The Cameron Award for

Outstanding Community Collaboration

The Cameron Award for Outstanding Community Collaboration is presented annually to organizations, individuals, and emerging leaders that embrace collaboration and epitomize a commitment to working across multiple sectors of the community.  Established in 2005, the Award is named after Charlie Cameron to honor his leadership and to inspire others to embrace the collaborative vision he repeatedly demonstrated.  Mr. Cameron was the Washington County Administrator from 1986 to 2005 and a founding Board member of the Vision Action Network.

2008 Cameron Award Winners

Vision Action Network of Washington County is proud to announce the winners of the 2008 Cameron Award for Outstanding Community Collaboration.  The 2008 awards were granted in three categories:

Individual

Dave Nutt, Water Resources Coordinator (retired), Clean Water Services

Dave has been highlighted in newspaper articles for a variety of collaborative leadership activities, from community tree planting to cleanup of homeless camps.  Most notably, Dave spearheaded the salvage of the only Bald Eagle nest in the nation, which is now on exhibit at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Education Center.  His nominator says, “Dave Nutt surely deserves recognition for his outstanding leadership, superb cross-sector collaboration and making a huge difference in the community.”  Dave retired from CWS in March after three decades of work in Washington County.

Organizational

There were two organizational award winners in 2008:

Intel 4-H Tech Wizards

Reflective of 4-H’s evolution as the county changes, this program reflects “outside the box” work with youth grades 7-12 who are diverse in their backgrounds and are at high-risk for school drop-out.  It is heavily collaborative in nature and involves local non-profits, government, and business entities to bring math, science, and technology education enrichment experiences for almost 400 kids annually.  Its incredible outcomes (97% of participants graduate high school and enroll in college) also make it worthy of this award.

Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Clinic & LifeWorks NW

In 2004, Virginia Garcia and LifeWorks NW collaborated to design a mental health and Latino primary care access project. By its third year, the program proved to be so successful that it hired additional staff and expanded to more Virginia Garcia clinics.  Then in 2007, when community partners approached Virginia Garcia to run a school-based health center at Tigard High School, the existing partnership allowed Virginia Garcia and LifeWorks to provide the same coordinated, comprehensive care through this new program for students.  According to their nominators, their collaboration has “revolutionized” their approach to comprehensive, integrated care and allowed them to serve more people in need by leveraging their talents together.

Emerging Leader

Kim Krohn, Shelter and Housing Manager, Good Neighbor Center

According to her nominator, “In the short few years that I have known Kim Krohn, I’ve observed her passion and commitment to making a difference in the community, in particular, addressing homelessness in Washington County.”  Kim led and coordinated the first Project Homeless Connect in 2007 and has been the driving force behind the heavily-collaborative event ever since.  She also chairs the Homelessness Sub-Committee of the HSSN, serves on the board of directors for the DVRC and her local chamber of commerce, and organized a workshop session about domestic violence for this year’s Faith Forum.  In the words of her nominator, “the work she has done is truly the testament to an emerging community leader.”

Past Cameron Award Winners

2007:  Linda Moholt (Individual); Good Neighbor Center (Organization); Linda Nilsen-Solares (Emerging Leader)

2006:  Sabino Sardineta (Individual); Jackson Bottoms Wetlands Preserve (Organization); Wendy Dorival, (Emerging Leader)

2005 (inaugural awards):  Charlie Cameron (Individual); Washington County Board of Commissioners (Organization)