Nadia Finkelstein Obituary

Nadia was a tremendous inspiration for many of us who came to Parsons Child & Family Center (now Northern Rivers Family of Services) in the early 1980's. She inspired me by always reminding me that "we set the standard for children's services in residential care" for youth. In other words we must give our best and most creative efforts to the individuals in our care. She backed up this mantra by providing ongoing training for all staff at Parsons to continuously educate us to provide a therapeutic environment and experience for the youth and families in our care. She also created the Sydney Albert Training Institute which held its annual Training Day for many years on the Academy Road Campus that attracted many local, statewide and national professionals from the field of child care and family work to attend and present. She was always a relentless advocate for the most needy families and children in our care always respecting the dignity of each individual. She is always in my heart when I deal with people...

I proudly worked under Nadia's fair, firm and wise leadership for 10 years at what was at first called the Albany Home for Children and soon became Parsons Child and Family Center. She had a vision for how to improve child and family services and always kept us on course. Training the staff and professionalizing child care were high on the list. Years after I left Parson's Residential Program a young man who lived in the cottage where I worked and then went on to foster care, told me that the care he received in Wasson Cottage was the closest he ever came to having a good family experience. That is a sad commentary on foster care but it reflects what I saw in the wonderful care the child care staff gave to the troubled children the cottages. Nadia's guidance and appreciation for the staff played a big part of making that happen.