Casey Family Programs Hires Los Angeles County Child Advocate
Bonnie Armstrong joins national child welfare foundation
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Casey Family Programs has
hired well-known child advocate Bonnie Armstrong as director of strategic
consulting in Los Angeles. Armstrong will advance Casey's 2020 Strategy by
supporting the work of Los AngelesCounty to safely reduce the number of
children in foster care.
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Casey Family Programs' 2020 Strategy has three goals:
-- To safely halve the number of children in foster care by the year 2020
-- To reinvest savings to strengthen the child welfare system
-- To improve the lives of youth in foster care so they can become
self-sufficient, healthy adults
Armstrong will work with the Los Angeles County Department of Child and
Family Services (DCFS) and the Los Angeles County Probation Department.
Armstrong was the director of advocacy and community development for
the West Region (Arizona, California and Hawaii) of Casey Family Programs
until 2002. In that position, she was responsible for establishing Casey's
presence in Los AngelesCounty. This includes the Pasadena Alumni Support
Center for youth aging out of foster care.
"We are thrilled to have Bonnie back at Casey. She brings a wealth of
experience, enthusiasm, and vision that embodies the foundation's 2020
strategy," said Miryam J. Choca, senior director of strategic consulting at
Casey Family Programs.
Armstrong has also served as senior fellow at the Foundation Consortium
for California's Children & Youth. There she led a public-private
partnership between state government and philanthropy that resulted in
significant changes in policy and practice for the child welfare system in
California. More recently, she was the Southern California deputy director
of the ChildAbusePreventionCenter.
In her 35-year career, Armstrong has served at the federal, state,
county, municipal and school district levels in elected, appointed, and
volunteer capacities. These include policymaker, philanthropic leader,
advocate and advisor. She served under two Florida governors as Special
Assistant for Health and Social Services. In Southern California, she was a
founding member of both the Los Angeles County Children's Planning Council
and the Los Angeles Roundtable for Children, and she chaired the Pasadena
Commission on Children and Youth and the Family Community Council. As an
elected School Board member, she pioneered a consortium model of
school-based mental health services in the PasadenaUnifiedSchool
District.
"Bonnie has the experience and the network in the Los Angeles area that
Casey Family Programs is looking to build upon, and we could not have
anyone better than Bonnie to support sustainable systems change," added
Choca.
"I've worked both locally and across the country on efforts to improve
outcomes for children and families; helping develop local capacity for
building healthier communities. I'm really looking forward to working with
Casey to deepen and broaden the great work that is happening in L.A.,"
Armstrong said in a statement.
Armstrong is the author of numerous publications, including Making
Government Work for Your City's Kids, Youth Development Planning Guide,
Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Futures and Cities and Schools: Partners for
Children and Families. She holds a master's degree in human development
from PacificOaksCollege.
Armstrong will be based in the Casey Family Programs office in
Pasadena, where Casey Family Program's direct service work is also based.
The direct service work in Pasadena is led by Yakiciwey Mitchell and serves
over 1500 youth and families through community collaborations. These
support relative caregivers at the Kinship in ActionCenter (a partnership
with the Community Coalition) and foster youth transitioning to successful
adulthood at the PasadenaAlumniSupportCenter (a partnership with DCFS,
the Probation department and the Foothill Workforce Investment Board).
About Casey Family Programs
Casey Family Programs is the largest national foundation whose sole
mission is to provide and improve -- and ultimately prevent the need for --
foster care. The foundation draws on over 40 years of experience and expert
research and analysis to improve the lives of children and youth in foster
care in two important ways: by providing direct services and support to
foster families, and by promoting improvements in child welfare practice
and policy. The Seattle-based foundation was established in 1966 by UPS
founder Jim Casey, and has a current endowment of $2.5 billion.
For more information, contact Casey Family Programs at
or 1300 Dexter Avenue North, Floor 3, Seattle, WA98109. Visit our Web site
at
SOURCE Casey Family Programs