Prevent Child Abuse America gives the James Hmurovich Award to Children’s Trust CEO Sue Williams.
Children’s Trust CEO Sue Williams was named the recipient of the James Hmurovich Award at the 2021 Prevent Child Abuse America Virtual Conference.
The award is given to an executive director of a Prevent Child Abuse America state chapter for leadership in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Children’s Trust is the PCA state chapter for South Carolina. Given on the final day of the conference, which ran from August 10-12, the award reflected Williams’ contributions to evidence-based prevention efforts in collaboration with local organizations in communities across the state.
“Thank you for this wonderful honor to be nominated and selected,” Williams said in her virtual acceptance. “I am thrilled beyond words but also quite surprised because I know of the great work so many of you are doing out there. To be selected as this year’s awardee means a lot.”
The award, which is named for the former president and CEO of PCA America, recognizes the positive impact that leaders are making in their states and across the country to help strengthen families and provide leadership in child abuse and neglect prevention.
Sue Williams speaking at the 2019 Building Hope for Children Conference.
Williams has led Children’s Trust, the statewide organization focused on the prevention of child abuse and neglect, since it was first chartered as a PCA America state affiliate in 2008. Children’s Trust provides funding, resources and training to help local program partners build strong families and positive childhoods. It leads the state’s coordinated efforts for the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program; Strengthening Families Program (SFP); Triple P (Positive Parenting Program); S.C. Adverse Childhood Experiences Initiative; Child Abuse Prevention Month; and the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT project.
Earlier this year, Children’s Trust was rechartered as the state chapter. Here is what PCA America said at the time about the organization’s work.
“PCA South Carolina leads the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) and Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) programs in the state and is well respected by a wide variety of public and private partners for evidence-based, evidence-informed and innovative prevention strategies. The organization also serves as a national voice for increasing the number of evidence-based programs for the Family First Prevention Service Act (FFPSA).”
The conference, with a theme of “Transforming Our Tomorrow,” brought together child- and family-serving professionals from across the nation to discuss the need for ongoing growth in this time of widespread change. Williams served as a moderator in the third-day keynote speech by writer and speaker Vu Le. During the three days of learning and discovery, top child abuse prevention experts presented on a variety of topics in sessions. On the second day of the conference Children’s Trust staff members – Kayce Singletary, senior director of community impact; Dr. Aditi Srivastav Bussells, director of research; and Abby Wilson, director of community initiatives – led the session, “The Stories We Tell Ourselves: How Social and Behavior Change Communications Can Change Norms around Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention.”
