April 2023 e~newsletter-SSV

e~Newsletter

April 2023

We are pleased to share with you some updates – and some smiling faces showing how our clients and our employees SHINE!

Sunshine Village – where GREAT days begin!

JOIN US AT THESE COMMUNITY EVENTS!

Sunshine Village is participating in these community events – come say hello and see how together, we are SHINING EVEN BRIGHTER!

May 3^rd - H/C DDS Transition Fair at The Moose Family Center in Chicopee

May 6th - Come meet some of our artists at the Open Studio event in the Indian Orchard Mills from 12pm-4pm. We will be in Studio 425

May 7^th - Join us in celebrating the creativity of the people we serve by purchasing a handmade item crafted by artists with distinct abilities at the Artisan Emporium located at the Steaming Tender Restaurant in Palmer from 11am-4pm

May 18th - Springfield SPED Transition Fair at Central High School in Springfield

CONGRATULATIONS

WESTOVER MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS!

The Program Manager and Working Supervisors of our commercial cleaning company, Westover Maintenance Systems, were recently recognized by the Citizen Advisory Board of the Holyoke/Chicopee Area Office of the Department of Developmental Services for their work as First Responders during the COVID crisis. Congratulations to Joe, Dave, Tammy, Scott, Mike, Mike, Mike and Samantha – for maintaining Sunshine Village’s federal SourceAmerica contract so that all clients could return to their jobs upon our reopening.

STRATEGIC PLANNING:

Sunshine Village is planning for our future! At a meeting in April, the members of the Board of Directors committed Sunshine Village to the following MISSION STATEMENT: Sunshine Village delivers on a GREAT day for individuals with developmental disabilities and those on the autism spectrum by helping them to live and learn, work and earn and give and grow.

Work will now continue in developing our VISION as well as ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS and STRATEGIES for the upcoming fiscal year.

As part of our planning efforts, Sunshine Village has made the difficult decision to suspend accepting any new referrals or welcoming back any more returning clients until some work can be done to overcome workforce crisis issues that have impacted the agency. The following message has been sent to our funding sources:

As Sunshine Village moves forward from the global pandemic – we are grappling with on-going challenges from the workforce crisis / shortage. From discussions with management and the Board of Directors, we have decided it is best for the future of the organization for us now to take some time to assess our service provision and appraise our own workforce so that we can truly achieve our vision of being both a premiere provider of services for people with disabilities as well as an employer of choice for caring professionals.

Given this, coming out of the Emergency Closing, Reopening and Rebuilding phases, SSV will now begin a new phase – the REGROUPING phase. During this phase, while we will continue to serve over 390 clients who have returned to us - we will – unfortunately - NOT be accepting any new referrals or returning clients.

We will be undertaking many initiatives as we prepare the organization to welcome back more clients in the future.

We will provide periodic updates to all of our stakeholders, COMMUNICATING our progress in overcoming the challenges we have been struggling with over the past several years – but which have intensified over the past several months.

We remain hopeful – knowing that the future of Sunshine Village is BRIGHT.

Thank you for understanding this difficult decision that had to be made – and thank you for your continued support of Sunshine Village.

LOOKING FORWARD TO OUR GOLF TOURNAMENT!

Plans are well underway for the 34^th Annual Sunshine Village Golf Tournament. The roster is already full – with our golfers looking forward to a fun day at the Chicopee Country Club on August 2, 2023. We are still soliciting for sponsorships. If you would like to support tour event, please visit the Golf Page on our website at www.sunshine.us or click below :

Click here to Sponsor

GOODWILL / COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Promotion! Our commercials have started running! Watch WWLP Channel 22 or The CW – and you will see our smiling faces! We are sharing the message that GREAT days begin at SSV!

April is Autism Awareness Month:

SSV helped to promote both awareness and acceptance with many initiatives during April to celebrate Autism Awareness. We raised flags in Chicopee and Agawam and visited with many First Responders. We also created an interactive art exhibit in Chicopee City Hall – and it will continue to be on display through May.

SPECIAL THANKS TO POLICE SARGEANT MISSY LYMAN…

We are so grateful for the partnership we have with the City of Chicopee’s Police Department – and especially wanted to thank Sgt, Lyman for her work to help with education, awareness and acceptance of people on the autism spectrum. We presented her with some gifts from Sunshine Village – just to let her know we think she SHINES!

Fire Hydrant Project:

We will be kicking off our Fire Hydrant project again this Spring – where our artists from the Casey Program will be painting fire hydrants throughout the City of Chicopee. This year, we have selected hydrants that are near our community and business partners. Here is a sampling of the hydrants we painted in the Spring and Summer of 2022 – and we look forward to sharing our new creations with you soon!

SERVICES:

We continue working on our Inclusion efforts – and helping our clients to engage in our community.

We are so proud of Lenny and Stephen as they both continue to be very successful at their jobs at the Irish Cultural Center and Westfield State University.

Many of our clients in our CBDS programs volunteer at local charities and with municipalities to gain skills as they work toward their first job – or a better job.

We appreciate our community partners!

Bringing the Community to Us is a great way for our clients in our Day Habilitation sited programs to engage with artists and wellness professionals. Our newest partner, The Ben and Ed Show, has already become a big hit with everyone!

Mad Science Monday -an activity that was requested by a few of our clients – is now being enjoyed by so many!

HUMAN RESOURCES:

We have several DSP positions that are open – and we are now also recruiting for one driver and a float RN. If you know someone who would like to have GREAT days while helping people SHINE – ask them to check out our website at www.sunshine.us.

Our NEXT Appreciation Bonus:

In 2022, we gave out over $7,000 in bonus money to all staff, including DSPs. We have another bonus planned - $1,500 to be given out to active employees on June 30, 2023 (and $750 for new employees who join us between January 15^th and June 29^th.)

THANK YOU for helping Sunshine Village achieve our mission –

AND our promise of delivering on a GREAT day, every day!

Together, we are SHINING EVEN BRIGHTER!

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