If You See Them: A Conversation with Vicki Sokolik

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Vicki Sokolik is the Founder and CEO of Starting Right, Now (SRN), a pioneering, comprehensive program in two counties of Florida that provides social and health services to unhoused students who are not living with a parent or guardian and are not safeguarded by foster care. Sokolik has co-authored and amended legislation to pass ten bills protecting unaccompanied youth statewide. In acknowledgment of her work, she was recognized as a CNN Hero (2019), was an AARP Purpose Prize Fellow, was a recipient of the Foundation for Improvement of Justice’s Paul H. Chapman Gold Medal, and was honored by the Junior League of Tampa Bay with its 1926 Legacy Award. She has also been recognized by Lightning Community Heroes and Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders Program, and is the recipient of the Humana Communities Benefit Award. She has served on Florida’s Independent Living Services Advisory Council. SRN is the first and only nonprofit to win the WEDU Be More Award twice for Nonprofit of the Year, in 2012 and 2018. Florida Blue gave SRN the 2021 Sapphire Award, and in 2022, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation honored SRN with an award for Advancing Minority Mental Health. For more on Vicki Sokolik, go to https://www.vickisokolik.com/