By JON WILSON, Consulting Editor, TB Reporter

In addition, the board awards financial assistance to three young people formerly in foster care. 

ST. PETERSBURG — Social service professionals were honored recently by the Juvenile Welfare Board for making a positive difference in the lives of Pinellas County youngsters.

Those received the Cooperman-Bogue KidsFirst Award were Michael Putzulu with Suncoast Center Inc.; Adrienne Butler with Directions for Living; Ann Miller with Florida Department of Health Pinellas; Eric Harvey with Personal Enrichment through Mental Health Services; Marcie Biddleman, JWB executive director; and Julie Weintraub, founder of Hands Across The Bay, corporate sponsor of the H. Browning Spence Education Awards.

All the honorees have worked for yeas to help youngsters in the community to better their lives and create positive futures. The award is named for attorney Leonard Cooperman and Judge Lincoln C. Bogue, who helped create Pinellas County’s Juvenile Welfare Board in 1945.

The board also awarded financial assistance to three young adults to further their education. Receiving the H. Browning Spence Education Award were Wendy Stewart, 17; Eddie Harman, 21; and Hillary Boyd, 18. The award, named for the late JWB deputy director, goes to promising young people who have been part of the foster care system.

The JWB has Pinellas County roots since 1945, says the agency’s web site. It was conceived by a juvenile court judge, an attorney, a concerned group of professionals and some private citizens who were unhappy with the lack of resources and services being provided to at-risk youth and families.  Established by statute in 1945 and approved overwhelmingly by voters in a referendum in 1946, the JWB was created with a mission to provide needed services to children throughout Pinellas County.

Pinellas County | Juvenile Welfare Board Cooperman-Bogue KidsFirst Award | H. Browning Spence Education Award | TB Reporter

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