Y’Bray Reid is a 2023-2024 KidsFirst Award Winner

The Juvenile Welfare Board believes those who work to give children brighter futures deserve recognition. This year, we’ll be honoring four new KidsFirst award winners, and we were pleased to publicly announce our second 2023-2024 KidsFirst Awardee at the February 15, 2024, JWB Board meeting after a surprise award presentation by our Chief Program Officer, Karen Boggess, during a City of St. Pete Parks & Rec staff meeting earlier in the month.

An outstanding social service professional who consistently goes above and beyond to put children first, Y’Bray Reid is a Teen Camp Supervisor, which means she’s responsible for the direct supervision of children at the Campbell Park Center for the City of St. Pete’s out-of-school time program.

In her role, Y’Bray plans and implements daily activities, field trips, service projects, and learning opportunities for program youth. She welcomes all students and families to the program with open arms and is the village that everyone should have behind them. She attends meetings at school alongside parents to establish healthy solutions to behavioral issues, serving as that connection between school and home.

Her caring attention keeps kids actively engaged and eager to attend programming every day, and her impact can be quantified. Since she joined the team, program enrollment numbers and daily attendance have doubled. Children volunteer for impact projects on the weekends, and they’re joining sports leagues that they have never tried before!

Y’Bray started “give-back fieldtrips” on the weekends to teach children to lead with a giving heart. In the beginning, program youth were skeptical about giving up their Saturdays for community service. But now teen volunteers fill a 15-passenger van, and Y’Bray’s servant leadership is having a ripple effect!

As Y’Bray’s supervisor wrote in her nomination: “Y’Bray is a WHOLE VIBE—and her waves are starting to show!” We certainly agree; please join us in congratulating our remarkable KidsFirst Awardee!

View the Facebook album containing photos from both award announcements.