Transitions Centers annually records and reviews some specific measures related to the services we provide. These measures assist our Leadership Team review the services offered to our Members, and strategies either to maintain or improve upon these service areas. Although we have been reviewing measures for quite some time, our Leadership Team wanted to compare our results over the past few years. All of the data contained in FY 23’s report, exhibit data collected while Transitions Center was functioning after the pandemic. Here are some of the results of our data collection:
Satisfaction data was gathered by surveys of TCI parents, TCI Day Habilitation Members, TCI Employment Services Members, Businesses that employ TCI Members through our Employment Service, and TCI staff. Satisfaction in all of these areas remained in the 90th to 100th with the exception of TCI staff satisfaction. In this year, staff expressed the need for increased rates of pay. 2023 was a difficult year for all Cape Cod businesses to hire, and all TCI employees had increased responsibilities, due to understaffing, which is a continuation of FY 2022. All staff during this fiscal year had to do more than their own job. The TCI Leadership Team is continuing to work on strategies to increase staffing and reduce the workload of current TCI staff.
Day Habilitation FTE’s (Full-Time Equivalents) have decreased over the past four years. this year, dropping from 48 to 38.6. This is primarily due to the restrictions placed on TCI during the pandemic to restrict the number of Members attending the Day Habilitation program as well as our inability to transport all of our Members due to staffing shortages. With strategies underway to fully staff our Day Habilitation program so that all Members can participate in our program daily, lifting of COVID restrictions, in addition to an increase in Day Habilitation tours from students graduating, as well as the increased need for day services on Cape Cod as a result of the pandemic, we look forward to a big increase in FTE’s in FY 24. Although our FTE’s decreased, the number of participants in Day Hab increased from 61 in FY 22 to 66 in FY 23. This is an optimistic sign that we should see more participants in FY 24.
Most Members in our Employment and Day Habilitation Services usually have more than one goal, and meeting and achieving goals is an important aspect of our support of our Members. Our efforts at improving our support so our members meet their goals are increasing annually. In FY 22, TCI moved to an electronic Case Management system, which will assist all staff to improve their support, so more Member’s goals can be met. This year, Employment saw an increase in goal achievement from 70% to 79% and Day Hab exhibited an increase from 60% to 83%.
To ensure that our Members in our Employment Service attain the type of job that meets their needs, staff must be creative and find new businesses that may be willing to hire our Members. In FY 23, our highly talented Employment Specialists did a great job increasing marketing efforts, and as a result, found more jobs for our Members than in previous years. Our Employment Services grew as a result of all of the great work achieved in FY 23. This increase in marketing to businesses in 2023 helped in locating new jobs for many of our Members looking for community employment.
Since COVID restrictions were lifted, TCI has seen an increase in participation in all of our services. All services experienced an increase in participation in FY 23. In comparison to FY 20, when we served 100 Members, in FY 23, TCI served 107 Members. We look forward to FY 24, when we expect to see more Members being served in FY 24.
