Starr Commonwealth CEO Marty Mitchell was awarded the Samuel Gerson Nordlinger Child Welfare Leadership Award by the Milwaukee-based Alliance for Children and Families, a membership group representing 360 youth and family service providers around the country.
The award, which comes with a $1,000 cash award, is made each year by the Alliance to “recognize an individual who makes a significant impact on public opinion and awareness about children’s issues and services.”
Mitchell has led the century-old Starr Commonwealth, which operates prevention, foster care and residential programs in Michigan and Ohio, since 2004. He started his career in youth services as a case worker for the organization in 1970.
Mitchell co-authored “No Disposable Kids,” an influential book on building resiliency in troubled youths, in 2001. Starr turned the basic tenets of that book into a copyrighted training program it provides to schools and nonprofits through its Starr Training division.