President’s Report

Year in Review
March 1, 2010

Each year about this time, the Executive Team at Northwood endeavors to lay out the vision for the organization, which is the driving force in creating our desired future as an agency. The vision is designed to convey an energizing and exciting view of Northwood that is based on optimism and hope. It articulates what makes us unique and what sets us apart. Execution and planning make the vision a reality. As we look forward to 2010, it is helpful to take stock of our progress and accomplishments over the past year.

We served almost 500 students in our various programs in 2009. The average age of the students was 13 years, and they stayed for an average of 10 months in our residential treatment programs, and nine months in our day treatment programs. Informed stakeholders – parents and referring workers – reported a high degree of satisfaction with our services. On a six point rating scale, the overall average score was a five. The most highly rated items were the knowledge and skills of our staff; the staff’s level of understanding of each child’s unique needs, including their mental health needs; understanding and focusing on individual strengths; the quality of the educational services provided; progress made toward individual goal achievement; and the attractiveness of our facilities.

We strive to continuously improve the knowledge and skills of our staff, the functioning of our teams, and the satisfaction level of each staff member. Our staff are well trained. Last year, 227 workshops and seminars were offered for a total of 8,359 staff training hours. Included in that impressive number were a clinical certification program, a certification program for counselors, and various leadership and management training opportunities for supervisory staff. A survey was conducted recently with all staff designed to capture the most important information measuring the core elements involved in finding and retaining talented employees. The survey results were very positive and we will utilize the information we gathered in the coming year to plan specific team development priorities.

Our objective is to be the service provider of choice in each of the programs we choose to operate. The satisfaction surveys noted above and the fact that our programs all operated at full occupancy throughout the year speak to our success in that area. We maintained excellent relationships with our many local, statewide, and national partners. We met regularly with representatives from key stakeholders throughout the course of the year to evaluate our approach and outcomes with individual children and families and to identify program development opportunities.

Overall, we accomplished a good deal last year in pursuit of our vision. There is always work to be done. The coming year certainly will present significant challenges brought about by the unique current economic situation in our state and the nation.

Nevertheless, whatever the challenges, we will continue to do our best to be viewed as an organization with an unmatched reputation for quality that consistently achieves outstanding results; where energized and committed people put children first in all that they do; and where everyone associated with Northwood – staff, board members, donors, and volunteers – are proud and excited to be a part of helping guide the children we serve to a brighter future.

Richard Wolleat
President & CEO