The
following is the narrative from the FY'07 Annual Report:
As
I review the many facts and figures contained within the Transition House, Inc.,
Annual Report, the following statistic seem significant.
·
In
the Transitional Living Program:
¨
The
average length of stay for clients was 7 months.
¨
31%
of our clients were employed by the time they completed the program.
¨
38%
of our clients received benefits (SSI and/or SSDI) by the time they completed
the program. Only 17% of our clients
had those benefit upon entry into the program.
¨
The
average annual income upon entry into the program was $1,530.
The average exit income increased to $5,890.
¨
Of
the 21 clients who completed the program during FY’07, 43% graduated, 43% were
dismissed for non-compliance, 14% left the program.
¨
55%
of our clients accepted into the program came from NADTC’s Co-Occurring
Program.
¨
83%
of our clients came into the program with a Co-Occurring diagnosis of serious
mental illness and substance abuse.
¨
The
total number of Transitional Living Days provided was 3,910 – highest in the
history of the agency.
¨
The
average educational level was 13 years. We
had 5 college graduates – 1 with a Masters and 2 clients had degrees in Social
Work.
¨
The
average age was 42.
·
On average, our agency served 50 clients per month.
In the Transitional Living Program, 29 clients were served, and in the
Outreach program, 95 were served. The
total unduplicated number of clients served was 99.
·
On average, approximately 80% of the clients who
participated in our Community Outreach Program have participated in the
Transitional Living Program.
·
The average cost per day in the Transitional Living
Program was $58. In the Community
Outreach Program, the average per contact cost was $26.
The agency’s average unit of service cost was $46.
In translating these statistics, Transition House, Inc., is serving a
full house of older, well educated clients whose life challenges are not only
severe mental illness, but very serious additions.
These clients have worked extremely hard in our programs and despite
slips and relapses have occurred in people’s recovery process, we have seen
some wonderful success stories during FY’07.
Recovery is a process and I think it is very easy to forget that fact.
Our clients have challenges that clients in the past have not had.
That means our staff has had to work much harder, stay well educated, and
set clear limits – all while staying hopeful and believing that each person
who walks through our doors can somehow benefit from the services we have to
offer. Words cannot express the
respect I have for our Staff, Board, and Volunteers.
Each has contributed their best to weave a net of support for people
whose lives are challenged - sometimes in ways that we really can’t completely
understand. One of our students
wrote this comment in a card at the end of her time at our agency – “It is
truly refreshing to see that there are believers in the social
services field – burn-out is not inevitable!”
Challenged as we have been during FY’07, through the times of
frustration and struggle, we as an agency have maintained the belief that what
we do really does matter. We believe
that if we keep trying, learning new ways, understanding more, have more
patience – we can help the clients who come to us move to a place of recovery
for their lives.
During FY’07 we didn’t ‘cure’ anyone.
We shared our support, information, encouragement, and belief to everyone
who walked through our doors. Whether
the success was a tangible, or simply a feeling – people who went through our
programs have been helped. That
really is the bottom line. Transition
House, Inc., does make a difference!
My thanks to everyone who make this place so incredibly unique and
special. I admire our Clients for
their drive and determination. I
respect our Staff for being the best clinicians, advocates, and supporters for
our clients. And to Board and other
volunteers, each contributes what they can to complete the important net of
support that is Transition House, Inc. After
25 years, Transition House, Inc., is a leader in the state in helping clients
have Hope for Recovery from Mental Illness!
-
Bonnie
L. Dunn, MHR
- Executive
Director
Below
are additional highlights from FY’07:
·
Jeanene
cut her hours back to 32 hours/week to help address budget shortfalls.
Though this helped our budget, clients and staff felt the loss of Jeanene
on Fridays. We are glad she has
agreed to increase her hours to 35 hours/week in FY’08.
Her clinical expertise is crucial to our client’s recovery.
·
Bonnie
celebrated 20 years as Executive Director of Transition House, Inc.
·
TH
was actively involved in the Social Services Coordinating Council’s Candidates
Forum.
·
We
were very fortunate to have wonderful support from several OU
students/volunteers. Our
students/volunteers were:
¨
Jan
Durbin, Social Work practicum student for the Fall and Spring semesters
¨
Ali Dart
, Social Work practicum
student for the Fall and Spring semesters
¨
Melanie
Johnston, Human Relations intern student during the spring semester
¨
Tamra
Tucker, student volunteer, beginning November 2006.
·
Through
improved tracking of Outreach client’s interventions, we increased our
awareness how critical our work is with these clients.
Assistance related to medication issues, budgeting, sobriety, food &
housing needs, and benefits assistance.
·
Katie
began work on her Human Relations degree from OU.
·
Day
of Caring volunteers from OG&E converted a portion of our front reception
area into an office for
Elizabeth
.
·
Bonnie
served as Co-Chair of Speaker’s Bureau for
United Way
of Norman campaign for 2006.
·
Staff
and clients attended the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse
Services (DMHSAS) Best Practices conference.
Two of our clients were featured in a video that played during the
conference.
·
DMHSAS
increased our contract for FY’07. This
increase was critical and we are very grateful for the Department’s support
and recognition of our agency.
·
In
addition to contracts with DMHSAS and Norman Housing Authority and our support
from
Norman
’s
United Way
, Grants were also received from:
¨
Norman
’s
Social and Voluntary Services Commission to help cover van expenses and a second
SVSC grant was received to cover costs for a new main computer and server that
replaced our computer that crashed in Nov. 2006
¨
Norman
Regional
Hospital
to assistance with Staff Training and Development and clients supplies
¨
St.
Thomas More Sue Wilson Charitable Fund for Client
Essentials
·
An
agency wide retreat was held in November 2006.
Thanks to Board member Charlotte Jones for facilitating the retreat.
·
The
holidays were made special by many events including our Halloween Party, special
holiday dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas at the
Drop-In
Center
hosted by Katie, and our annual Holiday Party/Open House with Board, Staff and
Clients. Special thanks to Board
members Dr. Asha Raju & Sophia Morren for hosting and catering this event.
·
The
Drum Circle
received some extra support when Tamra joined our staff as a volunteer.
Tamra is an experienced percussionist and she and Elizabeth helped
prepare our clients for yet another outstanding performance during the Norman
Holiday Parade. Clients worked
extremely hard to put together an amazing float that included a large 5’ tall
globe. This year’s theme was a
time of peace. The TH float won Best
Adult Music Float for the 3rd year in a row.
JBJ star Jacob Lynn drummed with our clients, Board, volunteers and
staff.
·
Elizabeth
worked hard to get tickets donated to the clients for sporting events and
activities including tickets to a hockey and
baseball games.
·
Norman
’s
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship held a coffee shop benefit for Transition
House, Inc. One of the clients from
our Transitional Living Program was a performer in the event.
·
The
agency received several donations of games over the holiday season to help
clients learn new ways of having fun without drugs or alcohol.
·
The
clients worked with
Elizabeth
and once again entered and received Honorable Mention in the Hideaway Pizza
statewide Collage Contest. This
activity was a wonderful team building activity and clients were very proud of
their success in the statewide contest.
·
Work
began preparing our policies and procedures final revisions for Board approval.
We have been making modification during our transformation process and we
now feel like we are ready to present our recommendations to the Board in
FY’08 for their review and approval. Katie
has done a great job heading up this effort.
·
Clients
and Staff once again participated in the Mental Health Rally at the State
Capitol.
·
To
improve networking efforts – especially related to June Bug Jam, Melanie set
up a MySpace site for Transition House, Inc.
This proved to be a valuable tool with the agency’s fund raising event.
·
TH volunteer Tamra Tucker was recognized as a nominee
at the annual Volunteer of the Year Awards Ceremony.
·
Thanks to donations from Board members, Quin Tran
provided support for extra PR for our agency – especially prior to June Bug
Jam ’07. This included interviews
on television, radio and newspaper.
·
April marked the 25th Anniversary of
Transition House, Inc.
·
Transition
House, Inc., was one of many agencies who participated in the 2nd
annual community Mental Health Celebration.
Three of our June Bug Jam stars performed at this event.
·
June
Bug Jam 2007 and the Silent Auction proved to be our most successful to date.
Gross received to date is $11,697 – Net is $10,197.
There is still approximately $700 that was pledged that hasn’t been
collected yet – so the potential is there for a net of $10,897.
Our Board, staff and volunteers worked extremely hard to ensure the
wonderful success of this year’s event. Special
thanks to JBJ Chairs
James Heath
and Denise Johnson. Ali worked with
clients to make June Bug paperweights as a special Thank You to JBJ Stars.
This was a great way for the clients to show their gratitude to those who
support our agency. Special note for
this year’s show – lighting for the show was done by a Transitional Living
Program clients and the stage back drop was done by the TL Program graduate –
now Outreach client!
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