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The National Social Services Awards banquet saw Commissioner Todd Bassett, national commander, and Lt. Colonel Paul Bollwahn, national social services secretary, serving as co-presenters.
In determining the award winners each territory nominates an individual social services professional and a distinctive social services program. The nominees whose work most exemplifies the mission of The Salvation Army are honored.
The Award for Social Service Excellence was presented to an individual in each of the four territories. Harold Trujillo, shelter supervisor for the William Booth Center’s transitional, medical respite, and veterans’ shelters in Seattle, was the West’s honoree. These shelters serve over three hundred homeless men. Harold is the secret behind earning the Seattle shelters their reputation as the “Hilton” of shelters.
Other honorees included D.D. Launderville, Central Territory, F. Francis Lewis, Eastern Territory, and Alisa Dawn Burton, Southern Territory.
Nominees for the National Social Services Award included The Salvation Army’s Hickman House, a Western Territory transitional housing program in Washington. The mission of Hickman House is to break the cycle of violence in families by providing safe housing and sufficient time for healing.
Other nominees were The Boston South End Corps Community Center, The Salvation Army Crestwood Youth Services of Birmingham, Alabama, and The Salvation Army Children’s Shelter in Kansas City, Missouri.
The 2004 National Social Service Award recipient was The Salvation Army Children’s Shelter in Kansas City, Missouri. Here, the development of individualized service plans for children to assess their unique strengths and needs gives them support in coping with the trauma of abuse and neglect.
Please contact Gordon Bingham, territorial social services secretary, for information regarding nomination requirements, or to nominate a program or individual to be honored in 2005.