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John's usual--
The CLI featured staff of the week this time around is Haven and I wanted to take a minute to give her a bit of extra credit. She came to us while she was in grad school and then stuck with us after graduation. OTs are a hot commodity, so this was clearly a choice. I'm 57 and at the tail end of my career in the DD field. I really appreciate Haven's youth & enthusiasm. She's definitely indicative of the future of our field and I'm excited to see Holly & Haven lead CLI in the years to come. Full disclosure, I'm working a 3 year plan, so you're all stuck with me until June of 2027 unless the Board and/or Holly give me the boot sooner. I'm confident that the next 3 years will be a smooth transition as we start shifting me a bit more in the background. I think about serendipity quite a bit and it's interesting how the timing of everything works out as you look back. My biggest strength is probably managing uncertainty & chaos. However, my biggest liability is probably that I'm disruptive (not in a a cool, tech billionaire kind of way). My skillsets were useful as we privatized and then again through the pandemic and the 2 years following. However, I think the DD field is ready for a shift into a business and service model that will benefit from Holly & Haven's strengths more. This is a good thing. Growth and maturity are good things-- both for people and for businesses. I'm excited about this next phase of CLI.
Speaking of excited-- we just bought gold Cedar Point passes for Roxanne & Grace. They will be running regular Friday & Saturday trips to the park-- both for young kids still in high school and for adults who are community employed and are looking for ways to spend their hard-earned cash with their friends. We're working out exactly how to market these new opportunities. I know from my multiple decades of experience working in a traditional sheltered workshop setting that often a community job fails only because people are lonely and quit so that they can return to the day program because that's where their friends are. If we want community employment to be sustainable, we have to support the person's social life too. The biggest part of the problem is figuring out how to encourage people to ask for something that currently isn't offered. The next leap forward happens when people want more than what our system currently offers. The good thing about Ohio is that our laws and our money are already set up to support this. Now we just need people to want more.
Apparently all about the soapboxing this week. Apologies. Have a great week. Sailing starts for me this week and I've really missed it. We're working with the Sandusky Sailing Club to plan more adaptive sailing trips again this season. So if you'd also like to get on the water without an engine-- let us know!
Have a great week!
John
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