Kelly Knight receives the Mary Ellen Social Work Award

During the 2009 Ohio CASA conference, the Ohio YAB's very own Kelly Knight was awarded the Mary Ellen Social Work Award for Excellence in Children Services.

Since January 2008, Kelly has trained over 130 new CASA/GAL volunteers, during her nights and weekends. She tells her classes, "If you don't see concurrent planning, you should be questioning the case plan and insisting on its inclusion."

During her acceptance speech, Kelly pointed out that, "Time passes differently for children."

Kelly described how, for busy professionals, postponing paperwork or continuing a case might be tempting because time seems to be moving quickly. But for the child, that time is moving painfully slowly in terms of connecting them with love and permanency.