtney Townsend Yuvondrea Tremble

5 years

8 years

10 years

17 years

Candelaria Mota

Jimmy Neason

Katherine Lamarco

Najiyyah Muqtasid-Denham

21 years

27 years

Henrietta Richardson

Marvena Twigg

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

october anniversaries 1 year

2 years

3 years

4 years

Druann Whitaker Heather Bottoms Riely Ries Belinda Oliver Celise Roxby Ariel Martin Jessica Gray Louise Macauley Thomas Boddie Latishia Hays Shannon Jackson Raijean Watkins

Robbie Owens Melanie Bennett Tiffany Thompson Leisha Donigan Agustin Velez Liliana Navarro Vanessa Bunte Sara Earley Megan Scheck Christine McGee Funmilayo Mejabi Emily Felske Ava Sky Andrea Bridges Denise Hoskins Hazel Henderson Vada Jackson

Darius Johnson Stephanie Brass Shelia Owens Terrilynn Durnal Mary Tarlano Latonya Hughes Clarisa Jones Lisa Teter Emma Schmitt Raegena Lawrence

Bobbie Smith Richard Schwitzerlett Heather Ryan

7 years

8 years

13 years

16 years

Joyette Smith-Ross

Kevin Cluts Tami Roll Mary Ervine

Margaret Bobst

Vunessa Allen-Martin

5 years Sandra Washington Johanna Maulin

6 years Sarah Payovich Geri Mangas Ismahan Youssouf Kathy Hannahs

17 years

20 years

27 years

Barbara Graham

Celestine Walker

Kathrine Cooper

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

tribute to ed sparks in loving memory of f. edward sparks The NYAP family is saddened by the loss of long-time NYAP Executive Vice President Ed Sparks. He dedicated over 50 years to child advocacy and served at NYAP for 20 of those years as a faithful advocate and inspirational leader.

Ed touched the lives of all who worked with him. See what some of our NYAP family members had to say about F. Edward Sparks.

“Ed Sparks was the personification of a peaceful warrior. His calm demeanor and positive outlook always brought about a sense of peace even in the most difficult of moments. I miss his voice, his laughter, his guidance and his warmth.”

lynette santiago “Ed’s eyes sparkled like the night sky, just like his soul. A generous spirit who always had a kind word, a good laugh to share and who always made his presence known no matter how far he traveled.

A genuine person I will forever remember and look up to.”

HEATHER ROBINSON I could always count on Ed for a listening ear, thoughtful responses and his perspective on any given situation, but I quickly learned that I could also count on him for a good laugh or playful banter. I was talking to someone recently about the funniest person at Watermark and I said it was Ed. What I miss most is the laughter, but that also give me, the most peace when I think about him.

victoria collins-hughes “Ed is extremely well known throughout the foster care and child welfare industry as a staunch advocate for children and families. Ed did not just say he cared. He showed he cared by supporting and mentoring staff, advocating for the needs of children and families and his strong commitment to peace as one of the values of NYAP. Ed is one of the kindest, most gentle, humble and unassuming, people I have ever known. He was fun to work with and had a great sense of humor. Ed lived life his way and was doing exactly what he wanted until the very end.”

“Columbus’ Center for Adolescents and Families had the great pleasure of working closely with Ed Sparks. His expertise, warmth and incredible sense of humor helped the Center in invaluable ways. His legacy will always live on.

We’ll miss you, Ed.”

dru whitaker

Center for Adolescents & Families Columbus, Ohio

“If Ed were to ask one thing of us at this moment, it would be that we take this day, and every day, to do our best and most compassionate work.

In doing so, we will have found a way to demonstrate our love and respect for the gift of his life.” marvena twigg, president and ceo

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

newsletter redesign what?

The News & Views will now be sent through Constant Contact, an email marketing program, with uniform and unique branding and layout. News & Views will now be distributed the first week of every month (with exceptions of holidays), and this consistent schedule will help regulate marketing efforts and provide NYAP employees with a reliable and timely newsletter.

The newsletter will be broken up into sections that will regularly be filled with stories from our NYAP family, as well as an employee spotlight and employee anniversaries. See the additional sections listed below:

NEW IN NYAP

Our organization is constantly developing strategies, implementing new ideas and improving ways of old.

We wanted to focus an entire section on those efforts of change and growth within NYAP. Keep a lookout for things like new projects initiated, changes in branding and marketing, organizational restructures and more!

CONNECTING COMMUNITIES

The Connecting Communities sections provides a specific opportunity to highlight individuals throughout NYAP who are telling a story, making a difference or changing a life. These short stories will be individually focused and about YOU. Keep your fellow coworkers in mind as you think of who might need to be highlighted in future months.

NYAP NATION

We want to highlight what offices around NYAP’s Nation are doing! NYAP Nation is specific to all of NYAP’s offices throughout the United States. We hope to give every office the opportunity to be spotlighted on their efforts, events and culture.

why?

NYAP is rapidly growing! With a large audience to appeal to and various channels to use, NYAP needs strong marketing foundations that define it, its culture and its people. A redesign of the newsletter is the first step in molding creativity and tradition in our organization. We hope that NYAP is always recognized for its integrity, love and empathy for its foster families, and we want to bring that recognition into our internal communication as well.

NYAP MARKETING TEAM

We have recently formed a marketing team that is focused on sharing NYAP’s message with those around us.

We are here to provide design, editing, writing, community outreach and creative strategy support for all NYAP employees. Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter to learn more about NYAP’s Marketing team!

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

connecting communities jennifer jackson and family Courtney Townsend from our Tallmadge, Ohio Office shares the following: �We received book bags, notebooks, crayons, glue, notebook filler paper, folders, and pencils yesterday from Jennifer Jackson and her wonderful family. This is their second year in a row doing this and they plan to donate every year. Jennifer is a former foster youth of NYAP and we are thrilled to have this help!�

We love seeing those who have personally been helped give back when they are able to. Thank you to Jennifer and her beautiful family for the service and support they provided!

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

connecting communities sara wells, kentucky, in the news Sara Wells in our Kentucky office was featured in Kentucky’s Springfield Sun newspaper for her role in recruiting with NYAP for over 8,000 foster children in the state of Kentucky.

She discusses the great joy she feels when she finds families who are interested in helping children, and she has an overwhelming response from those in Washington and Marion Counties who are perspective parents.

We are so proud of Sara for her hard work with NYAP and her kind words and desire to find more parents in the state of Kentucky.

CEO Marvena shares the following regarding our Kentucky office: “Sowing all the seeds needed to grow a state program is challenging, but they are doing it and doing it well.”

Keep up the amazing work, Kentucky! Thank you, Sara, for your diligence and love for your work!

To view the news article, copy and paste the link below: http://www.thespringfieldsun.com/content/finding-homeschildren-need

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

connecting communities sarah and bo the raccoon Hardworking social worker, Ms. Sarah Payovich, from Merrillville, IN was conducting a home visit when she realized her family rescued a baby raccoon who was struggling. “They wanted to show off her baby raccoon ‘Bo’ as they called him. He was bottle fed, vetted and successfully released back into the wild. My client was also successfully released.” Good job Sarah, way to go!

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

nyap nation NYAP has implemented an organization-wide effort to identify and train NYAP Ambassadors. We completed the second training on October 9 and now have 25 ambassadors covering all states and departments. The completion of the ambassador training was the first step in a multi-faceted approach designed to bring NYAP values to life in our day-to-day work. By grounding our work in our mission and values, we become better equipped to move forward with our hearts, creatively and passionately on behalf of those we serve.

Our ambassadors were nominated to participate in two days of training where we engaged in detailed conversations about NYAP’s mission and values along with experiential learning activities for each. Ambassadors left equipped to bring this training to every member of our current staff and a commitment to train all new staff going forward. The training will be followed up by monthly ambassador calls, and will be supported by our marketing department via articles in News and Views, monthly internal campaigns, celebrations and culture-based initiatives.

We are confident that the energy, enthusiasm and excitement our ambassadors will bring to all of you will be instrumental in taking our work to the next level of excellence!

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value #1

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nyap organizational culture ambassador training

children first.

NYAP has a nonnegotiable commitment to doing what is best for children, youth and their families.

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

NYAP NATION cleveland’s foster & birth family conference On October 21 NYAP Cleveland held its first Foster and Birth Family Conference at Fenn Tower on the Cleveland State Campus. With NYAP Founder, Dr. Mubarak Awad, as the guest speaker, this program gave our foster parents and our NYAP team the chance to continue fulfilling our mission by providing resources that will benefit both the foster and biological family members of our youth. The schedule for the day included speaker Doreen Britt, a Birth Parent, as well as a panel of birth parents who gave people the opportunity to understand the effect of foster care from the parent’s point of view. The birth parents opened a discussion on how biological family members and foster parents can navigate working together to create healthy behaviors and lifestyles for young people.

We also planned sessions for our teens which included a discussion on Sex Trafficking; Opportunity Passport - a unique matched savings program; and a tour of Cleveland State University. NYAP Cleveland also honored several foster parents for their leadership in taking the initiative to not only work with the foster youth, but their families. It was a wonderful and successful event!

Submitted by Ruby Gamble

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

NYAP NATION MURABAK AWAD VISITS FLORIDA NYAP’s Program Manager, William Grear, and Therapist, Sonya Hernandez, joined Muburak for a beautiful lunch at the beach in the Brandenton area. William shares, “It was a lovely lunch. Mubarak was able to share with us some inspiring stories on his great humanitarian efforts including some incredible international NYAP work. It was a perfect day, and there were lots of great and interesting conversations.” Mubarak was able to provide the Sarasota team with helpful information to properly serve our children and families during the hurricane season and he reported the following about the Sarasota team, “I found them very happy in their work.” He praised their good work and skill. Go Sarasota!

NATIONAL YOUTH ADVOCATE PROGRAM

NYAP NATION south high street columbus, oh office highlights Interns Ariel Eskin (16) and Dasha Belousova (15) made a big difference in their office this summer in their focus on the backto-school supply drive. They created a gofundme page, spread the word on social media, walked around their neighborhood collecting donations and contacted previous donors to collect and purchase more than $1,000 worth of school supplies. They helped distribute these supplies at the annual Back-2-School Barbeque, where all school-aged foster children received backpacks full of goodies for the new school year. Their work captured the attention of 10TV News, and they were able to be a part of an interview on their efforts.

The South High Street office also conducted an amazing trick or treat event for our foster youth. Each of the treatment coordinators decorated their offices, and foster youth enjoyed the treats in each office. They had fun games, face painting and a great afternoon of snacks and positive bonding.

A special thanks to Tatyana (Tanya) Shats who helps make this all possible.

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A note from Marvena on her appreciation for Tanya:

“Thank you for being such a wonderful team member and always looking for ways to make a difference for others. We shine by your example!�