Joe Milke, Klingberg Family Centers’ Vice President of Finance and Administration, was recently nominated for recognition as the ‘Hartford Business Journal — CFO of the Year 2011’.   Pia Brown of Ovation Benefits Group, which serves as KFC employee benefits broker, nominated Joe, based on her respect and appreciation for his great work:  “I have worked with Joe for almost two years on the employee benefit plan strategy (design and cost).  He is thoughtful and comprehensive in the application of the changes to plans in order to achieve the best balance of cost and coverage for his employees, and in staying true to the mission of Klingberg Family Centers.  Joe has guided his organization through some tough financial times due to state funding cuts, and has been instrumental in the development of a new program to help children/families with special needs.”  Always optimistic and encouraging, Joe has had the admiration of his coworkers at KFC for many years.  Now we can all celebrate with him as he is recognized throughout Greater Hartford for his tremendous contributions to Klingberg Family Centers and our cherished clients.  Congratulations Joe.

Erin Joudrey (far right, third row from front) with other women honored at the luncheon

The YWCA of New Britain hosted its 14th biennial Women in Leadership luncheon recently at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville. This year’s group of “Women in Leadership” included 12 honorees and six inductees into the Academy of Women Leaders.  One of this year’s honorees is Erin Joudrey, Director of Community-based Care at Klingberg Family Centers.

Erin is most deserving of recognition for her outstanding work.  She began her career at Klingberg Family Centers in 1998 working with pre-adolescent children facing behavioral health issues. Since that time she has made her mark on the lives of scores of boys and girls, earned a Masters Degree in Social Work, and taken on increasingly demanding leadership roles in the organization.

Known for her cheerful, enthusiastic spirit, Erin embraces new challenges. Her roles have included serving as Director of the Therapeutic Foster Care Program. In that capacity several years ago, she headed up a redesign of our specialized foster care and adoption services that involved participation in many statewide meetings and training staff in new models of care. Currently, Erin oversees the agency’s three group homes for teens and is working hard on opening a fourth group home. 

Erin is driven by a passion for helping young people overcome the tragic consequences of trauma and move forward to a more promising future. As she has advanced into supervisory and administrative roles, Erin appreciates the opportunity to inspire her staff to always treat children and families with genuine respect and seek to understand their unique situations. She is dedicated to hiring a diverse staff that reflects and appreciates the diversity of the clients we serve.Erin realizes that advocacy is an essential component of working with children and families who often have no voice.  Her greatest fulfillment has been witnessing the healing and restoration that takes place when abused children come to know they are loved and have tremendous value.

In keeping with her heart of compassion, Erin also enjoys volunteering for the Connecticut Humane Society.

Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW of Bristol, is one of six members of the National Association of Social Workers, Connecticut Chapter, to be honored June 14 at the association’s annual awards dinner in New Haven.

Wilcox will receive the 2011 Social Worker of the Year Award.

She is the vice president for strategic planning at Klingberg Family Centers in New Britain. At Klingberg she is responsible for designing new programming, maintaining a quality assurance process, consulting clinically, and contributing to sustaining trauma-informed care.  It is her work in the area of trauma treatment for youth that particularly distinguishes her.

A national leader in the area of trauma treatment for youth, especially in congregate care treatment settings that work with the most psychiatrically complex children, Wilcox has forged new paths.  At Klingberg she initiated and oversaw an organizational transformation process from a traditional, control-oriented, token economy treatment approach to one that is based on state-of-the-art knowledge about treatment of complexly traumatized children.

Wilcox is also the primary creator of the Restorative Approach, a trauma-informed alternative to traditional point-and-level systems for child congregate care treatment settings.  She has trained internationally on the Restorative Approach, has self-published a book on the subject, and is writing a book to be published by the NEARI Press.

Helping to bring the Risking Connection Training Program to Klingberg, Wilcox has established Klingberg as a national training center for RC, and has assisted 30 agencies in nine states and Canada to adopt RC as an ongoing staff training program.  A member of NASW since 1983, she has participated on the board of directors, on committees, and has presented numerous workshops at conferences.  She is a strong advocate for paying attention to the care of both clients and treatment providers and has a long history of supervising and mentoring social workers, generously sharing her expertise with those who care for children.  Service to deeply troubled children has been the central mission of her life work and she has done this work tirelessly and unselfishly in her effort to look for ways to help them heal.