Crittenton Employee Honored as an Orange County Leader

Earlier this month OC Human Relations, an Orange County nonprofit whose mission is to foster mutual understanding among residents, resolve conflict and pursue equality, honored the outstanding work of local individuals and groups at its Annual AWARDS 2018 Celebration and Fundraiser at the City National Grove of Anaheim.

The event recognized six honorees among them Estera Borcsa, Clinical Director of Crittenton’s Wraparound Program from our Pomona office, who received the Diverse Community Leader Award. The Diverse Community Leader Award honors an individual or group who have made extraordinary contributions to Orange County in human or civil rights.

Estera Borcsa is well respected among our staff and has extensive experience in treating emotional trauma in a mental health services arena as well as working collaboratively on issues in need of conflict resolution expertise within the community. Estera has been in the “helping” field since high school; her mission in life is to be a voice for the voiceless.

Social justice is of the utmost importance to Estera; she can envision the big picture when it comes to public policy and how it influences the lives of vulnerable communities. She works diligently to improve institutional racism and disparity in her community, country and internationally.

Estera has been working with Orange County Human Relations since high school, facilitating anti-bullying campaigns through their BRIDGES high school program, and has continued to work with OCHR by participating in Restorative Justice Circles, Community Mediations, Orange County courts Mediations and presenting an Orange County Mediation Conference.

After graduating high school, Estera earned a Master’s Degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in Mental Health and Conflict Resolution. She has since worked with several Orange County agencies working with system-involved youth, representing foster youth at advocacy hearings, working with families and young adults with severe trauma and providing mental health therapy to children and families at Providence Community Services, Southern California Children’s Bureau, Olive Crest and Crittenton Services for Children and Families.

As one of the current Clinical Directors at Crittenton Services she manages mental health programming and is responsible for creating an environment of well-being for the youth Crittenton serves, among them, foster youth, juvenile justice youth and refugee youth.

Estera also has considerable international experience. She is a United Nations Ambassador and works as Chair of the Sustainable Development World Goals for Conflict Resolution and Global Peace Building for Mediation Beyond Borders International (MBBI). She presented an artistic “spoken word” piece at the United Nations Headquarters in 2017, on the topic of women’s empowerment. In fact, she has subsequently presented this spoken word piece at many community events and universities and is in the process of creating a mini film series on “Women as Agents of Change”. Working with MBBI, Estera was a European Union Delegate for the Romanian Consulate and Embassy. As a European Union Delegate she helped create a coalition to provide policy recommendations to the Romanian delegation in order to break through barriers and help them implement the Sustainable Development World Goals, by building a resilient infrastructure, promoting human rights and working toward gender equity.

In addition, she has also participated in international peace building efforts in Europe, and attended the International Congress 2015 with an international delegation of advocates, political world leaders and international peace builders. Estera was invited to the Peace Palace, The International Court of Justice in Europe, for an international congress in 2017 with world leaders developing a framework for worldwide conflict resolution and peace.

Needless to say we are proud to have Estera as part of the Crittenton family. We still don’t know how Estera seamlessly manages career, family and community advocacy efforts, but we are honored to be associated with a colleague who serves as a positive role model in our community!

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Crittenton Services for Children and Families of Southern California (CSCF) is a non-profit social services agency whose mission is to heal the wounds of abuse and neglect; strengthen families; and help troubled adolescents reach their full potential. Established and incorporated in 1966 Crittenton has a highly trained workforce operating 24 hours a day / 7 days a week providing comprehensive mental health services, shelter care, and other support services to the clients in our care. We provide a full array of short-term residential services, in-home, community-based programming, wraparound family services, outpatient mental health, transitional age youth programming, foster care, and adoption services with a service planning area throughout Southern California that covers Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego Counties.

Visit www.crittentonsocal.org to learn more about our programs and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram,  LinkedIn, and Flickr