Entering 2022 with a Fresh Plan for a Bright Future

After the last two years, having any plan at all, let alone a good one, feels like a big win. We’re excited to report that Chinook is in a great position and has a solid strategic plan for 2022 (and beyond) that we are already putting into action. Our primary programs are very strong as we continue to pursue our mission to support full participation in community life for people with disabilities and other barriers.

In summer 2021, we held our first in-person gathering as a team since early 2020. And in October, we came together again to map out our plans and goals for what at the time seemed like a very uncertain future.

With the help of Tim Corey from Colibri Facilitation, sponsored by Skagit County, we reviewed feedback about our performance and potential from listening tours, funders, contractors, staff, board members, and customers. We also got to hear from friends from the Lummi Nation, who taught our team how to become more culturally competent allies. It was a rich day – full of conversation and community.

We were able to condense that information down to four themes, with measurable goals within each. The four themes are:

• Staff training
• Fostering and cultivating our workplace culture
• Encouraging ideas and suggestions
• Board focus to expand and diversify

The graphic with the four umbrellas presents our 2022 strategic plan in visual form.

 

 

Goals Within the 4 Themes

The visual expresses the unique challenges we’re facing at this time, including staffing shortages, infrastructure needs, and revenue shortfalls.

Within the training theme, we are working on developing trainings that will be focused and specific for each department, based on staff input. We’ll also be doing more trainings on technology and diversity, equity and inclusion. And we’ll be using agency-wide job shadowing more frequently as a method for training new hires.

For workplace culture, we’ll be working at improving inter-departmental team culture, as well as cross training backups. We’ll be working on improving accountability and communication, which should lead to increased job satisfaction. And we’ll be optimizing our benefits and compensation packages.

As for encouraging ideas and suggestions this will be done first off with quarterly employee surveys, which we hope will generate more innovation across the board and improve employee engagement at all levels.

Lastly, the board will work on diversifying and expanding revenue sources, working on, and implementing the strategic plan, improving board recruitment and diversification, and on re-accreditation.