February is Parent Recognition Month. Strengthening Families Washington, of the Department of Early Learning for Washington State, believes there is no better way to recognize a parent, grandparent, foster or adoptive parent than by acknowledging the numerous and impressive things they do to strengthen their family and those around them in their community.
Seattle's Child is proud to sponsor the Washington Unsung Hero Awards, recognizing our everyday heroes and honoring the important role caregivers play in children's lives. There are 28 nominees for the 28 days of February, and Seattle's Child will highlight each and every one.
Congratulations to the Unsung Hero for February 19: Victoria Hilt – Bremerton, WA:
Victoria moved herself through homelessness, after fleeing a tough situation, during the last months of her pregnancy. She enrolled in Early Head Start Home Based as a prenatal client, and successfully worked to move herself from staying at a motel on a homeless-services voucher, to her own housing. Her daughter continues to thrive, and Victoria has become a leading advocate among fellow parents as first the Policy Council parent representative for her home visitors' caseload, to being elected as the President of our Policy Council. She was recently selected to join the Parent Ambassador program through WSA (Washington State Association of Head Start & ECEAP). She has also acted as a parent trainer for our home visiting program when she participated in a training day hosted by the national trainers for the home visitation curriculum our program uses. She happily provided herself and her daughter to model a "home visit" as part of the training day for home visitors from three states, Washington, Idaho and Montana. We watched her interact with the home visitor-trainer, as an example of how to implement the curriculum we were to use. She also works hard to coordinate with the father of her daughter to ensure parenting is done in the best interest of their daughter. Her willingness to learn all about her daughter and provide a stable everything for herself and her daughter continuously inspires us.
Nominator: Renee Hernandez Greenfield and Michelle Ford