Ruthlyn Webster, LCSW, ACSW, is currently the Director of Programs at Kristi House, where she oversees the Clinical, Case Coordination and Comprehensive Assessment Departments. Ms. Webster has been with Kristi House for six and a half years. Previously Ms. Webster was the Programs Director at Louise Wise Services for Children & Families, a Child Abuse Prevention Program in New York City where she worked for fifteen years. Ms. Webster is a native of Jamaica and is a champion of children and family causes. She has worked successfully with a diverse ethnic population focusing on issues that threaten family stability. The goal of her work is to empower families to improve the quality of family life.

Ms. Webster founded and facilitated the Louise Wise Services sixteen-week parenting skills curriculum known as “WISE PARENTS”. She enjoyed teaching and watching the evolution of parents (who are initially angry at the courts referral) as they discover the rewards of positive, sensitive, responsive parenting and secure emotional family relationships. She was also co-founder of the agency Black and Latino Teen Male/Female Group designed to inspire and restore teens adjudicated delinquent in the development of their maximum potential.

Her life role as a social worker, programs director, trainer and field instructor focused on enhancing the lives of children and families as well as empowering families to become change agents of their life circumstances. Ms. Webster counts it a privilege to touch the lives of so many both in the religious and secular world in her role as a Social Worker and Minister.

Ms. Webster obtained her BA Degree in Psychology from Mary Mount College, Tarrytown, New York and her MSW degree from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service in New York. She is pursuing her Doctoral Degree initially started at Fordham University, where she served as President of the Fordham University GSS Alumni Board for four years. In 1998, she was awarded the “African American Women Get It Done” award from the National Council of Negro Women Inc., Queens New York Chapter, for her outstanding work with children, families and communities. She also received the Ralph DeMayo Alumni Award in 2005 from Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, for Excellence in Social Work Practice.

About Kristi House

Kristi House, Inc., is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) corporation that serves as the accredited Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) for Miami-Dade County. Created and operating based on the national, best practices model for CACs, Kristi House serves approximately 800 child victims of sexual abuse and their non-offending caregivers annually on an outpatient basis. Kristi House provides comprehensive case coordination and therapeutic services for children and their families, as well as education and prevention programs and comprehensive behavioral assessments.

About the Evaluation Project

My evaluation project will focus on developing a methodology to determine the effectiveness of our therapeutic interventions for sexually abused children across different demographic indicators. While we have adopted a best practice therapy intervention, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CPT), and we have instituted tools to evaluate the effectiveness of that intervention, we have not been able to develop a method and system of hypothesizing evaluation questions, organizing data, and producing findings. In our clinical practice we are currently utilizing the Achenbach (CBCL) parent, teacher and self report; the Briere (TSCC) self report.