Strategic Business Plan 2024-2027
Contributors: Derrick Prichard, Owner; Shelby Forrest, Program Manager; Katie Billington, Director; Kim Oleson, Business Manager; Shyla Niss, Milieu Manager
Summary of Plan
This plan includes 4 Sections – Section 1: Revenue Review; Section II: Review of Human Resources; Section III: Review of Performance; and Section IV: Goals, Priorities, and Plan. The first three sections give a review of Revenue, Human Resources, and overall Operations for 2023. Data is included to identify areas of underperformance in terms of revenue projected as well as those areas where revenue projections were exceeded. The Human Resource review includes demographic data of employees, turnover of staff, as well as longevity of staff. HR also addresses any positions which were eliminated or added during the year. Recruitment efforts for positions are also highlighted in this section. The review of operations includes data related to number of admissions, successful discharges, and any major changes in programming during the year.
The final section of the plan – Section IV – represents the goals, priorities, and plan for the upcoming year. Quarterly updates are also included in this section.
Section I Revenue Review
We started 2023 in the black and maintained a net profit throughout the first half of the year. After the second quarter our census decreased, and our expenses stabilized. Due to this, our third quarter profit decreased. We finished the year in the red due to a significant drop in census.
Section II Review of Human Resources
Staff Demographics 2020-2023: We currently have an average length of employment of one year, with seven employees with over 4 years of employment. The turnover rate significantly decreased in the last 2 quarters of 2023 to under 15%. This is considered a great improvement and is attributed to greater stability among management.
Section III Review of Performance
In 2020, we began using Therap to analyze our outcome performance. We recorded 43% successful discharges. In 2021, 30% successful discharges. In 2022, 21% successful discharges. At the time of writing this plan, we are currently averaging 16% successful discharges for 2023. The decrease in successful discharges is attributed to high staff turnover and not having a program manager to ensure proper compliance with policies and procedures from staff and youth. There was also a change in Director at the end of 2023, due to a need for more structure and organization.
Section IV Goals, Priorities, and Plan
Expectations of persons served:
Goals: We will utilize information gathered from youth surveys to improve the experience they have while in our care. A measurable outcome we expect will be an increase in successful discharges as well as an overall increase in reported feeling of safety for the youth.
Expectations and relationship with external stakeholders:
Goals: We will work to improve our ongoing relationship with the local law enforcement to ensure the needs of our youth continue to be served accordingly. We will also continue to work with the local community to increase awareness of the work we do with the youth we serve.
Competitive, regulatory, and legislative environments:
Goals: We will continue to work with our local department of children and family services to ensure we are aware and compliant with all current legislation pertinent to the job we do.
Financial opportunities and threats:
Goals: We will work towards acquiring a three month expense surplus to ensure fiscal viability. We will do this by keeping Kansas census at 90% occupancy and increasing out of state placements from 2 to 5. We will also work to increase annual donations to account for 5% of annual operating expenses.
Use of technology to support operations, service delivery, and performance improvement:
Goals: We will maintain an annual budget for technology and maintain all systems in good working condition. We will also improve our therap subscription to be able to run more reports to reflect staff performance as a way of improving service delivery.
Cultural competency and Diversity:
Goals: We will continue to train all staff annually on appropriate cultural competency and diversity. We will also make every effort to ensure a diverse makeup of staff.
Consideration of information from the analysis of performance:
Goals: We will create a thorough training program for new staff. We will identify specific areas of deficit within the current milieu and create a training plan to incorporate these areas in training. We will identify a global performance measurement and establish a baseline to track improvement across staff.
We will improve successful discharges. We will set our goal to meet 75% successful discharges. We will accomplish this by improving documentation completion from staff to 90% and 70% of programming compliance by youth. This will be tracked via Therap reporting.
Priority of Goals and Resource Allocation
Priority #1 – We will improve our therap subscription to be able to run more reports to reflect staff performance as a way of improving service delivery.
Priority #2 – Staff turnover – we will hire a training coordinator and review and strengthen our training program for new and current staff. We will identify measurable performance objectives to ensure we retain high quality staff.
Priority #3 – Community support – we will set measurable outcomes for increasing number of community volunteers to help offset limited staff.
Priority #4 – Decrease law enforcement involvement – we will work with local law enforcement to identify positive ways to improve the relationship.
Priority #5 – Fiscal accountability – management will meet regularly to ensure we are staying within budget and keeping our census at an acceptable level
Priority #6 – Use of technology – we will conduct research to identify ongoing ways to improve service delivery.
Quarterly Updates to Plan
Review of goals and progress from 2021 strategic plan:
Consideration of expectations of persons served:
We have implemented youth surveys and have administered them quarterly with the goal of improving quality of care. Feedback from youth indicates a positive level of quality of care.
Consideration of expectations and relationship with external stakeholders:
We have implanted stakeholder surveys and requested feedback annually. Feedback has been minimal but positive. No identified urgent needs for change.
Consideration of the competitive, regulatory, and legislative environments:
We continue to stay up to date with all governing bodies that we work with. We are in compliance with state and national regulations.
Consideration of financial opportunities and threats:
We averaged a positive cash flow during the first half of 2023 fiscal year. We have identified goals to increase our surplus of funds to safeguard against negative cash flow months. We also identified a need for increased annual donors to assist with fiscal viability.
Consideration of use of technology to support operations, service deliver, and performance improvement:
We have purchased and made available to staff laptops and desktop computers to increase the ease of training and documentation. We will continue to evaluate additional needs for use of technology.
Consideration of Cultural competency and Diversity:
We continue to provide cultural competency as part of all new hire training. We have also hired bilingual and LGBTQ staff to assist in the diversity of our milieu.
Consideration of information from the analysis of performance:
We have had multiple staff training coordinators. It has been difficult to maintain a consistent team of staff due to the nature of the current available work force and the specific needs of our organization. We have identified a need to develop a robust training program and will seek to hire a qualified training coordinator as soon as possible.