Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services President & CEO Honored

California Alliance of Child and Family Services Recognizes Lena Wilson with Inaugural Cher Ofstedahl Legacy Award

Sacramento, Calif —The California Alliance of Child and Family Services (CA Alliance) today presented Lena Wilson, President and CEO of Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services, with the inaugural Cher Ofstedahl Legacy Award: Warrior for Children and Families. The award was announced at the CA Alliance's Stronger Together conference in Anaheim.

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The Cher Ofstedahl Legacy Award was created to honor the memory of Cheryllynne "Cher" Ofstedahl, former CEO of Trinity Youth Services and the Children's Foundation of America. For more than two decades, Cher led organizations that supported vulnerable children, youth, and families while shaping child and family services policy at the state and national levels. She was known as much for her courage and integrity as for her humor, her creative spirit, and her refusal to stay quiet when children needed a strong advocate.

"This award was created because Cher's spirit lives on," said Pete Weldy, CEO, CA Alliance. "Lena Wilson has spent her career proving what happens when someone refuses to accept a system as it is and instead insists on building something better. Lena's impact has been felt by children and families for decades, and we will continue to see the effects of her work for decades to come. There is no one more deserving of being the first person to carry Cher's name forward, and I could not be prouder to call her our inaugural winner."

The award recognizes a child and family services advocate who exemplifies sustained dedication, warrior spirit, lived integrity, mentorship, systemic impact, and humanity, the same qualities that defined Cher's career and her approach to the work.

Wilson was selected from a statewide pool of nominations for a career defined by challenging systems that fail children and families, rather than simply working within them. Early in her career, as a 19-year-old youth specialist, Wilson formed a bond with a young boy whose resilience despite a life marked by abuse and neglect changed the course of her career and set her on a lifelong mission to advocate for children who cannot advocate for themselves.

That mission led Wilson to one of the defining moments of her career. While working in Michigan with a program serving pregnant and parenting teens, Wilson confronted a law that automatically separated minor mothers from their babies, placing infants directly into foster care. Rather than accept that outcome, she proposed and helped build a new model, one that allowed young mothers to remain with their babies under supervision while receiving parenting support. Wilson worked with the state to bring the model to life, and it became a turning point in how Michigan approached minor mothers and their children.

Beyond her direct impact on policy and practice, Wilson has spent her career building the next generation of leaders. She has mentored women throughout the field, many of whom remain directors and organizational leaders today, and she currently facilitates a Leaders of Color group focused on building community and opportunity for emerging leaders of color in child and family services.

"Words can't express how humbled I am to receive this recognition, because I am so mindful of whose name it carries. Cher was a fierce advocate for children and families who understood that meaningful change rarely comes from working with the systems that we inherit. She lived her life with the courage to question those systems, the persistence to challenge them, and a responsibility to build something better- and she wasn't afraid to make good trouble to do so. Her legacy is a call to action for all of us, to never grow comfortable with systems that fall short of what children and families deserve and never stop making good trouble to change them," said Wilson.

The Cher Ofstedahl Legacy Award will be presented annually at Stronger Together, honoring an advocate each year who carries Cher's full spirit forward. Nominations for the 2027 award will open in the coming year.

About the California Alliance: The collective voice for organizations that serve children, youth, and families. For those dedicated to improving the lives of these at-risk populations, the California Alliance stands apart as the champion and leading voice for organizations that advocate for children, youth, and families and for advancing policy and services on their behalf.

Vista Del Mar is a 117-year-old Four Star Charity Navigator-rated social services agency providing wraparound vital programs and therapeutic services that improve the mental health and wellbeing of Los Angeles children and families in crisis. Vistadelmar.org