The Incompass community brought the holiday cheer at our first-ever lighting ceremony hosted at Omni Way. The main pieces of the ceremony were a beautifully lit Christmas tree, Hanukkah menorah, and the Kwanzaa kinara. Incompass staff, families, and group home residents showed up in their most festive attire to kick off the holiday season with us.
Before COVID, the Incompass Holiday Party hosted at Lenzi’s was the highlight of everyone’s year. Although we’ve made incredible progress with vaccinations, we decided to postpone the party for yet another year in order to keep our community as safe as possible. Were we disappointed? Of course. But we were determined to make lemonade out of our lemons!
What resulted was an inclusive lighting ceremony, caroling, and delicious pre-packaged goodies. We know it isn’t our usual holiday party, but man was it a beautiful thing to witness.
Incompass Human Services’ mission is to empower individuals in need of human services to experience full lives in their communities with supports that are innovative, personalized, and valued. This week, we published our FY21 Annual Report outlining the myriad ways our Care Champions delivered on that mission over the course of the past year.
From new program launches to technological innovation to a new brand, Incompass adapted to the unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic. The agency’s strategic plan continues to drive much of the tactical focus, and we modeled our brand position of “innovating to help the most vulnerable thrive.” We hope you enjoy reliving some of the highlights over the past year, including our brand launch ceremony, vaccine clinics, and “Adopt-A-Family” campaign!
Of course, none of this would be possible without the generosity of our community. We want to thank and acknowledge all of our donors over the past year who helped us fund critical initiatives.
Platinum donors ($10K-$50K)
Digital Federal Credit Union
New Balance Foundation
Gold donors ($5K-$10K)
Autism Speaks
Gregg and Marybeth Bonheur
Mike and Lesley Sklar
Silver donors ($1K-$5K)
Timothy Allen
Carol Bowen
Carl and Lori Christensen
Community Foundation for Nantucket
Decibel Media
The Durkin Foundation
Enterprise Holdings Foundation
William and Beth Flanagan
Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union – We Share a Common Thread Foundation
It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since we launched the Incompass brand to much fanfare! While I love our new logo, what I truly appreciated was the deliberative process behind the creation of the brand. And as I sit here today reading through some of that foundational work, I’m trying to contain my excitement for the path our agency is carving out in the human services space.
Let’s start with our brand position:
“Innovating to help the most vulnerable thrive.”
We live this statement every day, and it’s this aspect of our culture that has helped us and the people we serve to stay connected throughout the pandemic. But beyond adapting to the external environment, it’s become a core focus at Incompass – at all levels of the agency.
More important is how we define innovation at Incompass. Innovation isn’t merely defined by technology; it’s defined by new ideas and initiatives that advance our mission to empower individuals in need of human services to experience full lives. We’re bringing on new programs, adding new supports, launching new technology, and creating new ways to help the people we serve thrive.
Let me share just a few examples of innovation in action at Incompass:
ABI Supports and Group Home: As part of our strategic plan, we have launched programs to support people with acquired brain injuries. Working with the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC), we completed construction on a new fully accessible group home in Tyngsborough designed specifically for the ABI population and moved in five residents. We were also just selected by the MRC to expand our ABI portfolio to provide a range of facility-based and community support services, as well as transitional assistance to those seeking to live more independently. In the coming years, we anticipate helping a number of individuals with ABI in the Northeast Region to secure affordable apartments along with meaningful day or employments supports.
Adaptive Technology: We have created an ad-hoc technology committee, chaired by board member and senior engineer at iRobot Jon Seward, that has just launched an industry-first adaptive technology initiative. Cloud-based sleep tracking devices have been installed in a select number of group homes that will for the first time provide sleep health metrics to our clinical team. With this data, Incompass nurses will be able to identify sleep disorders and other factors leading to sleep loss that can adversely impact the health and well-being of the people we serve.
Virtual Programming: While we don’t know if the state will continue to support virtual programming in 2022, one thing is clear that our virtual program portfolio is here to stay! Our clinical specialists have embraced this platform to not only keep people engaged who are not able to attend a facility-based program but to supplement the activities that are core to our day programs.
Autism Coaching: On the heels of our award-winning Strive2Thrive program for people with autism without an intellectual disability, DDS awarded Incompass a contract to expand our portfolio for people with autism. For the first time, our team is now offering life coaching and college navigation services to the people with autism in our programs. We’ve hired a highly-qualified Care Champion to oversee this program, who himself is an alumnus of the Urban Youth Scholars program.
These are just a few of the examples of innovation that keep driving our agency, and there are countless more I could share. Our Care Champions are as creative as they come when it comes to evolving our service model, and it’s one of the many reasons why our funders continue to choose Incompass Human Services to offer new and vital services to the community.
I wish you all a safe and healthy fall season, filled with pumpkin spice lattes and apple cider donuts!
Last week, we had the pleasure of welcoming Incompass families to the Omni Way Open House. It was so heart-warming to witness all of the reconnections between our Care Champions, individuals, and their families! Staff gave personalized tours of our day program space and answered any questions that families had.
