04/29/10 Family Service of RI CEO Receives National Award      Family Service of RI CEO Margaret Holland McDuff receiving the annual Child Welfare Leadership Award from Alliance for Children and Families President & CEO Peter Goldberg Margaret Holland McDuff, CEO of Family Service of Rhode Island, has received the Alliance for Children and Families' annual Child Welfare Leadership Award. She was presented the award by Alliance for Children and Families' CEO Peter Goldberg at the American Association of Children's Residential Centers' conference at the Westin in Waltham, Massachusetts on Thursday, April 29, 2010. Mr. Goldberg praised Ms. Holland McDuff's leadership and willingness to step up to meet community need. The award, formally known as the Samuel Gerson Nordlinger Child Welfare Leadership Award, is given annually to recognize an individual who makes a significant impact on public opinion and awareness about children’s issues and services; makes an impact on the national public policy process that greatly benefits children and children’s services; and participates actively and productively in the affairs of the Alliance in a leadership capacity. Seeing a need in the community and responding to it has been a hallmark for Ms. Holland McDuff. She created a partnership with the Providence police department that allows for immediate on-scene crisis intervention, assistance, and language support to children and families traumatized by crime and violence. In response to a lack of state capacity to serve children with severe emotional and learning issues, Ms. Holland McDuff led the formation of Mount Pleasant Academy, a day treatment facility for children with emotional, behavioral, and/or psychiatric needs that also provides educational and mental health services. She also guided Family Service of Rhode Island in opening a satellite office in North Kingstown to address a lack of mental health capacity in the region. Ms. Holland McDuff guided the merger of Family Service with an HIV/AIDS service organization, AIDS Project RI, in order to develop a more closely linked continuum of care for people living with HIV and AIDS, and she also helped form an affiliation with a homeless shelter in Middletown, RI, Lucy’s Hearth, to enhance the delivery of services to women and children living at the shelter. In her career, Ms. Holland McDuff has led the Providence Mayor’s Substance Abuse Prevention Council, the Rhode Island Children’s Policy Coalition, and the Rhode Island Council of Residential Programs. In addition, she has lent her expertise to a number of programs and services, including the states’ Child Welfare Advisory Committee, Rhode Island Kids Count, the United Way of Rhode Island Community Advisory Board, and the Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island Provider Council. Family Service of Rhode Island is a statewide non-profit human service non-profit, helping abused children, families in poverty and at risk of homelessness, people living with HIV/AIDS and others in crisis. The Alliance for Children and Families is a national membership association of nonprofit human service providers in the United States and Canada that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2011. Motivated by a vision of a healthy society and strong communities, the Alliance strengthens the capacities of North America's nonprofit child- and family-serving organizations to serve and to advocate for children, families, and communities. The nearly 350 members of the Alliance provide an array of community-based programs and services to all generations, serving close to 3.4 million people each year. More information is available at alliance1.org. (end)