Quarterly Newsletter OCT - DEC 2024

Greetings !

As I share these remarks, I am mindful of our friends and families in Florida, as Hurricane Milton slammed into state with catastrophic winds and storm surges. Our hearts and prayers are with the residents and small businesses impacted by this storm, along with those still recovering from Hurricane Helene’s devastation.

Meanwhile here in NKY, we enter the Fall season of giving thanks. I am truly thankful for our BAWAC staff, clients, board of directors, volunteers, and partners. Through their dedication and hard work, we served 420 clients over the past year in Community Rehabilitation, Training, Supported Employment, Project SEARCH, and/or Transportation services. We assisted 87 businesses with their employment, workforce, and/or production needs. Our transportation team drove almost 900,000 miles across six counties to provide critical access for individuals to/from work, day programs, and/or medical appointments. In addition, our staff and clients assembled, packaged, and/or labeled over 5 million items for local businesses, while simultaneously providing essential job training skills to clients. Check out our 2023-2024 Impact Report to see more exciting highlights from the past year.

We are looking forward to our Annual Dinner & Awards Celebration on October 24th at Receptions Event Center, where we will host over 300 of our clients, staff, and closest friends. This event will be a fun opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our clients and staff, along with recognizing community and business partners.

Thank you for supporting our mission of transforming barriers into opportunities.

Jason Ashbrook, President & CEO

Welcome New Staff...

Ryan Langevin, Production Driver/Shipping/Receiving - "Hi, my name is Ryan Langevin, and I’m 36 years old, I have been happily married for 4 years and I have a beautiful little girl named Brylee and she is 3 years old. My hobbies are upcycling and arts & crafts. I was hired on as the Driver/Shipping/Receiving person. I really like it here. I have changed my attitude since I started working here from my last job. I really can’t say enough about BAWAC, except 'thank you' for letting me work for such a great place."

Shannon O’Brien - Schmidt, CRS Support Specialist - Shannon started on July 10th and she is working as a Community Rehabilitation Specialist in the Life Transitions program. Shannon has a Bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Neuroscience, as well as a diverse set of skills and experience working in patient and customer service care. She has a background in music as a vocalist, songwriter and violinist. She has performed in student and community orchestras. Shannon is proficient in speaking French, and also knows Spanish and Portuguese. Her hobbies include cooking and urban farming (i.e. caring for chickens, bees, and doves). We also want to offer Shannon congratulations on her wedding as she was recently married on September 21st.

Applause Award Winners...

This award recognizes employees (chosen by their peers) for exceptional work, leadership, acts of kindness or service, great ideas, and/or boosting of morale. The Applause Award recipients for July – September 2024 are...

Diego Olivares, Transportation Driver
Ann Maki, CRS Specialist
Michele Peck, HR Administrator
Barry Scott, Bookkeeper
Alison Horton, Transportation Support Assistant
Catherine Meisenhelder, CRS Assistant Manager
Nichole "Nikki" Todd, Administrative Assistant
Shari Olson, Social Media & Fundraising Coordinator

Hitting the Mark...

Community Rehabilitation Services (CRS) - We are making great progress on ordering the new furnishings for Life Transitions, and the Sensory Room has already received some new products and resources courtesy of our grant from The Greater Cincinnati Foundation. Overall, client goals are being met at 96%, and their community hours were over 400 which is 4% of their YTD goal in that area. Comparing our 2019 (pre-Covid) numbers to present day, we are back to almost full capacity and performing above those numbers. Great news for the CRS team!

Supported Employment - . We have seen an increased number of referrals and had 7 placements this quarter. Thank you to Toyota NAPCK, PeeWee's Place, NKY Water District, Basic Trust Day Care, Regency Manor and Guitar Center for your commitment to inclusion. Shout out to Supported Employment Assistant Manager Travis Evans for supporting a new employee on their first day at a 6:30a training, and Support Specialists Abby Paiotti and Dawn Goodness for working every other Sunday to support two more individuals. A former Project SEARCH graduate working for Home Depot full-time began having attendance issues and was subsequently given part-time hours. He wanted more hours so he began picking up shifts when they were available and was doing such a great job he was recently offered a full-time position that became available. Kudos to Home Depot for their understanding and support of this employee!

Norse Project SEARCH - Presenting about Norse Project SEARCH on Opening Day was a success thanks to one of our most recent grads talking about her internships at Northern Kentucky University that led her to successful community employment at PetSuites. During their first week, our 8 new interns (double the number from last year) did a scavenger hunt to get to know campus, checked out the rec center, and engaged in team building activities. They have already been making incredible strides embarking on their first rotations. They’ve been busy learning and growing, and putting in the hard work and dedication that will develop marketable skills to set them up for success in the future.

Production Services - Our larger business customers have been seen a slowdown due to economic and automation impact, but we've had multiple small jobs coming through and a new customer recently awarded us a monthly job that is suitable for all of our clients to work on. One of our client employees with limited sight and progressive mobility limitations began feeling discouraged and notified his CRS Specialist that he did not want to come to work any more because he felt like he was struggling to complete the jobs. One of our Production Supervisors, Rhiannon Stricker, stepped up to guide him in learning how to use a jig for an ongoing job, and now he's back in the game!

If your business needs quality production support, including assembly, packaging, and/or light manufacturing in a timely manner and believes in promoting social enterprise to create paid work training and opportunities for adults with disabilities, please contact production@bawac.org and let us know what we can do for YOU! How it works: 1) We analyze the job to determine if it is a good fit for our workers. 2) We do a mock time study to determine how long it will take to complete each portion of the job. 3) Production team determines ways to accomplish the job to ensure everyone will succeed. 4) Management uses formulas to determine cost to the vendor. 5) Bid is submitted for consideration.

Transportation Services - Transportation is still growing with continued services for FTSB, NKADD, St Elizabeth and self-pay clients. August was bustling with Med runs making it the most extensive month to date for this service! A new vehicle was added to the fleet with a capacity of up to 6 passengers including 2 wheelchair securement areas. Would you like to join our Transportation Team? Apply for a driver position now at https://bawac.org/careers/.

Fundraising & Events...

Y'alls Win, and so does BAWAC!...

BAWAC at the Ball Park 2024 was a huge success thanks to a sponsorship from Grove Transportation. An estimated 160 family, friends and fans joined us for a night of community, fun and baseball for a purpose. BAWAC's first pitch honorees "Sheri 1", "Percy Perseverance", and "Birthday Boy Dan" proved that practice pays off when they cleared home plate with their amazing throws. Thanks to everyone who participated we were able to raise nearly $2800 to help us provide Christmas gifts for our clients this year! Oh, and the Y'alls WON!

BAWAC Annual Dinner & Awards Celebration...

BAWAC's Annual Dinner & Awards Celebration will be held at Receptions in Erlanger on Thursday, October 24th. Many of you will be joining us for a memorable evening as we celebrate the achievements of our clients and employees, and recognize the contributions of community leaders, businesses, volunteers and donors. Shout out to our sponsors for supporting this event:

Advocate Sponsors: Heritage Bank, US Bank, Huntington Bank, First National Bank Kentucky, Paul Hemmer Company
Friend Sponsors: St Elizabeth Healthcare, LOTH, Inc., Duke Energy

We'll see you soon!

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