CLI Incorporated

P.O. Box 508

Norwalk, Ohio 44857

CLIsupports.com

419-706-5137

Week of September 16th, 2024

One of our newest volunteer sites is with "Love Grows Love". These volunteer opportunities are great for skill-building & connection-making, but it's often a lot of real work!

The Usual--

Thanks to everyone at CLI for doing so well without me while I was gone for 2 whole weeks!. Honestly, there was was no doubt that the team under Holly & Haven alone would do fine. While an agency like ours might need someone in my position-- and that person's actions/decisions are important to the agency-- the reality is that all the other staff positions are more consequential in terms of the daily operations. I do my best to be useful to my coworkers, but much of what my job entails is way deep in the background. I think it's a problem when organizations/companies ignore that the real value of any company is in the deliverables. CLI is extremely important to have such a great team and I am proud to be part of it!

It took me a while to catch on to "Flat John". Pretty funny stuff! It's the new risk of taking vacation apparently. Holly is out this coming week, so look for "Flat Holly's" escapades in next week's newsletter!

CLI believes that it's important to be a flexible employer that supports all of our staff to have well-balanced, well-rounded lives. As part of this, we encourage our people to take time off to spend with their families and/or to travel. However, this does create some operational hurdles as we progress further and further along the path to customized, person-centered services instead of the old-school, large group stuff because it's harder to swap staff out AND it just takes more people to deliver smaller-group, personalized services. I'm very proud of how well the CLI team is rolling with all the individual staff schedule tweaks as we get through the tail end of the summer vacation season. Summer is always a tough time because more people tend to take vacations then-- and because CLI participates in OOD's Summer Youth initiatives every year in June & early July. I think we've done a good job as an agency being that proverbial duck who looks calm above the water, but is paddling like crazy underneath. I do know that there have been a few snafus that have required some patience on the part of our clients, their families & their providers. Thank you for that patience. The reality is that I don't think we'll ever return to that traditional service model-- but I do think we'll continue to get better and better at coordinating the individualized services that we want people to expect.

It's good to be back! There is a lot of COVID and Flu going around. I spent all of last week wearing a mask at work and other public places. It was not fun. Let's remember those skills we learned in 2020 & 2021-- especially the handwashing and help keep each other well! That's all I've got! Have a great week!

-John

Interested in hanging out with your friends on the weekend? Check out our new THRIVE Program!

DID YOU KNOW THAT

CLI offers an HPC after hours service-- "Thursday Date Night" support service? If you've got a significant other or a platonic bestie that you'd like to hit the town with, we can help you spend that hard-earned cabbage!

Thanks to the DODD ADS Quality Pilot Grant, CLI has a whole fresh new curriculum around technology and social media training-- including a lending library of 5G iPads that people can sign out and take home!

Tell Haven in you want to learn more.

Don't forget that CLI will help you plan & do fun stuff with your friends!



Don't be shy!

We finally replaced the "Big Green Shred Truck" thanks to another grant from the Ohio EPA!

Firelands Local LLC



James Johnson

james@firelandslocal.com

419-921-6400

The Good News from the Good Works Cafe--

Darlene was the winner this week! Thanks Darlene!

Last weeks winner was Donna. She was too busy multitasking to pose for a pic. Thanks Donna!

This week we literally ran out of food! We served 67 meals. Thanks to our fantastic GWC crew they were able to pack and deliver the meals in 20 minutes!! Great job!

CLI's Good Works Cafe offers a free community lunch every Friday afternoon at the Norwalk Reservoir,

staffed entirely by volunteers with DD

with food donated by OHgo and other community partners!

GWC group working hard to get the meals ready for everyone!

Question of the week



Q: I heard that my job at the workshop is going to change after Labor Day? Is that true?

A: CLI & Firelands Local LLC are making some changes to our Vocational Habilitation (VH) Schedule. If you are a Firelands Local employee who doesn't receive any CLI VH services to help you work at the workshop, Black & Decker, or one of Firelands Local's other worksite-- these changes will not affect you.

But-- if you are participating in CLI VH services, then yes there will be some schedule changes as CLI works to improve our compliance with the DODD mandate that we're actively helping people progress on their path to employment. We know that paid work is an important training tool, so there will still be plenty of good old-fashioned shift work. However, there will also be more educational and career exploration aspects to our Vocational Habilitation program, so we will be more aggressively coordinating paid work schedules with those other components so that the workshop functions like a more typical workplace.

If you want more working hours, CLI will help you negotiate with James Johnson of Firelands Local LLC. However, be prepared to talk about your productivity, your attendance, and your behavior in the workplace. Employers pay attention to both of those things.

Shared Videos of the week: