Child Welfare League of America Announces Winners for 2003 Journalism Awards

3/6/2003

From: Joyce Johnson of CWLA, 202-942-0244, or March 3-5 at Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, CWLA Press Room, 202-745-2128

WASHINGTON, March 6 -- The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is pleased to announce the 2003 winner of the Anna Quindlen Award for Excellence in Journalism in Behalf of Children and Families during its National Conference. This year's recipient of this prestigious award is Barbara Walsh of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.

Walsh was nominated by CWLA-member Sweetser Children's Services in Saco, Maine for her in-depth series, "Castaway Children: Maine's Most Vulnerable Kids." The three-day series that appeared in August profiled children's mental health care in Maine, and highlighted the need for additional services, particularly community-based and preventive services, and for increased access to psychiatric care. The series generated a tremendous response from both citizens and state and national political leaders. It sparked a dialog among state agencies and community groups regarding their respective roles in treating children with mental disabilities. Maine's Governor John Baldacci is now proposing a new combined Department of Children and Families that would provide integrated, one-stop care for children and young people who need social services.

Walsh has covered children's issues for more than six years for the Portland Press Herald. In addition to her work on "Castaway Children," she has researched and written a series of articles on alcohol abuse in Maine that included a look at how alcohol abuse affects families. She also writes an ongoing feature, "On the Verge," about young people on the brink of adulthood.

This Anna Quindlen Award is presented to broadcast journalists who have demonstrated a commitment to reporting on the issues most important to children and families. The award is named for the former New York Times reporter and op-ed columnist, novelist, and Newsweek contributor, Anna Quindlen. Ms. Quindlen received the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for distinguished commentary.

CWLA also announces a new award, the 2003 Award for Distinguished Print Journalism in Behalf of Children and Families. This year CWLA honors a number of Florida journalists who work for the Sun-Sentinel, including Shana Gruskin, Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz, and Dana Marrero.

During the past three and a half years, reporter Shana Gruskin has written about such issues as welfare reform, child support, and the plight of abused and neglected children, always with a focus on the stories of individual children. Shana was one of the first reporters to cover the case of Rilya Wilson, the missing foster child whose name became known nationwide last summer. The national media picked up on the story, and Shana appeared on the Fox network to discuss the case. Other stories she covered this past year include the case of a 13-year old caught in a custody battle between mother and grandmother and the case of a disabled adopted child whose parents had been investigated for abuse and neglect ten times in 15 years.

With the revelation that the Florida Department of Children and Families could not account for 532 children under its care, reporters Sally Kestin, Megan O'Matz, and Diana Marrero, set out to learn if these children were truly missing or only forgotten by those responsible for their care. With the use of directory assistance, police reports, and relatives and neighbors, the reporters quickly located nine of the missing children. They also discovered that missing person reports had not been filed for years, records were often incomplete and riddled with errors, and in many cases, the Florida Department did not have photographs of the missing children. The reporters' findings led Governor Bush to appoint a task force to locate the missing children. Subsequently, child welfare officials in Los Angeles, Michigan, Texas, Connecticut, and Illinois revealed that they also had runaway and unaccounted for children, and began efforts to locate and account for all the children under their care.

The Distinguished Print Journalism recognizes print journalists who have also demonstrated a commitment to reporting on issues most important to children and families.

The awards will be presented to winners at a dinner on March 6, 2003, during CWLA's national conference in Washington, DC. The annual dinner attracts over 1,000 child advocates, representatives from Capitol Hill, national child-serving organizations, foster parents, and others from across the country.

Child Welfare League of America

Established in 1920, CWLA has nearly 1,200 public and voluntary member agencies that provide direct services to abused, neglected, abandoned, and otherwise vulnerable children and their families. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the organization is a leading advocate for quality child welfare services and federal legislation to benefit children and families, trains thousands of social workers and conducts numerous conferences and meetings each year, develops child abuse treatment and prevention strategies, conducts original research, and is the oldest and largest publisher of child welfare materials in North America. Additional information can be found on the League's website at http://www.cwla.org.