Congratulations to Liz Kasimu, who recently received the NYS Coalition for Children’s Behavioral Health Employee of the Year Award!
The following speech about Liz was written by C&FS’s Chief Operating Officer, Linda McCartan.
It is my sincere honor to introduce you to Liz! Starting with C&FS a year ago, she has made a tremendous impact. Liz came to us from a different recreational setting, but really had a passion and spirit to work with children presenting with mental health challenges. We were blessed to find her and have her join our team.
Some of the qualities you will notice quickly about Liz are her positive attitude and her modesty. Amid the COVID pandemic Liz did not miss a beat connecting our residential programs with engaging, innovating programming. She advocated strongly for a local studio to offer a virtual dance class for residents when we could not leave campus. AND IT WORKED! Kids loved the program. Liz also worked to develop a mentoring programing where residents from our teen group home come to campus and work with our little people in games and sports. It is a win/win for all involved. What is remarkable is that Liz does not realize how innovative and forward thinking her projects are. When she is not on campus building relationships with kids and staff, she can be found working on cultivating community partnerships that support the therapeutic programming on campus. She does it with a smile, passion and enthusiasm that is contagious.
Liz has a strong appreciation for the value of milieu in a child’s treatment while simultaneously displaying the importance of letting ‘kids be kids’ and just have fun playing. Her ability to navigate the challenges present in a residential treatment program is amazing. And her work does not end when she leaves campus. Liz is noted for developing structured recreational plans for her days off to ensure the kids continue to benefit from programming even when she is not there.
It is with great pleasure that I recognize Liz Kasimu as our Employee of the Year!