Local Hero Award for 2019 Presentation to Cate Lazen

A couple of years ago, the Social Action Committee decided to begin to recognize the many acts and projects and behind-the-scenes work that take place every day to move us towards a more just world for ourselves and our children. We instituted a Local Hero Award to be presented yearly to someone who has enriched the lives of our community and region with ethical values and actions. Through this award, the Committee gives recognition and publicity to the individual and to the work and organizations that the honoree values. Previous honorees have included Bennet Zurofsky, Ingrid S. Hill, Widney Brown, and Susan Barry.
This year’s award goes to Cate Lazen. The Committee deeply respects her twenty-five years of experience designing and facilitating educational and therapeutic experiences that empower people of all ages in schools, homes, communities and workplaces. We particularly want to honor her as the founder of Arts Unbound, which helps people of all ages living with disabilities to express themselves and earn money through the visual arts. And as the founder of the arts-based urban renewal movement called ValleyArts, which redefined the former hat factory area of Orange, NJ, as an arts destination, stimulated the local economy, activated community development, beautified blighted streets and provided after school programs for underserved youth.

Cate Lazen is an Educational Psychologist, School Social Worker and Clinician who partners with individuals, children and families who are dealing with academic, behavioral, developmental, social or emotional challenges at home or at school; divorce or marital/family conflict; trauma, crises, grief or loss.

She currently works in the South Orange/Maplewood, New Jersey school district providing psychotherapy, social/emotional skills training, advocacy and parenting support.