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Recognition Milestones and Events
Agencies contracted with the Division of Children and Family Services to provide Child Welfare Services can share special celebration moments unique to your agency that highlight the incredible work you do in serving children, families, and communities.
8/20/26 - Midwest Family Services/Paige Ott
Paige does a tremendous job of finding placements for our kids and supporting their foster families and the children that are in those homes. If we are struggling to find a placement for a child or children, Paige is always willing to help and think outside of the box to come up with homes that might be a possibility. She has also found placements for a sibling set of 2 and 1 individual child who had recently come to Nebraska and there was little to no information for them. Paige is very responsive and if we have a question or need information, she is quick to provide it. She genuinely cares for all of the children in their foster homes and it is quite obvious to see that when talking to her about those children.
- Amy Lauritsen, Child and Family Services Specialist Supervisor: DHHS-CFS
8/20/26 - McConaughy Discovery Center/Bailea Caulfield, Hannah Harford, Janelle Byfield and Sarah Bogue
McConaughy was providing supervised parenting time for one of our families. The mother was difficult to work with, but McConaughy staff went above and beyond to continue to hold her visits and make sure the children were seeing their mother. They made up time for when the mother was very late to a visit, which they definitely didn't need to do, and continued to attempt to work with the mother after she "fired" them. They went above and beyond to ensure that the children were ok during difficult visits and truly had their best interests at heart.
- Amy Lauritsen, Child and Family Services Specialist Supervisor: DHHS-CFS
8/18/26 - Mayra Mena
Community Monitoring Services would like to recognize the exemplary service of DHHS employee Mayra Mena. On a consistent basis, she completes a thorough investigation of all cases prior to our agency receiving them. She provides continued assistance when necessary and is outstanding when solving problems with the client(s) as well as our staff. She is a valuable asset to NE DHHS.
- Stacy Kaiser: Community Monitoring Services
8/3/26 - Owens and Associates/Joaquin
Sometimes, making a difference means simply refusing to give up on someone.
Joaquin recently worked with an individual who was hesitant to accept help and was facing significant challenges with substance use. Joaquin took the time to build trust, listen, have an honest conversation, and personally drive him to a detox facility.
About an hour later, Joaquin received a call letting him know the individual had left treatment.
Many people might have seen that as the end of the road. Joaquin saw it as another opportunity to help. He continued talking with him, offering encouragement and reminding him that it wasn't too late to try again. Then, at 8:30 that evening—after already working a 12-hour day—Joaquin went back to his home and drove him to treatment a second time.
This time, he stayed and successfully entered the program.
Stories like this are a reminder that helping others is about more than knowing the right policies or having the right resources. It's about compassion, patience, perseverance, and being willing to show up when someone needs you most. Joaquin's actions are a wonderful example of the people behind this work and the difference they can make in someone's life. We are grateful for his dedication, his compassion, and his willingness to go the extra mile.
- Sara Fender: Owens and Associates
5/15/26 - Guardian Light Family Services
Guardian Light Family Services is celebrating 10 years of service!
For the past decade, GLFS has had the privilege of serving families across all 93 counties in Nebraska. Throughout that time, we have supported thousands of families, strengthened communities, and helped stabilize a dedicated statewide workforce of more than 100 team members today.
We are grateful for every family, team member, partner, and community that has been part of this journey. Here's to 10 years of teaching, guiding, supporting, and building safer, more nurturing environments for Nebraska families.
- Stephanie Wengler, Chief Operating Officer: Guardian Light Family Services
4/6/26 - KVC/Lisa Ahmann
I would like to thank KVC, especially foster care specialist, Lisa Ahmann, for their collaboration with Omni in assistance finding respite for a youth. We all know how hard it is to find respite, especially in the same community. I appreciate KVC for working with me and sharing a wonderful foster home to provide respite for a licensed home with Omni. Lisa was so great to work with and helped with all the details of this respite. It was a pleasure working and collaborating with Lisa to ensure a child had a safe and loving home.
- Mindy Marschman: Omni Inventive Care
2/3/26 - Priority Foster Care/Shawn Riddle
The Placement Team has weekly CPA calls that include CFS case teams seeking placement for their youth and Foster Care Agencies that are contracted with DHHS. The goal has been to create more engagement that would lead to placements being found faster from the calls. In recent weeks, Shawn Riddle from Priority Foster Care has been attending due to having a new Placement Supervisor that he is training. Shawn has exhibited the exact engagement we have been hoping for! He not only asks questions about the youth that show that he is fullly engaged in the presentation of the youth, but has made suggestions that could help maintain a placement and overall has shown exactly what we want from all agency representatives. We are grateful for his williness to lead by example during these calls as I have noticed more agencies are now starting to turn their cameras on during the call, ask questions and truly engage in the call.
- Thomas Catterson: Resource Developement Supervisor (Placement)