Aspirations
As we move into our fifth year this fall, it gives us a clear picture of all we have accomplished and what is to come in the next 5 years. Bee Loved has scaled some mighty big mountains in the last few years and none are bigger than dealing with the Covid crisis! The people we serve and our staff were real troopers and handled these challenges with grace, strength and patience! While dealing with a worldwide pandemic we were able to grow from just a couple of owners/Direct Support Professionals (DSP’s) and one home, to five homes, 40 employees and 17 people we serve. It has been an amazing 5 years and we are so excited for the next 5 and beyond.
Our bright future
We would like to grow in other areas beyond just adding homes. We have big dreams for the people we serve and our team! First and foremost we want to bring as much education in-house as possible. We have already adopted specialized Direct Support Professional (DSP) training that at the time of this post, no other Oregon company is currently offering, Department of Human Services being the only other entity that we are aware of. We require all of our DSP’s to have Oregon Intervention Systems (OIS) certification even though OIS isn’t required for many of the people we serve. We have plans to bring this in-house. One of our owners will soon be embarking on this journey to be OIS trainer certified. While state regulations require us to be CPR/first aid certified, we go one step further and require our team to also be Basic Life Support (BLS) certified. This is also something we want to bring in-house. Our Owner/Executive Director Jenny has stated she will be climbing this mountain! Did I mention our owners are hands-on? 🙂
With about 50% of the people we serve being medically fragile, the most important aspiration that we are currently working on is to bring our own medical staff in-house.
We at Bee Loved want to give the best life to those we serve!
What we're striving for
Now, on to the fun stuff! We at Bee Loved want to give the best life to those we serve! Because of this mission we want to add things that will bring great joy and fulfillment to their lives. We have many aspirations and goals here at Bee Loved. First, we would love to have our own event center–a place to have parties, play games, and get the whole gang together!
We also would like to add inclusive activities for our medically fragile people such as a wheelchair swing, all-terrain wheelchairs and any other items we can think of to bring joy!
Also on our wish list, we would love to have a small property for a garden, several chickens and other interactive animals we would all enjoy! Who doesn’t love gathering eggs?
We pride ourselves in being with the people we serve day in and day out, but we are outgrowing our offices and would love to buy a place that would be a home but also have a separate office area. We will never have offices in an office building. We must stay true to what we believe is right for the quality of care we offer and that means being at a home or close by so that we can interact.
And lastly, who wouldn’t dream of having a beach house for everyone to enjoy? Yep, we dream big and have many aspirations for the coming years. The owner’s mother used to say, “aim for the stars and you might hit the broadside of a barn.” And we could use that barn!
Here are some pictures of some of the things we are dreaming about!
