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Leadership Update with Dan Soliday
Plans for our future and the “pause.”
By: Dan Soliday, President/CEO
It has been an exhilarating and fun first 5-months at Heartspring. I am so grateful to be a part of the Heartspring family and to serve our nearly 400 team members, volunteer board members, donors, and, most importantly, our children, youth, and their families. Our Heartspring team has gone through a pandemic, the Great Resignation, and several leadership transitions. Just one of those would shake many people, but all three created a seismic phenomenon, from which we are still recovering.
I spent my first three months conducting a massive “organizational assessment,” which included interviewing nearly 20% of our 400 employees from all different positions of the organization. I asked each of them, “with all that has happened, why have you stayed?” Without hesitation, all repeated the same sentiment with different wording, “because of the kids!” Our team loves the kids we serve, and their ongoing development is at the heart and soul of who we are – Heartspring.
We are here to assist parents of children with complex needs in developing their children to their fullest potential. That is what drives me and our team every day. And it is because of this passion, we have chosen to pause enrollment of new students into the Heartspring Therapeutic Residential School from now until at least the end of summer. This does not inlclude outpatient services or CARE.
I have the following three goals during this enrollment “Pause”:
- Allow our incredible team of caring and able direct care professionals to have a moment of respite/rest after experiencing COVID, the national hiring crisis, and working overtime to help maintain the health, safety, and progress of our students.
- Empty one home and one classroom so our maintenance team can make needed repairs and updates to the home/classroom that are difficult to do with students present.
- To retool our admissions team and begin recruiting a house/classroom of younger students to make more progress with student education and behaviors.
We truly appreciate all our families and the trust that you understand the need for pausing enrollment and see the benefit it will bring to your student. Thank you for trusting the Heartspring team with your precious child. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me anytime with questions or concerns.
