The following is adapted and expanded from the welcome letter of our most recent Inspirations magazine. Chief Executive Officer Patricia Kennedy is excited to share Springbrook’s vision for the next chapter of our story.
Hundreds of dedicated professionals work around the clock at Springbrook, providing support for the more than 1,100 people who choose our programs. To bring direction and future value to that work, we have developed the Springbrook Master Plan. For those unfamiliar, a master plan is a comprehensive and far-reaching plan of action. It is forward-looking and makes use of the foundational goals of the organization.
Where does Springbrook begin when developing a master plan? We start with what we are doing today. We mix that with the needs of the future. We throw in the external factors that our organization may or may not control. To that, we add a lot of expertise and guidance from our Board of Directors. And, we dream. We dream of a future that honors our mission and realizes our vision.
So, what are we doing today? We support individuals with direct services in 14 counties, with 26 Community Homes in five counties. We offer a continuum of services that begins with early intervention, preschool, and educational opportunities and transitions people to adulthood with residential supports, employment support, and meaningful opportunities for a productive and healthy life — not a bad place to start.
What do we see in our future? We see workforce challenges and opportunities, increased demand for residential, community, clinical, and educational services, and limited rate increases from New York State to support our programs, services, and employees. We see many internal and external realities and projections that inform us that we must be prepared to respond to major changes in our fiscal and regulatory environments in order to maintain our mission and vision.
With our present and future in mind, we brought together the perspectives of our Springbrook and Foundation Boards of Directors. And from that synthesis of practice, perspective, and hope for our future, we came up with a master plan we proudly share with families, employees, donors, and anyone else willing to listen!
Springbrook’s Master Plan
Below is our Springbrook Master Plan. This plan balances our organizational strengths with emerging opportunities. The plan enables us to meet the ever-changing need of the people we support with compassion, excellence, creativity, and respect for the dignity of each person — long into the future. There are three overarching categories in our plan: creating diversified funding, building strength and capacity, and offering programs that support a full life, for a lifetime. Let’s break each down into their core components:
Diversified Funding
Diversified funding gives the financial flexibility to support lives of purpose and to pursue opportunity. To that end, we envision strengthening and expanding our strategic partnerships, invigorating our fund development, and creating for-profit ventures, which will, in turn, fund our not-for-profit organization. As public dollars become more and more restricted and limited, it is our goal to have a decreased dependency on state and federal funding, which will also permit us to invest in our workforce, our communities, and our programs.
Strength & Capacity
Our strength and capacity is healthy and vibrant, but we know that it can change in seemingly no time for those who are unprepared. With this in mind, being “The Employer of Tomorrow” and increasing the engagement of those we support and their families we provide is essential to our continued success.
A Full Life, for a Lifetime
“Making the difference for people with developmental disabilities, for a lifetime” is more than a marketing slogan. Beyond providing services across a person’s lifespan, we want to ensure that it is a life full of meaning — One with joy, triumph, trust, and belonging. This is why we are committed to additional health services connections, expanding the residential continuum, and offering critical services where they are needed most.
The Springbrook Master Plan is embedded in all that we are doing now and hope to do in the future. As with any plan, it is made stronger with contributions from everyone. I invite you to think of yourself and your capacity, your talents, your interests, your dreams, and how you can contribute to the plan. I invite you to have this be the moment you invest in Springbrook.
Thank you, Patricia, for your leadership and insight on the direction of Springbrook. The future looks bright, and with everyone moving in the same direction, Springbrook will continue to be a trailblazer for our communities and the people we support.
Make this YOUR Springbrook Moment
As Patricia outlined, there are many new directions Springbrook hopes to explore, many of which are not supported by state or federal funds. Your gift helps bridge the gap between essential operations and the groundbreaking course we envision for Springbrook.