Director's Column: The Constant of Change
By Nancy Hafer, Program Director, Human Services
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, wisely said, “Change is the only constant in life.” And, as many of you are aware, change is something the Resource Center for Family-Focused practice has embraced in the last few months. We are proud to be celebrating our 20th anniversary this summer, and in honor of that, we renew our commitment to Wraparound and its 10 principles.
To help support our commitment to Wraparound, we are restructuring our staff and leadership. I am honored to join the Wraparound community as director, and I look forward to working together to improve the outcomes for California’s most vulnerable children and families.
As part of this restructuring, we have had to bid a fond and heartfelt farewell to several staff members this summer. We cannot express enough appreciation and gratitude for their passionate work to improve the lives of children and families in California. Andrew Schuette and James Williams will remain on the Resource Center team and are here to help you with your training needs.
Additionally, I cannot express enough gratitude to Wraparound champions in California. Jarred Vermillion, Jane Tabor Bane, Christine Mattos, Colleen Paul and Monica Caprio have all made an indelible impression on wraparound in California and we wish them the best of luck in their next adventures.
Throughout these changes, our commitment to Wraparound remains intact, alive and well! We are excited to be updating our beginning Wraparound curriculum and will begin offering regional classes starting in 2020. Another change you’ll note is the electronic format of this newsletter. We hope this format eases your access and will afford us the ability to get information out in a more timely, environmentally responsible manner. We hope you will forgive our break in sending out this quarterly newsletter this summer. We have provided a review of all Hub meetings (two quarters) to help everyone catch up on the Hub happenings. We will continue to provide this update in the future. We will also continue to serve the state of California by working more closely on the development of fidelity tools and data measurement.
Tony Robbins said, “Change is inevitable; growth is optional.” Truer words may never have been spoken. While we cannot often control the change, we can choose to grow. Here’s to a great year of future growth. Along these lines, I was fortunate to attend the recent National Wraparound Implementation Academy in Baltimore in early September. This conference highlighted the profound positive benefits of Wraparound and the burgeoning amount of research showing its positive impacts.
Lastly, please save the date for the Partnerships for Wellbeing Institute: June 3 – 5, 2020, in Anaheim! We’re currently planning the conference, and it’s shaping up to be our most dynamic, impactful Institute to date. We look forward to seeing you there.