Imagine That...January 2022

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Abra going home for a visit.

Briana, Tanya and Hanna rhyme at Christmas time.

Ryan opening a present

Ron's happy Holiday

Cindy Celebrating

Karen's annual Christmas glow.

Malcolm is no elf, but he gets it

HRH Sophie with the spirit of the season.

2022

Dear Imagine friends and family,

Happy New Year to you all. Best wishes for your happiness, healthfulness, safety, adventure and folly, as prioritized by you.

This month's newsletter will be longer than most. I did want this newsletter to be forward looking. All the usual uncertainties remain, but we know some things about the next year that we don't usually and I wanted to share them. There are very sound reasons to expect the last half of 2022 to be better and easier. So one reason to look forward at the year is so that we can be transparent about the hardships at hand and so that we can all be hopeful for better days to come.

I'll start preparing you for 2022 right here: I warned you this will be long, so if this newsletter starts to feel like Les Miserables without the suspense or surprise, that's on you.

We'll start with three big topics and then I've got a bunch of smaller ones and then we'll do the usuals. Patty and Charlie also wrote forward looking columns for this edition. The three big topics are expectations for the year in clients and services, finance and wages, of course, the recursive loop of COVID.

Big Topic #1: Clients and Services. Person-centered thinking tools are becoming more prevalent as we've long intended. We expect shorter service plans and more participation from clients, families and direct care staff in determining how we do what we do for the people we serve. This is an area where Imagine has been making slow progress and seeking faster for a long time. I'm very excited to see momentum build. We expect that this year person-centered thinking tools will become the norm in planning, documenting and learning about our clients and how to serve them better.

For the last two years, throughout the pandemic, we've been preparing to serve a full caseload (6 individuals) at Coastal Havens. They are starting to move in now and we think we'll be serving four or five people there by mid-year. This month, welcome Jake with his parents, Kirby and Jennifer to the formal family. After nearly a decade of getting to know them, we're really excited this is happening.

We're expecting our Summit program to graduate from Imagine in the warmer (foggier) months of 2022. Summit is expected to function under a purer version of self-determination. This is a great example of our mission fulfilled. Of course, once part of the family, always part of the family.

Finances and Wages: The financial projection for the year has a rough backstory, starts on a happy note followed by two seasons of trouble and then turns happy in the end. If accountants wrote fairy tales, 2022 at Imagine would be Snow White.

We're entering 2022 having lost money for most of the months of the pandemic while having spent down most of our reserves doing our best to keep everyone as safe as possible. We expect cashflow to get worse during the first half of this year due to the minimum wage raising the wages of most of our staff. We asked our donors for extra help and, boy howdy, have they responded.

Our goal of $50,000 for the fundraising campaign felt audacious, since it nearly doubled our best year. It seems kind of wimpy now. With a month to go in the campaign, generous people have given more than $100,000. That, along with a $100,000 line of credit and our remaining reserves should get us to the promised land.

The current year California budget includes rate adjustments later this year. We're pretty confident they will be in place by July. While we don't know exactly what our new rate will be, based on the information in the law, we can anticipate a substantial enough increase which, added to the new clients coming into care, we expect will be enough to return our budget to balance and allow at least some improvements to wages, with our first priorities being direct care staff doing awake hours and Lead Staff.

Early in 2021, when we thought we were about done with COVID, Imagine anticipated stronger earnings. We set up a compensation committee with members of the board, management and direct care staff. Their final report in December will be the basis of what we hope will be a no more than 4 year progress of improving direct care wages. Before I stick that sucker here for you to read, I want to introduce this caution: Early in the report you will find a rate structure which we intend to build towards. However, we don't expect to be able to fully fund it in 2022. 2025 is a likely point to fully implement the wages and salaries the committee recommended. But we are hopeful to implement some of the recommendations in the second half of this year. (That catch is explained towards the end.). If you are interested, the Compensation Committee's report is right here for you.

COVID-19, some more: OK, we don't know what that will be like in 2022. But we are hopeful that new variants are finding us better and better protected and may be less virulent. We need to ask everyone to be extremely cautious at the beginning of the year, but we do expect that the forms of wellness we're used to pursuing, as opposed to uninfectedness, will be a bigger part of how Imagine can think with regard to the health of clients and staff. The Omicron variant looms but don't lose hope, friends.

As Patty describes below, the Governor has now added boosters to the mandate and given a February 1 deadline (for those 6 or more months from their last shot. Imagine's management does believe in vaccination as a critical tool for being a community together safely. That said, we also believe in giving one another grace and space and probably would have chosen a little more warning and a little more time. If you have or get your booster and can send a picture of the card or receipt to Patty, that will help a bunch.

Aggregated Pettiness. Here are the small things that will be important to at least some of the people this newsletter goes out to. I'll include the audience of interest in the headline.

Time-keeping (staff:) This is going to be more annoying than anything else for most people. You know how for two years I've been talking about how you will need, beginning 1/1/22, to punch in and out in Paychex instead of doing your hours on a time-sheet? That was to comply with a federal law called Electronic Visit Verification (EVV.) California finally set up its requirements for EVV just as day was about break on the system and the Paychex APP doesn't comply. Jen is furiously working on a workaround. I am certain we will need to clock in and out on something, so please continue as planned, but how you clock in and out is likely to change. Upon request, I am willing to set an appointment for whoever has the need to pelt me with tomatoes. I'm very sorry about this and we will keep you updated.

Strategic Planning (anybody interested in long term thinking about our goals:) Although the last two years have brought a whole bunch of factors not contemplating in our strategic plan, we actual did pretty well at following the broad outline (apart from the financial goals. See above.) This year, the committee will prepare a final report for the board on our last strategic plan. We expect to also begin organizing for input from clients, staff, families and partners in the development of a new five year vision.

Audits and Annual Reports (hardly anyone, but, you know:) For the first time since the pandemic started, Imagine is working through our independent audits. We expect the first two (for fiscal years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020) to be done late winter and early Spring. We will try to compelete the final overdue one (2020-2021) over the summer with the current year audit soon after. That means we'll be able to publish a competent annual report, covering several anni.

Further down, this month's newsletter includes the following:

In "The Service Sector," Charlie lays out his vision for Facilitation in 2022.

In our Human Resources column this month, Patty tries as gently as possible to let you know that the state's vaccine mandate now includes a booster and the deadline is February. Please do read that if you work at Imagine.

We do an end zone dance midfield about the Holiday Fundraising Campaign and remind everyone about the Imagine Endowment.

Susan Douglass, a parent and board member, in her monthly Community Connections column, thanks the families who have given the bulk of our donations and plans a Zoom for family members with no managers present. Great opportunity to talk about issues that are uncomfortable to take directly to management like the Executive Director's clothing and demeanor.

Our usual stuff in the columns around advocacy, self-determination, transparency and the Imagine Endowment.

As ever, if you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can write me here. I look forward to hearing from you.

And, of course, I wish you all a safe, happy, healthy and meaningful 2022.

Gratefully yours,

Doug

Annual Fundraising Campaign

Glory. When the Fundraising Committee met to set our goal for this year, we knew two things: One was that this year is unique in that our need is greater than it has been and the other was that next year we have very solid reason to expect we'll be back to banking the donations against future hardships. The second was that our best holiday campaign ever, last year's raised less than $30,000. We decided to set an audacious goal and do our best. In that meeting, I used the phrase "Well, it's not like you go to jail if you don't meet your goal," Then we set it for $50,000 and did our best.

The Holiday campaign runs through the end of this month but as of this writing, we have doubled our goal, having passed $100,000 and learned all the wrong lessons. As you see in my first column, looking forward past the next six months has been ridden with anxiety, but this result now puts Imagine's reserves safely within worst-case projections. Thank you very much for all you do to sustain this organization's mission.

We'll be retiring the thermometer from here. If you want to pile on and, maybe, mock me for my pessimism, you can still donate here.

The Imagine Endowment

We have an endowment to support Imagine's future. Beginning this year, Imagine will receive regular payments of the returns from these funds. Initially, we expect the impact to be small but as the endowment grows, it holds the promise of helping Imagine help others through hard times to come.

If you are considering a gift to the endowment, either right now or as part of a giving plan or bequest, we have information available here. And thank you.

To make direct contributions please make checks payable to; The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. Designate the "Imagine Supported Living Services Fund". Mail to; Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, 7807 Soquel Dr., Aptos, Ca. 95003.

-Submitted by Doug

The Service Sector

Greetings Imagine family!

We made it to 2022! We may not be at the stage in the pandemic that we wanted but getting though 2021 together as an agency should be recognized as an achievement of many people’s hard work and dedication. Despite more complications with pandemic variants, I do have a lot of optimism for 2022. This last six months we have been working a lot on the foundations of our services that were greatly affected when the pandemic started. We still have work to do but I am starting to see progress that we can build on in this new year. We would love for 2022 to be a year we get back to normal with all our events and opportunities in the community for our consumers and teams though we know after this year that is not guaranteed. This is even more reason for us to focus now more than ever on our systems both in how we work with our consumers and how we support our employees and families. I have appreciated and still welcome feedback from consumers, staff, and family members where we may have fallen short to help us identify areas the agency still needs to improve.

In December the facilitator team met, and we looked at goals for the new year. One area we identified needing better routines was staff evaluations. These are annual reviews with each staff member where we identify areas where staff are excelling and areas that still need improvement or more training. We aim to complete these for each team the month after a consumer has their birthday. Though we always welcome feedback throughout the year it is useful for consumers, staff and families to know that we may be reaching out for input to recognize staff achievements or challenges around this time. Imagine values evaluations and knows that they can be extremely beneficial for our top employees to get recognition for their efforts as well as supporting our staff that are finding it challenging to maintain the necessary standards.

We also relooked at some of the areas I have mentioned in previous newsletters and really put an emphasis on 2022 being a year where we start off strong and keep the momentum going each month to really create routine systems that will stay consistent. This includes but is not limited to monthly teams meeting, prompt follow up, clear communication, supportive training, collaborative ISP and quarterly reports, proactive verses reactive thinking and person-centered planning.

That is all from me for now, but I hope everyone had a restful holiday period and I look forward to working with you all in this new year!

Here we come 2022!

Charlie.

Charlie Miller

Director of Services

Imagine Supported Living Services

9065 Soquel Drive

Aptos, CA 95003

Office: (831) 464-8355 ext. 103

Mobile: (831) 428-1731

HR Corner

Hello Everyone,

I hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Holiday Season. I know a lot of us are feeling a combination of burn out and cautiousness with the news of the Omicron variant. Please make sure that you remember that we are still following the COVID-19 protocols of staying home if you are ill and wearing a mask while on shift. Please do let us know as soon as possible if you have been exposed to anyone testing positive. Imagine continues to work hard on keeping everyone safe and communicating thoroughly when we need to take more precaution.

One major COVID-19 update that we have recently been presented with is a new Booster Vaccine Mandate. This means that employees who received their 2nd COVID-19 Vaccine, or one Johnson & Johson vaccine, over 6 months ago, must receive a booster shot by February 1, 2022, in order to be considered fully vaccinated and continue to comply with the vaccine Mandate. I understand, even as I write this, that this will not be easy to hear. The amount of news about these vaccines really intensifies one's ability to process what we feel is the best path for us and our families. Imagine has consistently trusted the guidance of the CDC and other medical organizations. Many of our clients and admin staff have received the booster shot. If you are having a hard time finding information about the booster vaccine that you trust, or if you would like to process this news with us, please feel free to reach out.

On a different note, please take a moment to review your 2021 W2 on paychex flex, and please submit any changes in dependents for 2022 to me as soon as possible. Your paystub for the pay period of 1/1/22-1/15/22 will reflect a change in pay rate. Anyone that was making $14 an hour will be moved up to $15 an hour according to the minimum wage change. Imagine continues to plan for pay increases based on the duration of time each employee has been at Imagine. We hope to make that change happen sometime in midyear.

My sincere wish for Imagine in the new year is to continue to focus on employee culture and morale. It is my personal goal as someone whose job is centered around employee matters, to make sure that everyone feels seen and heard with any issue you may bring to us, even in times when all we can do is listen. Please always feel free to reach out to me or make an in-person appointment with me, if you feel you don't understand something about our policies, employee portals, or even something about working with your client. Our clients' quality of life is very much impacted by our employees and how connected you feel to the program you are a part of.

As always, I am here for you to reach out to. Wishing everyone a great 2022.

In Good Health,

Patty Lopez

HR Manager

Imagine Supported Living Services

831-464-8355 ext. 112

Cell: (831) 325-7760

Self-Determination

Self-Determination is now available for any regional center client who chooses it but it seems to be a slow process enrolling. If I can be of any help, please feel free to contact me. I'm pleased that there are a few current and recent Imagine employees who are developing Independent Facilitation practices and I'll be glad to connect them with those looking.

This month, the Independent Facilitator Roundtable will be Wednesday (January 5) at 11AM. The Zoom link is right here. For people interested in Self-determination, there is also a monthly zoom event to introduce individuals and families to Independent Facilitators. It's the third Friday of each month and the time is supposed to rotate but we seem stuck on 2:30-4. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send the link and confirmation of the time.

-Submitted by Doug

Community Connections

January 2022

I want to give out a shout of gratitude for the generous contributions to the year-end fund raising campaign. As of this writing, we have doubled our goal which we set nearly double last year! Not only does that generosity help on a financial level, it also provides a huge morale boost. Knowing that the Imagine families are engaged and supportive in a very difficult time for the organization helps the people who work at Imagine stay the course through this prolonged hardship. Thank you!!

Alas, we begin another year with Zoom meet-ups being our best option for safely connecting. I hope you will join us Tuesday 1/18 4-5pm for a meeting of parents only. Imagine management will sit this one out, Lord knows they deserve a break!

We will discuss the very thoughtful and detailed recommendations made by the Compensation Committee regarding employee pay structure and raise criteria. You can review that report in this newsletter. And then we’ll open the floor to discussion. Hope to see you there!

Susan Douglass, Imagine parent, BOD member

[email protected] 831-818-2501

Transparency At Imagine

Our next board meeting will be held February 16, at 11:00. Write to Norma if you'd like to attend. Imagine's finances did not immediately rebound following the end of the riskiest part of the pandemic and we'll discussing why and how to repair the trouble.

We are still recruiting board members. We are working to diversify the board and to add a GAAP-trained treasurer. An attorney wouldn't be bad either.

-Submitted by Doug

Advocacy Corner

As it was last month, so it is now. There have been few new opportunities to advocate for Imagine Direct Care Staff to be included in some of the federal funding that came through the CARES Act, and we remain in a guessing game as to the increase in funding we can expect this coming summer. Actually, we have assurances that the rate increases will take effect April 1 and be ready in time. But let's say summer.

Our hope remains that our budget will be in balance when the rate increase comes through and the majority of new funding can make a difference to staff compensation. The board and management are committed to that as the primary purpose of any new funding. People should understand that if we are still operating in deficit, the money will have to be divided for both purposes.

A separate promising, but too vague, development now in law is that there is to be support for enhanced direct care wages for bilingual staff and those who meet certain professional development goals. As yet, the state hasn't developed or shared much clarity on how, how much, how measured. We very much appreciate the concept and will share more information when it develops.

As always, thanks to Marty Omoto of CDCAN for amplifying the transparency and circularity of information between the community and policy-makers. If you would like to receive CDCAN's extensive reporting, write to Marty. If you're exhausted from sending all that money to Imagine but still have money sitting around accusing you, supporting CDCAN supports our community.

-submitted by Doug

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Staff and Client Birthdays

Chris!

Zach!

Tom!

Miranda

Kristin

CarrieAnne

Cecilia

Stephany

Kahlia

Staff Anniversaries

Bruce W. - 14 Years!

Jessica B. - 4 Years!

Julianna T. - 4 Years!

Click here to view Imagine's activity calendar