The View From My Chair

Gerry makes a BIG announcement

Dear Friends of Garden Center Services; the picture of me on the front of this issue of the Leaflet is of me finding a fun way to announce to our wonderful employees the news regarding a substantial increase to our rates from the Illinois Department of Human Services! To share important information like this I some times take on the persona of newscaster Gerry “Specs” Beagles ��!!

Through the efforts of the They Deserve More Coalition, the Illinois Association of

Rehabilitation Facilities, and the Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities, all of which Garden Center Services belongs to, an incredibly focused and convincing message was delivered to the Illinois legislature advocating for a much needed increase in the rates we are funded at for the services we provide.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

The positive outcome is that the state has granted an increase of $2.50 per hour effective January 1st, 2024, to help raise the hourly wages for those employees that work directly with our participants, and to cover other costs as well. This increase is one of the largest the state has awarded for some time, and gets us closer to the amount of necessary funding as identified by the Guidehouse Rate Study.

We have a profound understanding at our agency that the quality of the services we provide our individuals is directly tied to the value of our workforce, and how well the management of GCS is taking care of them. At agencies such as ours there are always many things we can spend money on, but we are choosing to flow through 100% of our increase to our incredible staff! This is borne of our promise to keep strong our mission of “Advancing lives of connection, contribution continued on page

WELCOME JONNY DURAN!

GARDEN CENTER’S NEW DIRECTOR OF NURSING

Help us welcome Garden Center’s new Director of Nursing, Jonny Duran!

Jonny grew up between Chicago and Puerto Rico. When he was young, Jonny’s Aunt lived with his family. She had a developmental disability as a result of uncontrolled epilepsy and spent long stretches of time in the hospital. As a pre-teen, Jonny spent a lot of his time in the hospital with her as his Aunt’s designated interpreter. While there, Jonny said he hung out with the nurses a lot. They made him feel at home, gave him treats, and generally kept him company, which ultimately led Jonny to join the profession himself.

Jonny comes to Garden Center with a wealth of experience in both direct support care and nursing. He worked at Clearbrook as a Direct Support Professional for over five years and still has relationships with many of the people he supported there. After he completed his nursing degree, Jonny worked in critical care to develop his nursing skills and also worked a short-term stint in hospice care.

Jonny says he loves a lot of things about working at Garden Center. He mentioned the flexibility and the kind people, but he said, “If I have to pick one thing I love the most, it is the time I get to spend with our consumers.”

We all love spending time with you too Jonny - we are so glad you are here!

SECOND CHANCE CELEBRATES ONE YEAR IN OUR NEW HOME!

This July, Garden Center’s Second Chance Thrift Shoppe celebrated it’s one-year anniversary at our new Chicago location! We had snacks and special sales to mark the occasion.

Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us! Help us work toward our second anniversary by joining our fun volunteer crew for whatever amount of time you can share. Fill out a volunteer form on our website or contact Tina for more information at 773-941-4481.

Check out our upcoming sales on the back of this issue!

Tending Our Garden

Garden Center Services publishes our newsletter six times a year. The majority of our readers receive the newsletter via email, but for those newsletters we mail, the printing and mailing costs add up.

We are happy to send out paper newsletters to anyone who is better able to read a printed copy, but if you currently receive a printed newsletter and wouldn’t mind switching to digital, please send your email address to Anne at amcferron@ GardenCenterServices.org.

Thank You!