“To improve the living and working conditions and opportunities for persons with severe disabilities.”
EEO/AA/M/F/D/V

Director’s Corner
By: Phil L. Taylor

 In January I began what I have called management training with twenty plus staff.  I had a real concern that there are a very few people in our organization that have an opportunity and the training to address some of what I believe will be the global demands that our organization will be facing in the future.  With all of my training in leadership and management I have come to realize that I can develop my style of management to a certain point and to a much lesser degree can influence my immediate senior management with some of these management styles.   Further on down the organizational structure you go, these styles really become fuzzy, if they exist at all.  With this in mind, one has to realize that the significant growth we have had over the last several years makes this an even more complicated issue.  What has happened is that the larger we have gotten has magnified some of our problems and the old “business as usual” management used by so many is not working.

Over a period of three or four years I began to put together different segments of training and strategies  that I felt were effective.   I finally was able to string these ideas together about a year and a half ago.  With some refining and a lot of work the end result was the management training program that I began in January of this year.  This involved developing four training manuals that address many ideas that I believe are important.  Also, I had the conviction that if we do not move in this direction, then we will begin to have some major problems as we continue to grow.

I just recently came across the terms that capture what I was trying to do and that it was truly a “capacity building” program for our organization.  This addresses what I believe are some of our organization’s external barriers to building our capacity to grow in a more aggressive, efficient and effective manner.  It helps us face the challenge of increasing the capacity of the organization to meet present demands and growth potential by training all of our supervisory staff as multi-level managers with core competencies and ancillary responsibilities in leadership, planning and management.

This multi-level approach deals with building core competencies in seven broad areas:  mission-based activities; leadership activities; management skills training in planning; management skills training in organizational alignment; professional and public relations activities; visionary development; and strategic planning.  Because of the many levels of skills this approach is trying to deal with, everything has to be as concrete and simple as possible for each one to accomplish what has been laid out for them during the first year.  If it wasn’t for the growth demands and stress being put on nonprofit staff to do more sometimes with much less, then growing capacity would be a mute point. But as it is, we have to develop all of our staff to help accomplish this task.

I have separated all of these staff in this initial phase into four categories:  senior management; middle management; junior management and basic management.  These terms have some double implications in that the higher the management level the more expertise one has to develop and subsequently tutor, mentor, encourage and model for their subordinates in the normal organizational lines of authority.  Most of these training modules are outside their normal job responsibilities, but they are intertwined with some things like setting departmental goals and objectives and planning.  This approach, will also, capture some synergy that is realized from the process of getting all of these people to work and function in a realm outside of their expertise in an organized approach that will benefit our organization well beyond our means to afford.

I hope this will help those involved in this capacity building program to realize how much of our future is depending upon your efforts.  As we all make progress with applying these principles, the more everyone (organization wide) will benefit.  And as always, I really appreciate the good work done by everyone on behalf of our consumers.
 

November Birthdays
Ashlee English 2nd
Cheryl Willie 3rd
Tobi Gragg  5th
LaTonya Anderson 6th
Debra Rogers 7th
Charles McKinley 8th
Rita Puryear  8th
Patricia Baldwin 10th
Amber Luster 18th
Dianna Dennison 19th
Fred Ellis  19th
Carolyn Roberts 25th
Melissa Wheeler 25th
Christy Wyatt 27th
Cynthia Cassulis 29th
Brenda Garner 30th
 

Welcome To Abilities Unlimited!!

Becky Lowe  Human Resources Clerical
Brandi Hunter ACS Implementor
Diane Henley ACS Implementor
Amanda Burgess Flex
Autumn Reed Flex
Syreeta Rhodes WAC/AD Aide -Blytheville
Russell Thomas Van Driver-Blytheville
Mary Williams ACS Implementor
Diane Locke  Waiver Area Administrator
Melissa Burns Flex
Wanda Pitcher Flex
Michelle Smith ACS Implementor
 

October Service Awards
Employees celebrating one year anniversaries in the month of October are Latonya Anderson, Andrew Cline, Kimberly Young, Candice Kane and Robyn Jacobs. Each received a certificate and pin for their hard work and dedication. Thanks to all of you!
Magazine Donations
We need your current, used fashion magazines and catalogs! These magazines will help keep our thrift and consignment store staff knowledgeable of current fashion trends. We specifically need the following magazines and/or catalogs: Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Marie Claire, Oprah, People, GQ, Modern Bride, Spiegel, Sears, JCPenney, Abercrombie and Fitch, Victoria Secret,etc. Don’t forget you also get a tax receipt for these donated items! Your cooperation will be much appreciated!

Time to Open Christmas Club Accounts
Any full or part-time employee wishing to open a Christmas Club Account should contact Alex  ASAP! This account will be through Liberty Bank and will be a draft out of your weekly direct deposit. The first week of hold out will be November 7th. However, you have until November 31st to set up your account. For more information contact Alex at ext. 21.
 
 

A Thought On Gratitude
During this month of Thanksgiving, take time to reflect upon the following quotation.

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  - Melody Beattie
 
 

United Way Campaign
We are continuing our United Way Campaign and we encourage every single person who works for our organization to make a payroll deduction to be given to the United Way. The United Way funding we get provides match money for some of our service contracts. Many of these require as much as 10% to 25% money from the community in order to get the money to provide the services. These services include: Adult Development, Work Activity Center, Rehabilitation’s Extended Services, some Waiver services, transportation, and Supervised Living. These services allow us to employ and help a lot of people. Your contribution plays an important part of this. So, it is very important that we all do our part and help raise money to fund our program and many other worthwhile programs in our community. You can pick up a card by contacting your supervisor or Carrie Armstrong. Thank you for your contribution.

 ?Just A Reminder?
All training must be turned in on a separate time sheet to Carrie. All departments should use the implementor time sheets, detailing which tests were taken and how much time the employee should be credited with. This goes for anyone turning in training. If you do not have the implementor time sheets, contact the office or print them off of the company website, www.aui.org. Any training that does not go through this process will not be paid.

 Abilities Unlimited of Blytheville
In the wake of the DDS audit, the Blytheville staff are concentrating on hiring, and training. Many of the staff who were not previously required to be trained in client issues, have been completing training, while other staff were concentrating on their annual training renewals. The DDS audit has raised the bar for us where training is concerned, and it has helped us to realize our own shortcomings especially in the area of staff competencies. As a result, our staff will be more prepared for dealing with client issues.
Public Relations continues to be a focus in Blytheville. Ms. Wyatt spoke before the Leadership Institute at the beginning of October. The people in attendance were supervisory and management staff who were especially interested in learning about services and business in their own community. They were a diverse group coming from all types of businesses and agencies. It was a great opportunity to get the word out about Abilities Unlimited services, and retail outlets.
The lack of housing opportunities for people with mental disabilities in Mississippi County continues to surface. There is no place for a person with mental retardation to choose to live outside their family environment without moving into a nursing facility. There is not a single group home, residential care facility or supported apartment program in the entire county. For our clients to move away from parents and adult siblings, they must move to another county at least 50 miles away from that family. As the poverty in Mississippi County prevents many of our families from having automobiles, or well running automobiles, clients continue to stay with their parents and siblings although that choice is often to the detriment of the client themselves. There is a desperate outcry for an agency such as ours or Mid-South Health Systems to create an apartment program in the county. Such a program would provide independence while people still could have frequent contact with their families without being forced to live in dangerous neighborhoods with dysfunctional home lives.

Consumer’s Services  - Jonesboro
Ten Commandments for Communicating with People with Disabilities
By Janet Gregory

1. Speak directly rather than through a companion or sign language interpreter who may be present.

2. Offer to shake hand when introduced.  People with limited hand use or an artificial limb can usually shake hands and offering the left hand is an acceptable greeting.

3. Always identify yourself and others who may be with you when meeting someone with a visual disability.  When conversing in a group, remember to identify the person to whom you are speaking.

4.  If you offer assistance, wait until the offer is accepted.   Then listen or ask for instructions.

5.  Treat adults as adults.  Address people with disabilities by their first names only when extending that same familiarity to all others.  Never patronize people in wheelchairs by patting them on the head or shoulder.

6.  Do not lean against or hand on someone’s wheelchair.  Bear in mind that people with disabilities treat their chairs as extension of their bodies.  So do people with guide dogs / help dogs.  Never distract a work animal from their job without the owner’s permission.

7.  Listen attentively when talking with people who have difficulty speaking and wait for them to finish.  If necessary, ask short questions that require short answers, or a nod of the head.  Never pretend to understand; instead repeat what you have understood and allow the person to respond.

8.  Place yourself at eye level when speaking with someone in a wheelchair or on crutches.
 
 

9.  Tap a person who has a hearing disability
on the shoulder or wave your hand to get his/her attention.  Look directly at the person and speak clearly, slowly and expressively to establish if the person can read your lips.  If so, try to face the light source and keep hands, cigarettes and food away from your mouth when speaking.  If a person is wearing a hearing aid, don’t assume that they have the ability to discriminate your speaking voice.  Never shout to a person, just speak in a normal tone of voice.

10. Relax.  Don’t be embarrassed if you happen to use a common expressions such as “See you later” or “Did you hear about this?” if the person has a visual or hearing disability.

8 ways to shine as an employee
1.  Remember that a job is a journey, not a destination.

2. Any job you do is worth doing well.

3. You’ll get as much from your job as you are willing to put into it.

4. Attitude matters!

5. It is the small, daily choices you make that determine and shape your destiny.

6. Don’t see your employer as a caretaker.

7. Success on the job is related to skills and behaviors that are learned.

8. Want more from work than a paycheck.
 
AUI’s Mission Statement: “...to improve the working and living conditions and opportunities of persons with severe disabilities”.

“Love what you do.  Do what you love”.
         - Wayne Dyer