Karen Torres began her career in Child Welfare 20 years ago at the Washington County Department of Social Services as a generalist caseworker. In her determined way – her “thinking outside the box” way – Karen never hesitates to reach for opportunities.

She sees potential where others may not.

In 1988 Karen joined Logan County. Early in her career she was responsible for the vision and creation of the Foster Care Advisory Board and the Foster Parent Support and Education Group, two programs which still continue today. She also actively recruited child-specific foster parents, some of which resulted in adoption.

Those who know Karen know that she works hard to explore potential and implement projects. When she recognized a need for a visitation center, she took action. During her personal time, she did the research, sought and obtained the community support she needed, and wrote a successful grant.

The visitation center has achieved non-profit status and is now a Family Resource Center.

Karen is a “do-er,” a collaborator, a vision-maker. She works with the Logan County Resource and Referral Center, she’s a member of the Early Childhood Council and Coordinating Council for Youth Services, she is working with Morgan County to expand the Fatherhood Initiative project into Logan County, and she developed a faith-based partnership to support positive youth outcomes.

Karen Torres is a leader in Child Welfare who demonstrates the personal commitment, skills, and the ability to take a project from vision to reality.

She is what Excellence in Practice is all about!

Ruby Richards
Child Protection Intake Supervisor
Arapahoe County

Ruby Richards’ unit recently had a high profile case that was exhausting and overwhelming. Ruby responded with the worker and 7 hours later, she was still by the worker’s side. She not only helped to investigate the case, she helped to find placements for all 8 children. When the worker became ill and was hospitalized, Ruby covered the custody hearing. She then became the sole testifier on behalf of Intake and sat as an advisor to the county’s legal counsel for several months.

Sharing her knowledge throughout her community, Ruby sits on the Family Maltreatment Case Management Team at Buckley Air Force Base; is working with Denver University on a new training series for supervisors; and coordinated a brown bag series between the Aurora Police Crimes Against Children Unit, the Children’s Hospital Child Protection Team and her staff.

While her commitment to her work is extraordinary, she is equally amazing in her efforts to motivate, challenge and simply “be there” for her staff.

She offers advice, allows them to vent their frustrations with their jobs, and supports their career goals. Ruby also shares her own mistakes as lessons that her staff can learn from.

Ruby Richards’ appreciation of her staff’s hard work is the very reason why so many of them work for her and continue to come to work each day.

Patricia Thompson
Social Caseworker Supervisor
Rio Blanco County

Patricia Thompson is dedicated to helping families in every way possible despite the unsafe conditions that may be involved at times.

She’s driven in the middle of the night to place children in safe homes; she’s removed children when law enforcement has provided little support; she has faced parents who have threatened and cursed her.

Still, she goes the extra mile to provide the families she works with the support they need.

Patricia has been creative in helping foster parents receive the required training to become licensed. She compiles and sends them training material each month to ensure their continued education. She also provides them with emotional support when they need it.

Always an innovator in creating and delivering services, Patricia found a parenting instructor to provide parenting education for her clients. She also found contract workers to provide monthly face-to-face visits for foster children placed in Denver, which resulted in less travel for the Rio Blanco County caseworkers.

She can admit when she doesn’t know something, but she will find the answer. As a supervisor, she’s understanding, a team player, and an individual who never waivers in her belief that protecting children is first and foremost.

Patricia’s work ethic and positive attitude only inspire her co-workers to be better in everything that they do.

Kristen Waites & Anne Powley
Chafee Program
Jefferson County

Responsible for providing independent living services to youth who are eligible for Chafee Services, Kristen Waites and Anne Powley wanted to plan a meaningful, educational and fun event in January to help others learn more about emancipating youth and the challenges that they face.

They placed fortune cookies with tidbits of information about emancipating youth on the desks of staff members; they invited workers with children and youth on their caseloads to attend a training on the use of the Ansell Casey Life Skills Assessment; they sent e-mails that included interesting facts such as "3 out of 10 of the nation’s homeless adults report a foster care history."

Banners were hung around the agency. Door prizes were given to those correctly answering questions about Independent Living. Workers were able to meet and talk with four of Jefferson County's emancipating youth.

Through this one event, Anne and Kristen breathed life into the issue of Independent Living. Now, more caseworkers have an understanding of what those Independent Living plans really mean to youth as they prepare to strike out on their own.

Anne and Kristen have been a powerful, positive force in the young lives of countless youths.

But because of the work that they did to make January a memorable month in Jefferson County, caseworkers there are better prepared to assist these youth in beating the odds and leading safe and productive lives.

Wade Branstetter
TANF Caseworker
Boulder County

Wade Branstetter is the only Social Caseworker on the Public Assistance side of Social Services. Although his role has changed over the past 6 years, Wade’s work continues to put the children and family first.

A “one-man show “ working as a liaison with Child Welfare, Work Force, Public Assistance and community agencies, Wade’s primary focus is the financial stability and well-being of the family. His vast knowledge of child welfare and his training in family services allows him to explain the impact of poverty on low-income clients with everyone from child welfare workers to members of the community. Once a family is in the child welfare system, Wade works closely with the Child Welfare Caseworker and Life Skills Workers to address financial instability in order to promote successful completion of the Family Service Plan.

Wade has served on the boards or committees of Boulder Safe House, the Alliance for Colorado Homeless Youth, Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, the YWCA, and the Longmont Ending Violence Initiative.

He has also completed the Public Service Institute training with the County and has been a host and committee member for the past 3 years helping nourish future leaders in public service.

Staffings and daily collaboration are a part of Wade’s job every day.
He has worked to increase the collaboration between child welfare and public assistance to open the lines of communication between the divisions and understand each other’s roles and responsibilities with the client.

A constant advocate for children and families in Boulder County, Wade Branstetter is getting things done.

Esther Dominguez
Case Aide IV
Alamosa County

Esther Dominguez is a nurturing presence in the Alamosa County Department of Human Services. She is always willing to help. She is steady, reliable, open and fair with co-workers and clients. She is calm in a crisis.

At any given time she has 36 children in 10 families on her caseload.

And she does so much of her work with a smile.

Esther begins her day at 7am by transporting bring a child to school in Alamosa from Sanford. She might purchase small items for clients with her own money; she will find larger items for her families' needs; she attends Child Protection Team and Special Review Committee meetings. When supervising visits, she encourages parents to be involved with their children and offers practical ideas about how to interact with them.

Despite the stress of a recent large staff turnover, Esther continues to be a positive and energetic force in her department. She has broadened the Life Skills services to include parenting, housekeeping, nutrition, budgeting, family visits and much more.

She constantly works to improve her skills and knowledge so that she can help more families in her community.

Esther Dominguez has worked for the Alamosa County Department of Human Services for 15 years. And she continues to make a difference every single day

Mary Longmire
Caseworker III Intake
Teller County

Mary Longmire is an inspiration to Teller County. Not only in her actions, beliefs, words, and guidance as an intake worker, but also in her dedication to improve community networking and outreach.

She does what it takes to keep children safe while working to keep the family unified. Mary knows the local resources and not only shares this information with the families, but she helps them to fill out paperwork or schedule appointments.

Mary has met with various community resource personnel in law enforcement and schools to help facilitate working relationships. She has attended community events such as National Night Out and the Teller County Health Fair to increase public awareness and promote the Department as a helping entity. She works closely with the local one-stop resource center and has given presentations to adults and children about what the Department does.

She is a well-respected co-worker in all Department units, and is always available to her colleagues. She has helped out by taking on extra duties during supervisor absences and has guided others in their endeavors.

Mary’s community presence and respect throughout her community is allowing clients to access more services more quickly than before.

She is diligent, focused and determined.

Mary Longmire is someone Teller County is proud to have in its community.

Rod Gantt, Betsy Hamill & Joe Motsch
Ongoing Child Protection Unit
La Plata County

As the members of the Ongoing Child Protection Unit in La Plata, Rod Gantt, Betsy Hamill, and Joe Motsch are balancing the demands of child safety, permanency, and well-being.

They get to know the children on their caseloads, learning each child’s personalities, needs, and desires. Although it’s not a job requirement, they take their kids out to lunch, attend awards ceremonies and special events, and provide them with emotional support in many other ways.

They strive to develop constructive relationships with the children’s parents and are skilled at treating the parents with respect while holding them accountable and providing appropriate support.

They are part of the on-call team, covering child protection emergencies during evenings and on weekends. They also investigate child abuse and neglect allegations during working hours when necessary, voluntarily taking on investigations even when they have full ongoing caseloads.

Additionally, Rod, Betsy, and Joe maintain relationships with children who are no longer on their caseloads, attending graduations and baby showers and providing an ongoing connection for those kids and young adults with whom they worked in the past.

Rod, Betsy, and Joe have developed a substance testing policy that provides consistency for parents whose children are in out-of-home care. They also work closely with our local substance abuse treatment providers so the children's best interests are always considered when decisions are made regarding their parents.

In the last four years, 24 La Plata County children have been adopted and none of these adoptions has disrupted.

These children now have "forever families", with the added bonus of the ongoing support and care of Rod, Betsy, and Joe.

What is the “Beating the Competition Award”?

Hon. Kathy Delgado
Adams County

The award is presented to the district voted to have the best display of materials on their gallery walk table. These materials consist of substantive materials related to child welfare cases such as case management orders, local forms, program descriptions , parent handbooks, mentoring programs (i.e. Drug Court, Family Treatment Court, Family to Family, Adoption Day), district plans for handling dependency and neglect cases and information related to collaborative processes and other information such as posters, pictures, websites, newspaper articles and items unique to the districts region of the state or organization.