Youth advocate, YWCA receive WSUV community awards

Children’s advocate Peggy Hays and YWCA Clark County were named winners of two Community Awards of Distinction, presented each year by Washington State University Vancouver.

Honors came during WSUV’s Scholarship and Service Recognition Dinner, held Tuesday.

The Award for Community Partnership went to Hays, a social worker and program director for more than 25 years. She coordinates a family-to-family program within the Washington state Division of Children and Family Services, focused on foster children’s needs.

Hays has brought churches, schools and private and nonprofit agencies together in partnership. She launched the family-to-family model in Hazel Dell and now is bringing it to the Rose Village and Fourth Plain Boulevard neighborhoods, WSUV officials said.

“Her breadth of knowledge in community resources and contacts is invaluable to our area,” wrote Karen Schriener Rankine, a longtime volunteer who had nominated Hays for the award.

“She is often sought out statewide for her expertise and is highly regarded in her field. Her unending energy is contagious and her focus on the needs of disadvantaged children is admirable,” Schriener Rankine wrote.

The Community Award of Distinction for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion went to YWCA Clark County. Executive Director Sherri Bennett accepted the honor.

Serving more than 11,000 local residents with advocacy, educational and outreach efforts, the 94-year-old group helps them find safety, independence, healing and support, the WSUV observance noted.

The YWCA is the only Clark County organization with two programs dedicated to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, with special assistance for LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer) residents, youth, incarcerated women, men, Spanish and Russian speakers and homeless and low-income children and families, the school said.

The group partners with other organizations to provide services people rely on and wouldn’t receive otherwise, including important workshops and resources related to diversity and inclusion.

The Community Award of Distinction was established last year by WSUV Chancellor Hal Dengerink as part of the campus’ 20th anniversary celebration.

For more on 2009-10 winners: http://vancouver.wsu.edu/community.

WSUV’s annual recognition dinner gathers donors and scholarship winners to celebrate. This year, $236,630 in scholarships went to 147 students, the school said.