Success 4 Kids & Families Wins 2012 Award For Best Non-profit In Tampa Bay

July 26, 2012 - PRLog -- Success 4 Kids & Families has won the prestigious "2012 Tampa Bay Business Journal Non-Profit of the Year Award," from among over 200 nominees and 38 finalists in the greater Tampa region.  Award winners compete for prizes based upon a comparison of strategic plans, outcomes assessments, testimonials and rigorous analysis of tax-exempt financials.  "We were humbled and honored to have been selected out of so many tremendous non-profits who do so much for the Tampa Bay community-this will help us tell the story of our organization and the kids and families we impact every day," said Clara Reynolds, executive director of Success 4 Kids & Families (S4KF).



The Tampa Bay Business Journal has been honoring the very best in local non-profits now for seven years; past winners include the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay and Gulfside Regional Hospice.  This year, S4KF was the overall winner for 2012, also garnering the family services category award.  Success 4 Kids and Families provides in-home counseling and wrap-around services for children with emotional and behavioral problems in Hillsborough County.  Success 4 Kids & Families also runs and manages The Healthy Start Program for Hillsborough County, an agency that provides prenatal coaching and care for lower income and at-risk pregnant women in the Tampa area.  Some other secondary category winners for 2012 included Metropolitan Ministries for crisis resources and Glazer Children's Museum for the arts, culture and humanities.



The non-profit award caps off a very successful year for S4KF which has grown from a $2 million to a $6 million program in four short years. "We have grown to serve nearly 11,000 kids, families, and future moms and infants in the greater Bay area and now have 85 full-time employees helping this typically underserved market," according to Reynolds.



University of Tampa business professor Ronald Kuntze believes S4KF won the award "because they are one of the most effective and efficient non-profits we have ever studied in our classes-last year their overhead was under 9%; which means 91 cents out of every dollar goes directly to help children, families, expectant moms and newborns-that's phenomenal!"  Dr. Kuntze also contends that their 85% success rate, as measured by external benchmarks such as improvements in school, graduation rates, and standardized test performance, "may be the best in the nation."



"Often-times children with behavioral health issues make the headlines for the wrong reasons," says Reynolds.  "This award headlines the potential for these kids and families to succeed when given the right services and support.  This award will help us tell their stories; and provide a road-map for how to make significant and positive changes in their lives."  Success 4 Kids & Families boasts an innovative treatment model that is being praised internationally, and S4KF administrators are actively training counselors and therapists all over the U.S. and Canada.



S4KF's unique value proposition is that they care for the troubled child in the home; and while there, caseworkers work to heal and treat the entire family.  This ‘consumer-directed system of wraparound care' in the home assigns the child and family a dedicated case manager (qualified psychologist or social worker) who treats the family and connects them with a myriad of social services in the Bay area. "We don't treat the target child in isolation.  With the family's input, we create a unified Family Support Plan and then, also with the family, we identify possible providers, broker and coordinate services, empower, counsel, visit schools, advocate, coach, educate and listen" says Reynolds.



"This award is an award to be shared by our dedicated staff of case coordinators and system navigators as well as hundreds of sister agencies in Tampa that provide needed services to these families."



Success 4 Kids and families will counsel and provide services to over 1200 children in Hillsborough County this year.  Through the Healthy Start division, thousands more expectant moms at risk will receive counseling, training, and supplemental health services and care.  Executive Director Reynolds added "Thousands of newborns will also get off on the right foot in 2012, and we are so thankful this award will help us tell those stories- again, thank you so very much!"