From the CEO, 2016 Annual Report
22 community homes, 37 children, 41 adults, 32 day program participants…When we communicate outside our walls, executive to executive, grant seeker to foundation, we use the quantifying language which communicates the best possible picture of outcomes and achievements. This isn’t just non-profit nature or professional nature, it’s human nature. This is the most direct path to emphasizing our point.
Inside the figurative walls of Goldie Floberg Center, our mission, “to empower and enrich the lives of all people served,” may only be achieved in single digits, one person at a time. Yes, we serve children and adults with developmental disabilities. But that broad brush stroke does not paint the wide spectrum of unique abilities and challenges of each boy, girl, man, and woman we are continuously adjusting to serve. Our duty is not fulfilled by only providing safety and care.
Each of us finds our richest personal growth after we’ve been empowered by our support systems, like family or education. My proudest moments, when I felt most fulfilled in life, culminated from paths which I chose for myself and my own passions.
These meaningful experiences are the right of each and every one of us; and this is our philosophy of service. We must gather every resource, directors, funders, community members, behaviors specialists, DSPs—most importantly, each individual ability, interest, or “spark”—to help craft a path of meaning. Meaning is not a program, it’s personal. And the closer we come to delivering this right, the further we move from a language of quantity.
Every year and every day, we seek the incremental steps towards an immeasurable outcome for every individual we serve. I love when we can’t measure that kind of success.