March 2017 Team Accomplishments

The Prescott Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. team should be recognized for their hard work, patience and the long hours they have put in while the program was recently short one case manager. Kendra Goad covered for Cottonwood cases, Brad Ross assisted with cases in Flagstaff, and Marissa Spieker held down the fort to cover for the Prescott area for two months while the program hired a new case manager for the Cottonwood region. Thank you for your dedication to our clients and making sure everyone was able to receive services.

Nikki Semprun, youth program specialist with North Star Youth Partnership, was instrumental in bringing Girl Talk and Safe Sitter^® programs to Flagstaff. Girl Talk is a program for middle school girls to receive positive mentoring each week from high school and college girls. She has about 18 girls in the program at the San Francisco de Asis Catholic School and recruited volunteers from the Newman Center on the NAU Campus to assist in the program delivery. Nikki is also implementing our Safe Sitter^® program in Flagstaff. Safe Sitter^® provides hands-on practice in lifesaving techniques to teens that are home alone, watching younger siblings or babysitting, so they are equipped with the skills and confidence to act in an emergency.

Sandra Warnes de Salazar, family support specialist at Westside Head Start, is well known in the Buckeye community. Sandra coordinated training with the Southwest Nutrition and Physical Activity program that resulted in 14 families attending. She has also coordinated many parent trainings in the Palo Verde community and received good participation with 20 families attending. Sandra has proven to have good community relationships that lead to outstanding partnerships that support Head Start children and families.

Kate Radabaugh, senior program supervisor for refugee resettlement, is directly responsible for providing orientations to newly arrived refugee and Cuban or Haitian clients. During the past six months she and her team have provided 231 individual orientations, each employable adult is required to complete transportation, work and cultural orientations, plus English language testing. Kate was the sole person responsible for obtaining legal guardianship for 18 minors who were no longer under care of their parents due to death or separation. Of those 18 minors, nine of them arrived in the same month and Kate flawlessly scheduled court appointments in an overwhelmed court system and pursued legal guardianship for those children to be able to get healthcare, enroll in school and to start their lives anew in Arizona. Thank you Kate for your hard work, perseverance and dedication!

Sara Wilson, human resources manager, and Maria Valdez, human resources generalist are helpful and supportive. They answer each question and make our jobs easier.

Trisha Randall and Lisbeth Arescurenaga, licensing and recruitment specialist with the unaccompanied minor program, have taken an innovative approach to finding families for the unaccompanied minor program. This quarter they have leveraged their relationships to have our program featured on Univision and Cultura y Fe. The culmination of their efforts has led to what will be our first ever open house on March 28. We are excited to have them on the team and are looking forward to seeing what they will come up with next.

Lidia Ramirez, receptionist at the Northern Avenue office in Phoenix, has consistently gone above and beyond her job to satisfy Catholic Charities clients and coworkers. She demonstrates how excellent customer service can have a lasting effect on client’s relationships. Lidia is a positive role model and always solves client’s complaints with a calm attitude. Lidia treats clients and coworkers with respect and continuously produces more than expected, willing to do whatever it takes to assist everyone.

Courtney Monaco, home resource adoption specialist in our foster care and adoption program, has been with our program since 2011. She manages a full ongoing caseload of 25 foster families with many of them living in Pinal County. Courtney is organized, efficient, concise, clear and resourceful. She is a wonderful advocate for her families and always goes above and beyond. We are blessed to have her as part of our team.

Xochitl Camargo, program supervisor unaccompanied minor program, for all the great work she did while her program manager was out on medical leave. She supervised the team and did an excellent job.

Amy Gregorich, Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. team lead in Mohave, quickly stepped into her new position. She is a real rock star. Mohave has been in need of further leadership and Amy is what we needed!

Laurie Price, office administrator/volunteer coordinator for Mohave programs, has had quite the learning curve as this is a newly created position. Laurie is pleasant, ready to assist all of us, and just feels like the perfect person for this position.