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2016 Award Recipients
Our 2015-16 Adoption Award recipients were recognized at our Striving for Permanence event on June 7, 2016, in Vancouver. Thank you to our sponsor Eclipse Awards for donating the lovely crystal disks.
Adoption Champion Award
This award is given to recognize the hard work and dedication of an individual volunteer or group of volunteers who have made an outstanding personal contribution to AFABC.
Sandra Banks
Sandra has been a volunteer with AFABC for over 6 years. Sandra and her husband Andrew started our first “Vancouver Waiting Parents” meeting, a support group that continues today. When she adopted her first daughter, Sandra began a new playgroup for adoptive parents with children ages 0 to 5. Now a two-time adoptive mom, Sandra continues to run the Vancouver Playgroup and play an active role in the community. Her efforts in organizing and bringing together Vancouver-area families has been instrumental in providing in-person support for many who would otherwise be connecting through social media or in smaller, less formal ways.
Insight Support Services
For the past five years, Insight Support Services has partnered with AFABC to bring our annual Family Fun Day to Kamloops. Each year their staff members volunteer time to organizing and preparing food and drinks, supplying all the crafts for kids, and set up and run various games and activities such as the popular Wii Dance Party. This event would not be possible without the staff at Insight. We are truly grateful for all the time and talent their team brings to making this event so incredible for families.
Spirit Award - Individual
Recognizes a donor who has made a significant and meaningful financial contribution to AFABC.
Treena and Kevin Innes
Spirit Award - Corporate
Recognizes an organization or business that has made significant cash or in kind donations to AFABC.
The Victoria Foundation
For 12 years this incredible foundation has contributed over $250,000 to AFABC through the Lex Reynolds Adoption and Permanency Fund. These grants have funded a range of projects including workshops, mentorship and support groups, family events, online education, youth programming, and cultural education and support for Aboriginal children and their adoptive families. Their assistance has helped build relationships, and provide services and supports for children and youth in need of permanent connections for life.
Special Recognition Award
Each year, the awards committee also looks at other champions in the adoption community. These are people who make exceptional contributions to the adoption community and to children and youth who are waiting for forever families.
Tracy Sherlock, Lori Culbert, and The Vancouver Sun
This year we are pleased to recognize Lori Culbert, Tracy Sherlock, and the Vancouver Sun for their work on the BC Adoption series and their ongoing reporting on outcomes for youth in government care. Their work paints a realistic, representative, and compassionate portrait of adoption by showing that adoption has positive outcomes for kids and youth, but also acknowledges that it’s not always an easy journey. Their work also helps to cast away misconceptions and raise awareness of children and youth in care by allowing these kids to speak for themselves.
Helen Mark Excellence in Adoption Award
This lifetime achievement award recognizes the outstanding contributions made to children and youth, to adoptive families, and to adoption in BC and Canada.
Anne Clayton
Anne began her career in adoptions in 1997 as a regional consultant. Over the next 20 years she advanced to become the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s Provincial Director of Adoption and Executive Director of Guardianship, Adoption, and Permanency Planning. As the Provincial Director of Adoption, Anne is responsible for the administration of the Adoption Act and represents the Provincial Central Authority under the Hague Convention on Protection of Children in Respect of Inter-country Adoption.
Anne’s leadership has made the provincial adoption program and integral aspect of child welfare. She is an inclusive leader with a vision premised on the belief that all children and youth deserves permanency and that no child or youth should spend their formative years in foster care. Anne has an aptitude for developing strategic alliances with multiple and diverse stakeholders, building consensus and using technologies to advance the adoption program. Two initiatives that are a testament to her vision are the online cultural competency training and the adoption education program online. Anne creates a trusting work environment in which employees are motivated to perform and meet standards of professionalism and excellence in service delivery. The Guardianship, Adoption and Permanency Planning Branch is rumored to be best place to work in MCFD!
Past recipients
2014
Adoption in Action Award: Deloitte Canada
Adoption Champion Award: Deanna Jones; Drew Savage
Spirit Award - Individual: Peggy Howard
Spirit Award - Corporate: John Hardie Mitchell Family Foundation
Special Recognition Award: Pieta Woolley and The Tyee
2013
Adoption in Action Award: Port Metro Vancouver & International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 517
AFABC Champion Award: John Aquing
Spirit Award - Individual: Ian Telfer & Nancy Burke
Spirit Award - Corporate: Accent Inns
Helen Mark Excellence in Adoption Award: Sandra Scarth
2012
Adoption in Action Award: BC Assessment
AFABC Champion Award: Carrie & Gerald Hohnstein
Special Recognition Award: Catherine Pope
Special Recognition Award: Global TV BC
2011
Adoption in Action Award: Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
AFABC Champion Award: Lyn Mogren
Spirit Award - Individual: Trisha Tyrell and Bret Gagnon
Spirit Award - Corporate: Raymond James and Ross Birney
Helen Mark Excellence in Adoption Award: Lalum'utl' Smuneem Child and Family Services
2010
Adoption in Action Award: Ernst & Young
AFABC Champion Award: Tania Elvin
Spirit Award - Corporate: HSBC
Helen Mark Excellence in Adoption Award: Lex Reynolds
