July 2017 Staff Above & Beyond

Here are the staff that was nominated for the July Staff Above and Beyond Award. The winners this month are: Laura Planck, Dani Brown, Samantha Logan, Katie Taxiera and Alma Boggs. Congratulations to all! 

Laura Planck: The WYAC nurse Laura Planck went above and beyond in helping a parent of the CFI client to obtain a prescribed medication after the client was discharged from the hospital. The parent was informed by the pharmacy about a prior authorization necessary to fill the prescription. Laura, who had gone for the day, was notified of the situation and came back to work and stayed late on the evening before the 4th of July in order to complete a prior authorization. As a result of Laura’s above and beyond efforts, the client was able to receive the medication and the family did not have to pay out of pocket expenses. This is the kind of dedication that Laura continually provides for the clients she works with!  She always goes above and beyond to ensure quality care for our clients! 

Dani Brown: The ECMH therapist Dani Brown received the Above and Beyond award for coordinating and supporting a crisis situation at an area child care center.  Dani arrived at the child center at 6 a.m. on Monday morning and stayed there, working with the center director, staff, and children for 11 hours. Dani continued to provide support there throughout the week to ensure that the staff, center director, and children were fully supported. She was also very helpful to the child center staff, who only felt comfortable opening up to her. Dani stepped up in a major way to respond to this crisis and deserves an above and beyond award!

Samantha Logan: The CFI Mobile Crisis Responder Samantha Logan went Above and Beyond due to her actions, which may have saved the life of a teenager who was in crisis.   Sam received a blocked call on the Clermont County Crisis Hotline from an unidentified teenager reporting about a friend, who posted a suicide note on a social media site. The caller’s unsuccessful attempts to reach out to the friend urged her to make a very brief call to the crisis hotline, but the only information provided by the caller was the name of a suicidal friend.  Having notified her supervisor, Sam acted quickly and decisively to search social media sites in an effort to uncover contact information for the suicidal person. Sam was able to locate a social media page for the person and the county of residence and employment. The involved county emergency dispatch was contacted immediately to relay the concerning information. Via the online and social media search, Sam was able to find the suicidal person’s family member and within a matter of minutes, she uncovered all the necessary information for the county emergency dispatch. The police and the life squad were sent to the scene and made contact with the suicidal person. It is firmly believed that had it not been for Sam’s quick actions, her ability to remain composed under pressure, and her highly developed problem solving skills, this event may have had a tragic outcome. 

Sharon Boh: Our OHC parent educator Sharon Boh continues to receive very positive feedback from the clients she serves. A client shared the following: “I can say I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with my parent educator Sharon Boh. I feel it was a worthwhile experience. Sharon was very open and honest with me about all aspects of coordination of services with CPS and that definitely made me feel comfortable.  I think parent education could definitely be very valuable to anyone reunifying with their children.”  Another client communicated the following about the parenting services provided by Sharon Boh: “We will miss parenting! We wish we had this class before our son was born!.”

Abigail DeHart: Abi has been working very hard to help recruit and enroll families in the Early Head Start program. She has been out and around town with managers and coworkers, and she jumps at any opportunity there is to help out. With some many spots, her friendly demeanor seems to have attracted many families to the program (even though she has been having to pass many of them off to other Home Visitors with openings!) She is very enthusiastic and her upbeat attitude is very welcome to the office. Thanks Abi for stepping up right away and getting things done! We appreciate you. 

Danielle Smith: Danielle has stepped up and filled in with anything needed in the Summer Bridge program.  She has also assisted with the enrollment days, subbed, rode the bus, completed many of the Bracken, verified immunization records and contacted doctors’ offices for physicals and missing shots record. Thanks Danielle! 

Beth McManus: Over this summer Beth has rolled her sleeves up and helped us pack and move three classrooms, she helped move one classroom in the rain, rented and drove the moving truck for another! I am thankful to have a supervisor who is willing to get her hands dirty to help do whatever needs to be done to get our centers up and running! 

Brittany Morgan: Brittany once again provided a great Home Base summer program for the children in the West Clermont school district.  She works independently to meet the unique requirements of her families, whether it is doing home visits early in the morning or in the evening to meet the needs of the families. She has even been willing to meet with a parent on a different night and time to get the last 2 visits in and to complete the Bracken with a mom who thought her child would not be able to finish the program because she could not keep her regular scheduled appointment. Thanks Brittany for your flexibility and dedication! 

Cathy Beaver, Lara Bingham and Alma Boggs:

I want to thank the CFLC Summer Bridge team for the great job they did this summer.  This experienced team asked for no help from me this summer and once again provided a top notch program for the children going to West Clermont Schools, Thanks for being an A+ team! 

Katie Taxiera, Sheila Conley and Brenda Collins:

The summer bridge team at Amelia was new to this program but they did a great job of getting the children enrolled (learning to do the enrollment packets as they went along) and keeping the program up and running with very little help from me this summer.  They worked as team to provide a great program to their children. I appreciate all your hard work!!! 

Alex Carlotta: Alex has been so helpful in getting the end of the year paperwork filed, entered and taken care of. She always helps with extra things that come up and does it with a smile on her face. Thanks Alex for all you do! 

Carrie Valenzuela: Carrie, our HR staff, happened to be upstairs when I needed a Spanish speaking person. Carrie was willing to call a family for me that was potentially Spanish speaking to see if they wanted to set up and appointment to register their child for Head Start. They ended up speaking better in Spanish so she helped me to set the appointment up with the family. She made the reminder call to them. She also came to the appointment and translated everything for me. She has even called the family and remind them of few things. I am very thankful she was available and willing to help. I can’t thank her enough!