A Story of Safety and Sacrifice
During this unprecedented novel coronavirus epidemic our agency’s top priority has been the safety and health of the wonderful individuals we’re honored to serve. We discerned that the best way to do this was to limit the exposure to the virus as much as possible. When we reached out to our staff to inquire if […]
Heroes Right in Front of Us
“It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.” Dalai Lama Certainly now is one of those times that really identifies those individuals that are able to turn away from their own needs, and maybe their own fears, to be in a position to […]
It’s National Direct Support Professionals Appreciation Week!
This week all disability agencies are celebrating National Direct Support Professionals Appreciation Week. I think on a regular basis we strive to have our staff experience how much their dedicated, compassionate service means to us, and more importantly, to the men and women with developmental disabilities that are supported through our programs. But this week […]
Kindness Happens
Recently, the Chicago Tribune published a two-part series discussing abuse and neglect in CILAs (“community group homes”). Within part one it is suggested that because of the dire state of funding, agencies like ours (GCS) can only attract the sort of employee from whom we cannot expect high-quality and compassionate care. I find statements like […]
The Gift of Girl Scout Cookies
I recently received a phone call from a Mrs. Foley that I had met a couple of months ago at a memorial we had held for a wonderful man named Tim that had passed way too soon due to a chronic illness. Mrs. Foley was family to Tim, and she had spoken to me the […]
Neither Rain, Nor Hail, Nor 19.3 inches of Snow ….
A week ago at this time we were still digging out from the blizzard the blew through Chicago land. This time the weather forecasters weren’t out to just scare us, as they were fairly accurate about the amount of the white stuff that we were going to be dealing with. I think the gods mistook […]