Dear staff and board members,

After 10 months of vigorous collaboration involving hundreds of Options for Learning staff, families, and community members, I am delighted to share that our organization’s three-year strategic plan was approved unanimously by the board of directors.

This roadmap forward was developed through a process of inclusion, conversation, research, reflection, deliberation, analysis, and collaboration involving internal and external stakeholders. The priorities and initiatives identified grew from the active contributions of a board-led strategic planning committee, organization leadership, 55 members of five action planning teams, 600+ staff who joined one of 17 chat sessions, 245 who completed surveys, 890 stakeholders who completed surveys, 57 focus group participants and nine interviews.

The breadth of this community endeavor gives me confidence that the strategic plan accurately reflects our priorities, and we hope that our staff, the families we serve, and our community partners take pride and ownership in this plan and the vision it lays out for Options for Learning.

Please join me in thanking everyone who contributed their time, knowledge, creativity, and passion to develop our strategic plan. Additionally, the staff members on our action planning teams were instrumental in bringing their unique perspectives from a broader range of our organization and spent many hours creating action steps and success measures for the initiatives. Finally, thank you to our consultants at Wipfli for keeping our process organized and focused.

After a year of brainstorming, envisioning, and aspiring, beginning this month we will turn our plans into a reality – to further our mission of being a leader in preparing children and supporting families for life success through innovative, quality child development programs. We will rely on our staff’s expertise and collaborative spirit to achieve success.

Again, I want to thank the many contributors to our strategic planning process, and I look forward to building on the outstanding work that has been done and engaging with you as we pursue our goals together. We have much work ahead, but what an exciting time to work for Options for Learning! For additional information, visit the strategic planning webpage on the Options for Learning Employee Portal.

Sincerely,

Kimberly Dobson Garcia

Vice President of Strategic Initiatives