FEB
2024
Garden Center Services
The View From My Chair A MESSAGE FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
respect, empowerment, and compassion that we demonstrate to our staff.
Gerry & Ashley
INSIDE THIS ISSUE THE VIEW FROM MY CHAIR Page 1 GCS’S PHOTOG CLUB Page 2 HOLIDAY JOY Page 3 THRIFT NEWS Page 4
Hello Everyone, and a Happy & Healthy 2024 to you! I’ve shared with you before that I truly believe Garden Center Services has the finest, most loyal employees of any agency I have knowledge of. I would imagine any of you that have direct contact with them would heartily agree. Cindy and I, as the leaders of this fine organization, understand that the quality of the care we offer to the individuals supported by our agency is directly connected to the
Over the past few years our agency has worked in collaboration with the associations that we are members of and the They Deserve More coalition to strongly advocate with our
The servant-leader is servant first, it begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first, as opposed to, wanting power, influence, fame, or wealth” -Robert K. Greenleaf
legislators to increase the hourly wage for our Direct Support Professionals. We were very pleased this past summer when
we were informed that our activism had been successful and that the approved budget for this current fiscal year included a $2.50 an hour increase for those employees that work directly with program participants. We were fortunate to be able to give this increase to our staff early; raising their rates by $1.25 in both July and again in November last year. This was their biggest increase in quite some time and I want to express my gratitude to each and every one of you that took part in our advocacy efforts by calling, writing, or emailing your personal legislators. It is really true that the squeaky wheel gets the grease! There was some anxiety recently however when our state funder informed providers like us that the continued on page 4