ITS BEEN CRAAAZY!!!
It’s been a very busy year for us at Options for Families and Youth (OFY). We’ve been jumping from one project to another while keeping up with the programs that are in place serving children, teens and adults in the greater Cleveland area. Here’s a sample of what’s been happening:
We prepared for an on-site survey from the Commission On The Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). This is a national accreditation organization whose standards must be met by us so that we can continue to conduct our counseling and therapy services at OFY. Our site visit occurred on October 24thand 25thand we are anxiously awaiting our results sometime in January, 2012.
OFY passed our state certification inspection for our foster care and adoption services during the Summer. This allows us to continue providing specialized foster homes and adoption services and to contract with Cuyahoga County.
We then submitted a proposal to the Cuyahoga County Executive’s Office during the Summer for our work in providing foster care services to the child welfare population in Cuyahoga County. Our proposal was accepted and we were granted a contract to provide services until July, 2012. Our work and service continues for our 22ndyear in this area.
OFY just received word that our proposal to provide Help Me Grow services in Cuyahoga County was accepted. This enables our work with the 0 to 3 year old population to continue.
We submitted a Letter Of Inquiry to the RGK Foundation asking for funds to support our Team For Teens program that works with pregnant and parenting teens in the western Cuyahoga County area.
OFY is expanding our office space at 5131 West 140thStreet in Brook Park, Ohio to include a much-needed, new Conference Room and family visitation area. Plans have been approved and construction should be completed by March, 2012.
Finally, if you haven’t noticed, we are updating the content of our website.
What Goes Around...
Several years ago, we were an agency without a website. Can you imagine that? A 21st century organization that was in existence for over 14 years, and we didn’t have a website! We ran across this guy, Chris Peer, who had a company called Idea Engine, Inc. He couldn’t believe it either. Chris convinced us to let his place design our first website.
It turned out it was the first website Idea Engine, Inc. designed.
Here we are at May of 2010, and that same website is still with us. It hasn’t been changed in the five or six years we’ve had it. We’ve had few (I can’t recall any, actually) problems with it, which is a testament to the quality work of those at Idea Engine, Inc.
Chris Peer called me out of the blue in February, 2010, and said that he felt that it was time that his folks did something philanthropic. (I think that means charitable.) Anyway, Chris told me that he was willing to redesign/rebuild OFY’s website in a 24-hours marathon of work…and he was willing to do it for free. For the first time in my 58 years, I was speechless. Sooooo…
On Thursday, May 13, 2010 at 8:30 a.m., those great people at Idea Engine, Inc. began the task of rebuilding the OFY website; hoping to conclude their work by Friday, May 14, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. If you’re seeing this new site, it’s the product of Idea Engine’s hard work!
