Executive Director Letter
Dear Readers,
Lately our working board of directors have been doing some overtime with us, updating our organization's strategic plan. We owe a great debt to Jeff Poholsky of L.B. Foster, who has lead our planning meetings since 2011. Strategic planning involved analyzing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and developing strategies to maximize our success based on the key elements in these categories. We've been taking a hard look at the nonprofit environment, our mission, what services are available to you and your family, and what roles we need to play over the next five years. I'd like to thank our board members who have spent many extra hours thinking, writing, asking hard questions, and finding the answers we need to keep our mission updated and moving forward to a higher level with each passing month. They help us do a kind of organizational evaluation - or in this case, a re-eval - which helps us gain visibility, secures sustainability, and increases our reach to help the most people in the best ways possible.
You may have noticed an uptick in our social media. We've benefitted from the analytics and consultation of intern, Shannon Hunter, who is helping us out as part of her master's degree program at Point Park University. Shannon works full time in social media for a large local health care company. She has helped us share good information on a regular basis and keep you informed about programs happening which fulfill our mission of being a lifeline of support. Sometimes you may see articles about things not available in your neighborhood; we do this to show what can be done, in the hopes that these illustrations will spur similar offerings around the state. So feel free to share postings and be sure to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Instagram or Twitter, to help spread the word about autism possibilities.
Please let me know if you'd like to be part of our ongoing growth in whatever way works for you. We always value input in the form of your calls or email help requests (which guide our programming) suggestions for articles or speakers, and solid referral resources (doctors, therapists, lawyers, housing, employment and so on). Because of your ongoing openness with us about your successes and struggles, we are better able to pay that forward to the next caller.
Take care, enjoy this great weather, and we look forward to hearing from you as we work to be your best Autism Connection.
Lu