Compassionate Champion Award recognizes individuals, organizations providing trauma-informed services

WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor John Carney on Friday announced the recipients of the Compassionate Champion Award, the State of Delaware’s trauma-informed care recognition program that highlights outstanding achievement by individuals and organizations that provide trauma-informed services.

“We have many dedicated workers across the state who serve their fellow Delawareans, and who have been leaders and advocates in the trauma-informed approach,” said Governor Carney. “The Compassionate Champion Awards provide an opportunity to highlight the outstanding achievement by individuals and organizations that make our state stronger and healthier using the trauma-informed approach. We thank them for their compassion, leadership and commitment to our state and our citizens.”

Individual‌ ‌Champion

• First‌ ‌Responder/‌Medical: ‌ Dr. David Chen, Christiana Care, Hospital Violence Intervention Program
• Education: Kelley Lumpkin, LPCMH, Children & Families First Delaware

Emerging‌ ‌Champion‌ ‌

• Community: Project New Start, Inc.—Priscilla Turgon
• Community: Center for Child Development—Lisa Savage
• Education: ‌ The Bayard School – Victoir Cahoon

Compassionate‌ ‌Champion‌ ‌

• Community: Delaware Guidance Services—Shana Powell, Jill Rogers, Tiffany Jester
• Government: ‌ Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families, Division of Youth Rehabilitative Services—Brandi Ciamarra, Dr. Linda Friedman, Dr. Jacqueline McMichael, Dr. Katharine Powers, Dr. Jamey Rislin, Dr. Simah Waddell, Tina Walls, Dr. Rebecca Richmond
• First Responder/Medical: ‌ Nemours, Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at A.I. duPont Hospital for Children – Anne Kazak, Melissa Alderfer, Meg Frizzola, Jennifer Pendley

On Thursday, October 29, at 5:00 p.m., Governor Carney will premiere a video recognizing the award winners. The video will be publicly available on the Governor’s YouTube Channel and Facebook page.

The Compassionate Champion Award recognizes individuals or teams in government, non-profit and private organizations, first responder professions, education, and other agencies that have taken steps toward providing services in a manner consistent with trauma-informed care criteria in the Delaware Developmental Framework for Trauma Informed Care, a document that outlines best practices for trauma-informed care. The Framework was adapted from the Missouri Model of trauma-informed care, and was produced in collaboration by the Family Services Cabinet Council ACEs Subcommittee and the Compassionate Connections Partnership

Since 2018, the Family Services Cabinet Council has worked to implement Executive Order #24, which launched efforts to make Delaware a trauma-informed state. The Family Services Cabinet Council released in November 2019 a Trauma-Informed Care Progress Report and Action Plan for State of Delaware agencies. The plan serves as a progress report of each agency’s work to implement Executive Order #24, which tasked the Family Services Cabinet Council to lead efforts to make Delaware a trauma-informed state. The Family Services Cabinet Council is a cabinet-level group reestablished by Governor Carney in February 2017 to coordinate public and private services for Delaware families.

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