Greetings all-
Wishing all good health and hopefully COVID immunity in ’21 and praying blessings be upon each of you and your families!
Very pleased to share the below write up of TSFs 2020 Year in Review. CY 2020 was a breathtakingly successful year for Team TSF but only because of the amazing work, assistance and support from all of the members of our team: Don DeLaney, Sarah Williams, Gordy Rawles MD, Emily Martin, Renee Walker, Amanda Loro and Ellen Elmaleh.
Below is an overview of all that TSF accomplished in 2020:
- Fostering Acadia’s Independent Living Program: TSF significantly expanded our relationship with Fostering Acadia (FA) during 2020 to the point that not only are we now considered a trusted mentor to their youth but equally important a trusted advisor to their senior leadership team. During 2020 TSF mentored five individuals and conducted a total of 9 different Zoom meetings on behalf of Fostering Acadia’s IL program.
- Children’s Home Society My Path Forward (MPF) Program: Powers and DeLaney had never officially met with anyone with CHS prior to meeting with the My Path Forward (MPF) team February 11, 2020 to learn more about the program (at the time branded as The Possibilities Project) as well as discuss TSFs mentor capabilities. Since then, TSF has mentored a total of 10 young adults over 13 different sessions.
- The Mentor Support Plan (TMSP). TSF collaborated with Darrell and Donna Shires with MedWorks in CY 2020 to design and develop a program we are calling “The Mentor Support Plan (TMSP)” which is intended to provide a much more structured approach to hiring and retaining young adults from either FAs IL or CHS MPF programs and includes internal and external mentors to support the young adults when they experience on the job challenges.
- Youth Assessment Tools. One of the critical omissions TSF identified in 2020 was the lack of meaningful job and career assessment tools for the youth with FA and CHS. TSF changed that in 2020 by introducing the YouScience aptitude, personality, and interest tool to both organizations as a way to assist their young adults with identifying potential career paths. We expect these tools will play a significant role in the young adult assessments for their respective programs in 2021.
- Mentors: TSF expanded from only two mentors (Gary Powers and Don DeLaney) to six during 2020 adding Sarah Williams, Gordy Rawles MD, Emily Martin, and Renee Walker. The addition of the four mentors has significantly increased TSFs overall depth and capacity to be able to support more young adults with both FA and CHS in the future.
- Governance. TSF was approved for the Articles of Incorporation and received a favorable determination letter from the IRS to become a 501©3 tax exempt organization in 2020. In addition, TSF approved our by-laws, elected BODs, and named the following officers to the organization effective December 21, 2020: Executive Director: Gary Powers, Board Chair: Sarah Williams, Board Vice Chair and Treasurer: Don DeLaney, and Board Recording Secretary: Gordy Rawles MD.
- Communications. TSF designed a new logo and took our website live (thanks to graphic designer Amanda Loro) in July 2020 www.successva.org and with many thanks to Ellen Elmaleh, another graphic designer in RVA, began updating our young adults resumes to make them look and feel more professional.
Gary S Powers, TSF Executive Director