OAKLAND PARK, Fla. (Jan. 21st, 2015) – Firewall Centers was nominated as a finalist for the fifth annual South Florida Community Care Network Non-Profit Academy Awards for its collective work with others to overall positively and significantly impact youth in Broward County.

Winners will be announced at the Non-Profit Academy Awards on Friday, Feb. 13^th at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at 11:00 a.m. The recipient of this award is a shining example of the power that best practices, shared information, collective efforts, and accountability and transparency have in transforming the lives of youth.

Firewall Centers was chosen as one of three nominees for the Children’s Service Council Collective Impact for Youth Award because of its collaboration with the Community Foundation of Broward (CFB) as a part of its “School is Cool” initiative that focuses on middle school student success in order to raise graduation rates from 75.3% to 90% by 2020.

Firewall staff shared some of its program’s best practices with CFB and other key stakeholders to develop an outcome criteria now being used by nonprofit agencies to effectively demonstrate measurable and significant benefits for youth. Specifically, outcomes are focused on improving student performance in the areas of school attendance, behavior, and course performance (ABC’s).

At the 2014 Academy Awards, Firewall Centers was named Non-Profit Organization of the Year Rising Star by 2-1-1 Broward, displaying that although it is “young and small,” the organizations’ “potential for growth and impact is high.”

2-11 Borward is the first call for help for Broward County residents and the gateway to health and human services in our community. Last year, 2-11 Broward connected nearly 101,000 Broward County callers with over 4,000 different programs that were available to help them.