Prevent Child Abuse Vermont is very pleased to announce its first ever Lifetime Achievement Award to Morrisville resident David Yacovone. Prevent Child Abuse Vermont Executive Director Linda Johnson said in announcing the award “for nearly forty-five years Dave Yacovone has made it his business to help others, especially the most vulnerable among us, our children and older Vermonters.”
Yacovone’s career started upon graduation from Johnson State College when he went to work in Morrisville helping disadvantaged Vermonters secure employment. He became the Chief Counselor of the Barre Champlain Valley Work and Training Programs before returning to Morrisville to work at Copley Hospital as Personnel Director. Over the next twenty years he worked in health care as a Nursing Home administrator, including eight years at the Greensboro Nursing Home.
While at the Greensboro Nursing Home, Yacovone served two terms in the Vermont House of Representatives before being appointed Commissioner of Aging and Disabilities by Governor Howard Dean. He implemented the “Shift the Balance” legislation he was one of the lead legislative sponsors of, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars being redirected from institutional care to home and community based services.
Yacovone worked as an administrator within the Agency of Human Services for many years overseeing a number of programs including planning, refugee resettlement, personnel,information technology and budgeting, before being appointed by Governor Peter Shumlin as Commissioner for the Vermont Department for Children and Families, (DCF) where he oversaw a department with 1000 employees and a $400 million budget. Dave returned to human services upon leaving DCF for several years before retiring from state service in 2016, when he returned to the Vermont Legislature where he has served on the House Appropriations Committee for the last four years.
Over the span of Dave’s eight year legislative career he has been recognized for his outstanding legislative service by eight different organizations. Upon receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award Dave said, “I am humbled and honored that Prevent Child Abuse Vermont would recognize the work I have done to be of service. I hope I can do more”!
