2016 Annual Results 603-889-0652 •
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EXCELLENCE EMPOWERMENT INNOVATION 2016 ANNUAL RESULTS 603-889-0652 • WWW.PLUSCOMPANY.ORG 19 Chestnut Street 3 Ballard Way, Unit #302 885 Main Street, Unit #5 Nashua, NH 030603 Lawrence, MA 01840 Tewksbury, MA 01876 603-889-0652 978-689-8829 978-640-3936 DONNALEE LOZEAU 2016 SANDY GARRITY AWARD WINNER Donnalee Lozeau was elected the 55th Mayor of Nashua in November 2007, and was elected to serve a second term in November 2011. After serving 8 years, she decided to return to the Southern New Hampshire Services (SNHS), a non-profit agency where she previously worked for 15 years. She currently serves as Executive Director of SNHS which is a Community Action Agency serving Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties. One of Donnalee’s greatest strengths is being able to inspire change. She has always used her connections within the community to help create key friendships that lead to improvement and long lasting partnerships. Donnalee had a pivotal role in creating the partnership between St. Joseph Hospital and Project SEARCH, which is a school-to-work program that provides employment and education opportunities to individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities. Project Search began in 2008 and has had 8 graduating classes since. Out of the 54 individuals who have completed the program, 46 of them have gone on to obtain successful careers. Donnalee attends every Project SEARCH graduation that she can, saying she is inspired by hearing the graduates speak and “hearing from them in their own words, the things that light them up.” She shared that once she had to miss a graduation, and she decided to invite the entire class to come to the mayor’s office instead so she could speak with each graduate personally. During her run as mayor, Donnalee received a call from a citizen that was concerned about her niece not being able to access the local playgrounds. Donnalee immediately enlisted Kim Shottes, Executive Director of The PLUS Company, and formed a committee to build an accessible playground in Nashua. With help from the community, who came together on August 13th and 14th to start building it, “Legacy Playground” will soon become a reality. Stocked with brand new equipment that has been carefully selected and laid out in configurations that are fun, rigorous and challenging for children and adults with a variety of abilities, it will have an instrumental role in creating inclusion and acceptance in Nashua. Donnalee believes this inclusive playground is essential, saying, “Inclusion is huge…when we categorize people, I think we lose out on the things that make us special.” Donnalee has completed fifteen years serving on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Nashua and Greater Salem, and continues to serve on numerous state and local boards including The PLUS Company, St. Joseph Hospital, Reaching Higher NH and NH Center for Public Policies Studies. She works tirelessly to make our community a better, more accepting place. It is for these reasons and so many more that Donnalee Lozeau deserves the honor of receiving the 2016 Sandy Garrity Award. A LETTER FROM THE CHAIR AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Innovation. Empowerment. Excellence. Three words that mean so much to The PLUS Company and all of our clients. Whether taking part in a skills-based training program to prepare for working in an integrated environment, helping others speak when they cannot find their voice, or serving others through community service, you will find these words reflected in the actions of our amazing clients and all that they undertake. Our classes, activities, and training programs all seek to ensure all our clients have the skills they need to become valued members of the community, and to be the very best they can be. This year we have grown, we have changed for the better, and we have learned new ways of teaching and learning that will help our clients succeed. Most importantly, we have all worked together in a world that seems more and more fragmented each day. As we look back over the past year, we can see that we have been incredibly successful in creating new opportunities for our clients, through job training programs and life skill classes, while helping them find their strengths, develop healthier lifestyles, and build strong, long-lasting relationships with each other and with people in the community. We have developed new partnerships with many employers; we are holding workshops at Beaver Brook and classes at the Currier Art Center; and we have a new class called “Health Matters”, where clients learn how to be responsible for their own health and learn the actions that will lead them to a healthier lifestyle. We are also continuing to grow our Elevating Voices program where people are finding new ways to express themselves through public speaking. These efforts will continue to grow over the coming year, as The PLUS Company continues to find new, innovative ways to living our mission of empowering individuals with disabilities to maximize their independence. The three clients highlighted in this Annual Report have worked hard to find their path, allowing the staff at The PLUS Company to assist them along the way. They have done a remarkable job of using the skills they have learned to help others who are still trying to find their way, and to show that ALL people have value. Everyone is important and we all have stories to tell and to share that may help others. Over the coming year, we will continue to work hard and work together as a team to create more opportunities for our clients, always keeping three words in mind: Innovation, Empowerment, and Excellence. EMPOWERMENT — JANINE LEFFLER Janine may be diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Cortical Visual Impairment and Non Verbal Disability but she doesn’t let her disabilities stand in her way or define her. Since she started with The PLUS Company in 2011, Janine has been involved with numerous activities, clubs, and training programs, including Project SEARCH and the INCOME Program, which allowed her to learn the skills she needed to become an administrative assistant in the Career and Business Services Department at PLUS. Janine is also very involved in public speaking, and thanks to a book her mother wrote called “Janine”, she has the opportunity to promote the book and speak to various groups about what it was like to grow up with a disability and the bullying she experienced along the way. “It is important for people with disabilities to self-advocate,” says Janine, “because they are the only people who know how they are being treated unfairly and how things can be changed to make their lives better. I like being able to use my experiences to inspire others and encourage people to stand up when they or someone in their community is being treated unfairly because of their disabilities.” Janine is proud of how much she has grown professionally and personally in the past year because of her experience with PLUS, including teaching a poetry class in the Adult Education program, and participating in Walk Club, Health Matters, Community Service Club, and Special Olympics. She hopes that all that she has learned will help others as they learn to stand up for themselves and advises others to “...never be afraid to ask for help, because you never know when you might learn something new. Thank you to everyone at PLUS for being so supportive and so great to work with.” EXCELLENCE — SAMANTHA POHLAND Sam has made an incredible impact on The PLUS Company over the past two years. She has joined several clubs and classes, including the Anime Club, beading, quilting, community service, and performing arts. Thanks to the skills she has learned, Sam is eating healthy and making good lifestyle changes. She says one of her goals is to be healthy so that she can do more in the community, and this is where we find Sam’s true love: community service. Sam has taken charge of the Community Service Club, challenging the group to do more for those who could use a little extra help. In addition to food drives, sock drives, and collecting backpacks for kids heading back-to-school, Sam also spends her time serving food each week at the Southern New Hampshire Rescue Mission. According to Sam, “Community service is important because I am helping people and giving back to the community that has given something to me. It makes me feel better and it helps everyone to have a better life.” Being at the Mission is special to Sam because she gets to meet people, sitting down and talking to them while they are eating and finding out about them. In fact, Sam says that talking to people is probably one of the most important aspects of her job, and she encourages everyone to take a few minutes out of their day and talk to others. According to Sam, “It’s simple, but it could change someone’s day.” Sam would like to thank the community and The PLUS Company, for giving her the opportunity to serve others and develop skills she never knew she could have. INNOVATION — ALYSSA TERNULLO Alyssa has been with The PLUS Company for 5 years and was very excited at the opportunity to learn job skills through the unique on-the-job training program, STRIDE, a program that was created through a partnership with Sodexo, Lowell General Hospital, and PLUS. During the program, held at Lowell General Hospital, Alyssa worked in the kitchen, café, laundry, and the housekeeping department to learn skills she would need to find a job upon graduating the program.