A Message from Katie Slade, Interim Executive Director

posted by Katie Slade on Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Greetings! I wanted to share with you some of the "Bright Spots" I'm seeing here at EPI within my time as the Interim Executive Director.

• I attended our national association’s annual conference virtually. The theme was Elevate! Where emerging ideas are shared to take community-based services to the next level. In each session, I thought to myself, how fortunate we are at EPI. We have the best team, and we are well on our way toward many of the ideas shared.
   
• Staff have submitted their ideas and solutions and they are pouring in around our Employee Engagement prioritize categorizes. I’ve heard teams are having really, really great conversations. I want to thank our staff for investing in our future and sharing their ideas!
   
• Congratulations to EPI's Hawkeye Child Development Center at the ALC on receiving their Quality Rating System (QRS) level 4 from the Iowa Department of Human Services. By participating, the center has demonstrated a desire to improve the quality of care and education the children receive. We ALSO just celebrated Provider Appreciation Day on May 6.
   
• More Than You See is happening Friday, May 20! It’s our 65 Anniversary. All are invited. Local artists Brad + Kate are performing. You’re a big part of our 65-year legacy. I sure hope you’ll consider attending and bringing some friends/family. I’d love to see you there. Free will donations are accepted at the event.
   
• Bob Peck received the IACP Community Builder Award for 2022 last week at the conference. Read about it here.
   
• Spoiler Alert! Stakeholder satisfaction is HIGH thanks to YOU. Our stakeholder survey results have come in and I’m so impressed. All service areas had overall scores of 4.00 or higher (on a 5 point scale) and in another challenging year of the pandemic no less. We don’t stop there – we listen to the feedback given by you and use it to continuously improve, ensuring we’re providing the highest quality of services. As results are shared throughout the organization, each service area reviews their survey feedback and creates an action plan based on identified areas to prioritize. Thank you for the time spent on your thoughtful responses.

We've had so many it is hard to choose just a few - this EPI team is so impressive and I am lucky to be a part of it. If you have a Bright Spot to share, click here, we'd love to hear about it.