New Innovations Logo!

We at Innovations are excited to share with you our new logo!  This logo was created by the Innovations Management team. We think it does a great job of communicating who we are and what we do.  Enjoy!

Volunteering at Imagine!

This week is National Volunteer Week. Volunteers are a huge part of Imagine!’s success. In the fiscal year 2013-14, 409 people volunteered for Imagine!, providing 12,261 hours of service. The estimated value of those volunteer hours to Imagine! during that time is $275,025.45!

Volunteers bring much more than monetary value to our organization. Imagine! is a community-based organization, and we can’t do what we do without the support of our community. Volunteering offers a great opportunity for members of our community to experience first-hand the vital work Imagine! employees do, and just as important, to see the amazing contributions that individuals served by Imagine! bring to their communities every day. Imagine! volunteers frequently become donors to our organization, and many end up working for us full time!

All this week, Imagine!’s Facebook page will be highlighting some of our fantastic volunteers and the positive impact they have on our organization.

By the way, do you know of someone interested in volunteering for Imagine!? Or do you have an Imagine! project that could use assistance from volunteers? If so, contact Imagine!’s Volunteer Coordinator Elizabeth Hill at 303-926-6460 or ebaumann@Imaginecolorado.org.

Finally, check out the short video below, created to encourage more people to volunteer at Imagine!

Super Hero(es) of the Month(s)!

Every month, Innovations presents the “Super Hero of the Month” award to the employee or provider who has best demonstrated excellence in one or more of our Innovations Quality Standards:

• Health, Safety, and Wellbeing
• Effective and Efficient
• Respect and Dignity
• Opportunities
• Integrity
• Care

For the month of February, our Super Hero is:

Jesse Kennedy
Primary Residential Counselor - 19th Street

Jesse was nominated by a supervisor because:

He is calm, patient, respectful and person centered.  He takes everything in stride, is cool under pressure and never complains.  I never have to worry when Jesse is working because I know he’ll make sure that everything is taken care of and that our people remain happy and healthy.  Jesse has been present for crisis situations and he always steps up.  He does whatever needs to be done with a smile on his face.  Jesse is exactly the type of employee everyone wants to have. 

For the month of March, our Super Hero is:

Codi Ford

Primary Residential Counselor - Timber Ridge

Codi was nominated by a supervisor because:

She stayed with an individual who lives alone and has in the past not been able to successfully complete the pre-colonoscopy preparation routine on her own.  Codi stayed with her for nearly 24 hours, even getting up through the night to help this individual maintain her good spirits and not give up on the long unpleasant process.  The individual had a successful procedure.  The individual’s guardian/Sister expressed gratitude that Codi was able to help.  Codi offered to do it, and when I expressed gratitude to her for it, she replied with “Well, that’s what she needed, and I can do it.”  I didn’t even need to ask her if she could do it.

If you see Jesse or Codi around, please congratulate them for their hard work and dedication!

Super Heroes of the Month!

Every month, Innovations presents the “Super Hero of the Month” award to the employee or provider who has best demonstrated excellence in one or more of our Innovations Quality Standards:

• Health, Safety, and Wellbeing
• Effective and Efficient
• Respect and Dignity
• Opportunities
• Integrity
• Care

This month, we selected two Super Heroes of the Month!

Sharon Reamer

Admin-Finances

Sharon was nominated by a fellow co-worker because:

Sharon recently spent HOURS and HOURS of her time trying to fix an insurance problem for one of the individual’s on my caseload.   It was a very unique issue.  Sharon had to play the most ridiculous game of “Clue” wading through Medicaid contact after contact trying to find someone that could help us.  She did so with a sense of humor and stayed positive.  There were several times where there was nothing much more we could do than laugh and shake our heads.  Ultimately – Sharon being tenacious in her quest to get this resolved got us to a fix and this individual can now receive his much needed psychiatric services via Boulder County.  Sharon has also helped me in several small ways as of late.  Just yesterday I had a Host Home Provider inquire about if she could order a new Medicare card – Sharon just told the Host Home Provider not to worry and she could do it no problem (not even an hour went by and she had it ordered!).  By sticking to the principals of “Integrity” and being “Effective and Efficient” Sharon has been doing a great job and helped me in a variety of issues as of late. 

...and...

Lyle Jasmin

Host Home Provider

 

Lyle was nominated by his Coordinator because: 

Lyle has been remarkably successful working with the two individuals that live in his home, one of whom was having major struggles in his previous placement and entered the home emergently.  Lyle recently demonstrated his extraordinary attention to detail and dedication to his individual’s health, safety, and well-being.  The individual had been prescribed a new medication.  This medication was filled and sent to the home by the pharmacy.  Prior to administering the medication, Lyle noticed the generic name of the medication was the name of a medication listed on the individual’s allergy list.  Instead of administering this medication, he notified his Coordinator and Nurse Case Manager and we were able to verify the allergy and request new orders.  Both the Coordinator and Nurse Case Manager were highly impressed Lyle caught this potentially harmful mistake that had not been caught via the other levels of oversight.  We just wanted to recognize Lyle for this HEROIC act and say thank you to him for his quality of care day in and day out. 

If you see Sharon or Lyle around, please congratulate them for their hard work and dedication!

Super Hero of the Month!

Every month, Innovations presents the “Super Hero of the Month” award to the employee or provider who has best demonstrated excellence in one or more of our Innovations Quality Standards:

• Health, Safety, and Wellbeing
• Effective and Efficient
• Respect and Dignity
• Opportunities
• Integrity
• Care

This month, the award was presented to Brittany Huston, who is one of our Administrative Assistants here at Innovations.



Last month, when a co-worker was unable to provide a training due to a family emergency, Brittany volunteered to do the training herself. Even though Brittany was in the middle of other work at the time, she did not hesitate to help her fellow employee. And even though she does not typically do this training, she was happy to do it and did an excellent job of engaging the participants. Brittany’s co-worker reported that Brittany had the trainees laughing and smiling right off the bat, which is not an easy thing to do. By helping out her co-worker in her time of need, Brittany demonstrated the professionalism, respect, and kindness that we want all of our employees to strive for.

If you see Brittany around, please congratulate her on being our Super Hero of the Month!

Spread the Word to End the Word

Many of you who are reading this already know how hurtful the R-Word can be for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  I imagine that if you know someone with an intellectual or developmental disability, you probably don't use the word in your regular speech.  If you have already chosen to take the R-Word out of your vocabulary, or if you want to do that starting now, please visit the End the R-Word website to sign a pledge.  

Many of us have a story to tell about how the R-Word has been hurtful to them, and to others that they care about.  The video below is of a high-school senior named Soeren Palumbo, who has a sister with a developmental disability.

Even if you have already pledged to not use the R-Word yourself, I encourage you to make the additional pledge to call out others around you when they use the word.  Let them know how painful the word can be to others, and encourage them to use a different word next time.  Together we can erase the R-Word and help our community become more respectful of others.

To celebrate this effort, Innovations will be hosting an End the R-Word event.  We encourage everyone to attend, and bring artwork to share that emphasizes the new R-Word: RESPECT.  The event will be held on Thursday, March 27th from 1pm-3pm at our main offices at 1665 Coal Creek Drive, in Lafayette, Colorado.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Santa Fe Construction Update

We are continuing to make solid progress on our new Santa Fe Group Home in Broomfield.  Our project is starting to look like a home!  Check out the photos below to see for yourself.