Pictured: Kendra Mcdonald (front center) receiving her award virtually from Community leadership team members Leslee Peterson, Heather Hansen, and Olivia Boyd (circles top left to right).

I am pleased to announce the SA Value Award Recipient for Community! Congratulations to Kendra Mcdonald, Case Manager in Community Services!

We build community by building connections. We connect our most vulnerable community members with the resources they need to rise above their challenges. We connect our clients with opportunities to explore and actualize their best selves. We partner with other community organizations to strengthen a collective web of support for those who need it most, and to ultimately position those we serve to flourish without us.

The nomination highlights how Kendra works in a variety of service programs including Behavior Rehabilitation and Evidence-based services, and her efforts are tailored to each of those services to provide unique and individual resources that match the family and youth needs.

Excerpts from the nomination include:

• Kendra is a very engaged person in this field. She has been exhibiting this energy since she began in late 2018. She has a way of showing warmth to others when discussing plans as she shows tons of initiative and creative ideas to make our teamwork shine. She loves to help others especially the children who often have little speech for themselves.
• She has worked seemingly tirelessly to provide resources to direct service professionals, para-professionals, children and families.
• She has searched and searched for interesting ways to engage clients in strength-based ways that enrich their lives and advance their goals. Recently, she found an affordable art workshop for a mom and youth who at age 10 with cerebral palsy had an interest in making art. The youth is so far loving it!
• She is often found connecting foster parents and youth with a plethora of community organizations to support needs as they move into more and more independence from supports moving back in with their biological families or closing out services with DCYF.

Kendra demonstrates how to connect and build resources for a thriving community. A community thrives when its members thrive. Thank you, Kendra, and congratulations!