blog Archives - Woods Services

Woods Services Leadership Debuts Book, Webinar Series on Organizational Change

February 3, 2023

“Thriving Through Transformation: A Practical Guide to Creating Organizational Change in the Social Sector” seeks to inspire current and emerging professionals in organization management

Few organizations have undergone the kind of radical transformation that helped Woods Services, a nonprofit organization that serves the complex needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, comprehensively re-envision its structure, services, and future. Now the organization is sharing its lessons learned and providing a roadmap to help other organizations in the newly released book, “Thriving Through Transformation: A Practical Guide to Creating Organizational Change in the Social Sector.”

In the 228-page book, Tine Hansen-Turton, MGA, JD, FCCP, FAAN, president and CEO of Woods Services, and Peter Shubiak, MS, former chief operating officer, break down the essential elements of Woods’ transformation. They use employee stories, research findings, and business best practices to explore themes that include creating a clear and consistent organizational vision; developing strategic directions and planning; managing change; engaging employees; cultivating a culture of innovation and care; embracing equity, diversity and inclusion; planning for mission-driven growth; improving infrastructure and enterprise shared services; and developing strategic positioning, policy, and thought leadership.

“We didn’t set out to write a book, but as we saw how our work changed the lives of our clients, employees, and community members, we wanted to share what with learned with other mission-driven organizations,” said Hansen-Turton.

Coinciding with the book’s release is the launch of a free, monthly webinar series, Thriving Through Transformation. Moderated by Hansen-Turton, the symposia will include 90-minute virtual panel discussions with national and regional visionaries who will discuss cutting-edge innovation in the health and human services sector and beyond.

“All organizations must embrace change to best serve their clients, but it can be difficult to know where to start,” said Hansen-Turton. “We hope our success story will inspire others to start the journey and serve as a roadmap to plan their own transformative journeys.”

In the first webinar of the series, “Vision, Strategy, and Cultivating a Culture of Innovation,” which took place Jan. 12, four health and human services experts discussed how they developed their own visions for organizational change, and then established both a strategy and a culture of innovation to weave those visions through every level of their organizations. Panelists included Josh Rubin, Principal, HMA; Rita Gardner, President and CEO, Melmark; Dawn Holden Woods, President, Generative Consulting Partners; and Dawn Diamond, Executive Vice President of Operations, Woods Services. This webinar is available as a recording.

Upcoming webinars will address employee engagement (Feb. 16), integrated and complex care for special populations (March 15), and Strategies for Avoiding the Cliff at 21: Models for Education, Behavioral and Family Supports (April 12). All webinars run from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and will be available as recordings.

“Thriving Through Transformation” is available for free electronically by clicking here or on www.socialinnovationsjournal.org. Hard copies are also available on Amazon. Hansen-Turton has written several other books, including “Making Strategy Count in the Health and Human Services Sector,” “Practical Tools for Not-for-Profit Leaders,” “The Social Innovator’s Playbook 2.0,” and more. All are available on Amazon.

The 2022 Run for Woods: A Rainy Run to Remember

May 25, 2022

Consider 2022 a banner year for our annual Run for Woods 5K and 1-Mile Fun Run presented by Faulkner-Ciocca Dealerships, which took place on May 7!

More than $257,000 was raised, which is the largest amount of funds Woods has ever raised for this event – thanks to our generous families and Langhorne community. We are also grateful for this year’s record number of more than 50 sponsors. This includes our presenting sponsor Faulkner-Ciocca Dealerships.

We also had several Gold Sponsors, specifically Ally Financial, Ethos Group, Inc., Homestead Smart Health Plans, Johnson, Kendall & Johnson, Inc., Parx Casino, and TD Bank. Our Silver sponsors were Audi of America, Conner Strong & Buckelew, Experian, Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller, Razor Technology, Barry & Michelle Sharer, Synergy Pharmacy Services, and Volkswagen of America. A&K Industrial, Allies, Angelo’s Carpet One, Ardex Labs, CARFAX, Alice DeVoe and John Szabo, Future Scripts, Hyundai, Legacy Treatment Services, M&T Bank, PFMAM, Sailaja & Shankar Musunuri, Ricciardi Brothers/Benjamin Moore, Subaru of America, Top to Bottom Home Improvements LLC, Wawa Foundation, and Zimmerman Auto Body Supply were our Bronze sponsors.

The group ends with our Friendship sponsors Beth and Roger Angrick, Archway Programs, Bayada Home Health Care, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Boyle Construction, Woods Community at Brian’s House, Cars.com, Chubb, Cox Automotive, Crown Holdings, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Fenningham Demptster & Coval LLP, FRS Advisors, GM Financial, Harvest Moon, La La Lobster, Margolis Edelstein, Ridge Policy Group, Rob’s Automotive & Collision Center, Roscommon International, PRN Consultants, Scoles Systems, Tabor Children’s Services, Volkswagen Credit, and Weber Gallagher.

And while the weather was determined to rain on Woods’ parade during the event, our clients, staff and greater Langhorne community kept marching, walking, wheeling and running along. A beautiful ceremony kicked off the race, which saw Pa. State Sen. Tommy Tomlinson earn the Woods Services Humanitarian Award. Attendees also witnessed our resident Whit Park receive an award for being the highest individual fundraiser, a tribute to his mother who recently passed.

We are fortunate to be able to use the funds raised to further our mission in providing innovative, comprehensive, and integrated health, education, housing, workforce, behavioral health, and case management services. These services support our clients who have intellectual, developmental, and medical disabilities and acquired brain injury. We couldn’t do it without the help of the community around us, and for that, we say – THANK YOU!

To relive the May 7 event, enjoy this fantastic photo story from our friend Nancy Rokos at the Bucks County Courier Times. We’ve also included some photos below for your pleasure.

Until next year!

Woods Education Program Adopting Positive Behavior Support Plan

March 7, 2018

In the spring of 2017, Woods Education Department made a 3-5 year commitment to develop a School Wide Positive Behavior Support Plan (SWPBS) in our schools with the help of the Pennsylvania Positive Behavior Support Network. This network supports schools in creating and maintaining a comprehensive, school-based behavioral health support system in order to promote the academic, social and emotional well-being of students.

In general, SWPBIS emphasizes four integrated elements: (a) data for decision making, (b) measurable outcomes supported and evaluated by data, (c) practices with evidence that these outcomes are achievable, and (d) systems that efficiently and effective support implementation of these practices. (taken from http://www.papbs.org)

During the first phase of the plan (a year-long planning process), the core team for this project been working to complete assessments and training, as well as developing an implementation plan with the help of a consultant. Prior to this commitment, Brookwood School developed SWPBS classroom expectations for students and an acknowledgement system aligned to student performance. Students receive acknowledgement for demonstrating classroom expectations through the use of tickets. Those tickets are exchanged at school store for a variety of rewards and preferred activities that students select. In many cases the school restocks the store with items requested by the students. Brookwood has also been tracking problem behaviors and student acknowledgement rates for the past year. A student awards program has also been implemented for top performing students.

This spring, Woods will kick off Tier 1 of SWPBS, which will implement a student point system in all schools to track student behaviors. The education program will continue to work with a consultant to ensure that all elements of Tier 1 are being implemented consistently. Tier 2 and Tier 3 of the plan will be implemented at a later date for students who have more challenging behaviors for whom Tier 1 was not effective. For more information on SWPBS, visit http://www.papbs.org/.

Woods Staff Selected to Participate in Diversity and Inclusion Cohort

March 6, 2018

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities’ envisions a healthy and equitable society that is just, fair, and inclusive, enabling all people to participate and reach their full potential. Building on this vision, the Alliance has launched a 15-month “Building Organizational Capacity for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (EDI) cohort to advance specific, significant change for emerging leaders, organizations, and the human services sector.

Woods was selected as one of only 15 organizations to participate in the cohort. As part of the application process, each organization had to identify an emerging leader of color (preferably under the age of 40) and a senior leader (not necessarily a person of color). Abraham Kamara, Woodlands Residential Manager, and Peter Shubiak, Executive Vice President and Chief Culture and Integration Officer, agreed to represent Woods. The cohort will coach and instruct organizations in deepening capacity to attract, develop, and retain leadership talent and advance the knowledge base in the sector.

Benefits of the cohort include:

Leaders, including emerging leaders of color, will develop a better understanding of themselves and the principles and practices of EDI.
Organizations will design and be equipped with plans to strengthen their equity, diversity, and inclusion practices.
The cohort will create replicable models for organizational excellence in creating environments and cultures that attract, develop, and retain racially diverse leaders, primarily those under 40, in human services organizations.

This is a tremendous honor for Woods and will help to enrich our organization in ways we can’t yet imagine. Thank you to Abraham and Peter for taking on this added responsibility and for representing Woods so well.

Wednesdays at the Woods’ Bike Repair Shop

January 30, 2018

If you ask Woods resident Shawn Cain what his favorite day of the week is he will respond enthusiastically by saying “Oh, that’s easy…Wednesday!” It might seem like an unusual response for an 11-year-old boy but for Shawn, Wednesday is the day that he gets to spend time working alongside his new best buddy, Steve Smalley, a maintenance worker in Woods’ Facilities Department. Each Wednesday the duo reports to the bike repair shop on Woods’ campus at noon and work together for an hour or so to get residents’ bikes back in working order. The repairs often require them to replace bike chains and tires but Steve allows Shawn to perform many tasks during their time at the shop.

“I let him unlock the door, turn on the lights, get the tools out, and put on a tool belt and then we get to work fixing the bikes,” said Steve. “We are only a few weeks in but he can already do so many things. I keep him busy with work and he keeps me busy with questions. He really wants to learn about all of this stuff.”

Shawn’s questions began even before the two started working together, a vision that came to fruition just a few weeks ago. The pair first met when Steve visited Gardner Education Center, the school at Woods that Shawn attends. Shawn showed interest in the work that Steve and other maintenance workers were doing and Steve certainly took notice. In November, Steve was honored at Woods’ annual employee recognition dinner for the creation of the bike repair shop, which is giving new life to dozens of residents’ bikes that are in need of TLC. A chance conversation between Steve and Woods’ CEO, Tine Hansen-Turton, led to an almost instant pairing of the two.

“I had this idea almost immediately after I started talking to Shawn. I really thought he could benefit from working with me,” Steve said. “I spoke with a few people about it but once I talked to Tine things were set up right away. I saw Shawn shortly after and he ran up to me and was so excited that we were going to get to work together.”

The quick bond that Shawn and Steve have formed is an unexpected surprise given all that the two have been through in their own lives. Shawn has experienced and overcome so many challenges and his friendship with Steve is a great source of comfort and happiness after difficult and abruptly severed relationships over which he had no control. Steve lost his son, also named Sean, in an accident in 2010. Sean shared Steve’s love of and talent for fixings things and the two often worked on projects together, something Steve has missed the last few years.

“I really enjoy working with him and Wednesday is now also my happiest day of the week. I know this has been really good for him but it has also been great for me,” said Steve. “I feel like someone was watching over us and brought Shawn and I together.”