Winners:

Individual Award:

Elly Lafkin, of Shenandoah, has become an extraordinary advocate for safety in child care out of her own family’s tragic experience. Elly and Cameron Lafkin’s infant baby, Camden, died in a family child care home in May of 2012. When the police investigated the death of Camden Lafkin, they found that the family’s child care provider had several aliases and a history of criminal offenses. Since that time, Elly has worked tirelessly to organize other families who have experiences similar losses and speak out to elected officials. Her courageous action has resulted in meaningful changes at the national and state level to improve the safety of child care settings.

Individual Award:

Grace and David Gallagher are changing the conversation about adolescent depression in Richmond and beyond with the Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation and its signature event, the Speak Up 5k. The Gallaghers’ teenage daughter, Cameron, was living with severe depression and anxiety at the time she died from an undiagnosed heart condition at the end of the Shamrock Half Marathon in March 2014. Cameron was committed to “speaking up” to reduce the stigma and fear surrounding mental illness, and her parents have continued her efforts, reaching thousands of individuals with the message Cameron was working to spread.

 

Organizational Award:

Family Lifeline has worked for almost 140 years to bring health and hope into the homes of many of the most at-risk families living in greater Richmond and Petersburg. It is the largest provider of early childhood intensive home visiting in the greater Richmond and Petersburg region and one of the largest providers of evidence-based home-visiting services in the state. Working with families at-risk due to poverty, unemployment, or social isolation, home visitors work two generations at a time to improve economic and health outcomes for parents and children.