It’s Good to be ‘Green’

Click to enlarge Congressman Jim Gerlach with Bob Kreider at our Earth Day celebration. Click to enlarge Employees enjoy an Earth Day celebration picnic.

It seems impossible to pick up a newspaper or magazine today and not find an article about “going green.” People are doing it. Businesses are doing it. Even cities, like our own Philadelphia, are promoting themselves as “green.”

The notion of going green seems to be more than a passing fad – it’s the “right” thing to do.

For Devereux, going green makes sense and in 2008 we are launching an organization-wide program to “go green.” We will be not only doing our part to support the environment, but we will also be saving money through the use of more energy efficient products.

The four operational areas we will focus on include:

1. Facilities: We will assess all of our existing buildings to see where extra insulation, new windows, different lighting or other initiatives could save money and reduce resource consum ption. All new construction will be developed from the ground up to reflect the “best green practices.”
2. Transportation will be another area of focus. Specifically, we will explore alternative fuels, hybrid vehicles, encouraging employee carpooling and employees’ use of public transportation.
3. Equipment and Technology: We will look at purchasing energy efficient equipment and technology to replace older equipment. We will also look to reduce power usage by turning off or “hibernating” equipment not in use.
4. Waste Management: Devereux will also look at furthering our recycling efforts to reduce the amount of waste we create.

Employees will also be encouraged to make changes at work and home to create a more ecologically friendly environment. Devereux’s corporate office will collect ideas from all parts of the organization about changes to help all of us live a more “green life.” If you are interested in joining Devereux in this effort, visit our Web site for our weekly “green tips.”

This initiative is a wonderful chance to engage our consumers, our staff and our communities in an effort to make the world a little bit better.

 

An ounce of prevention

Connect the startling observation that one in every one hundred adults in America is incarcerated (One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008, Pew Center on the States) with the equally disturbing fact that seventy percent of students with early and chronic antisocial behavior in school will be arrested at least once within three years of leaving school. (Walker, H.M., Ramsey, E., & Gresham, F.M. (2004). Antisocial behavior in school: Evidence-based practices (2nd ed.) Evidenced as early as kindergarten or first grade, chronic and persistent problem behavior is one of the best early predictors of delinquency. Pause to understand that we send one percent of our adult population to jail after years and years of classroom misbehavior.

Surely, we know that some children misbehave chronically in school. Our teachers and school administrators speak frequently and persuasively of these behavior problems in classrooms. How do we teach children to behave and follow rules? Unfortunately, the old, tired methods of punishment just don’t work. Traditional systems that rely on reactive and punitive measures are less effective in reducing disruptive behaviors than positive behavioral support. Just as importantly, detention and suspension do little to improve school climate. Teaching good behavior by positive behavioral support is an approach championed by Devereux’s Center for Effective Schools. In September 2007, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about the success of Logan Elementary School using this positive, proactive approach. The 486-student school documented a drop in discipline referrals since the Devereux program was instituted in 2003 (reported incidents dropped from 939 to 253 and suspensions from 353 to 123). Clearly, schools are willing and able to change the antisocial behavior of young children if they have appropriate resources.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We must work to prevent the continued rise in the percentage of Americans who are incarcerated. Young children who cannot control their behavior grow up to be troubled adolescents who lack self-control and frequently go to prison. A safe society requires many stakeholders - parents, grandparents, teachers, school administrators, community leaders, and business leaders. These stakeholders can prevent children from going to jail by supporting early detection and early intervention with the appropriate tools at a very young age. It is time to roll up our sleeves and begin our work with our youngest citizens.

 

 

Devereux’s New Chief Operating Officer

I am pleased to announce that long-time Devereux employee, Maggie McGill, has been named Chief Operating Officer at Devereux. Maggie had most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, but her career with Devereux goes back much further.

Maggie started working for Devereux in 1975 as a residential care provider at our Kanner Center in West Chester, working primarily with children with autism. Maggie excelled in this role. She was well liked by our clients and their parents, as well as the staff with whom she worked. While well suited in this position, Maggie had other aspirations.

In 1984, then Devereux President & CEO, Ron Burd, was impressed with Maggie as he watched her sitting on the floor working with the children. Ron pulled Maggie aside and asked her what she would like to be doing with her career at Devereux. Maggie responded, “I want to go back to school and become Devereux’s Chief Financial Officer.”

While not the response Ron expected, he was nonetheless taken with her ambition and in 1990, awarded Maggie the first-ever Weaver Falberg Leadership Fellowship Promise. This annual award recognizes one individual with outstanding leadership potential, who is an exemplary role model and demonstrates a solid commitment to the mission of Devereux.

With this award came a scholarship that Maggie used to pursue an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Twelve years after completing her MBA, in 2004 Maggie was named Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Maggie’s success with Devereux as a residential care provider, supervisor, operations manager, Chief Financial Officer, and now Chief Operating Officer is rooted in her commitment to the mission of Devereux.

Her clear understanding of the important work Devereux does, has served her well in the thirty-three years she has been with Devereux and will serve her well as she helps lead us to Devereux’s 100^th anniversary.

I hope you will join me in wishing Maggie much success in her new role with Devereux.

 

FOUNDER’S DAY MESSAGE - February 2, 2008

Tomorrow, Founder’s Day, is Miss Devereux’s 123rd birthday. Every year, as we celebrate this important day, I am reminded of how the organization has changed and evolved in its ninety-six year history. I wonder, too, what Miss Devereux would think of the organization today and some of the current milestones, as well as challenges, we face.

As the nation’s largest, non-profit provider of behavioral health services, our success arises from the individualized, strength-based services we provide, services that she pioneered. As Miss Devereux said, “Every child is a program.” Her philosophy of care was identifying each individual’s strengths and building a program from that foundation. I think she would be gratified to see that our industry is finally understanding the wisdom of her insight into how to make a difference with each and every individual.

Today our organization is financially strong, in part because of the value of beautiful real estate Miss Devereux purchased across the country. I think Miss Devereux would be pleased by the funding we receive today from the government, support that she lacked in the early years. However, with government funding comes regulatory uncertainty, a concern that will continue to occupy us over the coming years. The generosity of Devereux families, community leaders, and foundations continues to support Devereux today as it did when Miss Devereux ran the organization. We must remain attentive to our mission to insure the continued good will of our supporters.

When looking back nearly 100 years at the contributions Miss Devereux made, it is significant to remember that she did this at a time when women were not afforded the right to vote. Critics went so far as to call her “a starry-eyed female, who has neither a husband nor a graduate degree; and who thus flouts the qualifications demanded by both Nature’s law and her academic betters for the role to which she has presumed.” Miss Devereux led the organization for forty years, surrounded by men in key leadership roles.

Today’s senior management team includes many outstanding men and women. Maggie McGill, a 30-year veteran at Devereux, last month assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer. Women also fill the strategic positions of Chief Clinical Officer, Senior Vice President of External Affairs, General Counsel, Vice President of Organizational Development, two operational Vice Presidents, Vice President of Product Development, and Executive Directors of eight of our fourteen centers. No doubt Miss Devereux would be very pleased that her organization is developing so many outstanding women leaders.

Miss Devereux would also be proud of our front-line staff who are, and always will be, the backbone of the organization. Their commitment to the individuals we serve, and to our mission, gives me confidence in Devereux’s future.

On this day before Founder’s Day, I am reminded of how far we have come and how successful we have been, in large part, thanks to the vision of Miss Devereux and the excellent work of our dedicated employees. I thank all of the Devereux stakeholders: employees; trustees; donors; and community leaders who support our mission each and every day. To Miss Devereux, I bid you a very Happy Birthday.

Bob Kreider

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As 2007, Devereux’s 95^th year, draws to a close,  I am very pleased with the work of the Devereux team this year, work both in the care of our consumers and in our care of our organization. Clearly, there can be no consumer care without a viable organization! It was a great year from several perspectives: in terms of client safety (major injuries decreased), employee satisfaction (turnover declined), community support (number of major donors increased), and financial strength (liquidity and fund balances increased while debt declined).  Additionally, during 2007, Devereux’s endowment increased by more than $25 million through the sale of two major pieces of real estate, one in Pennsylvania and one in California.  

A highlight of this year was the 95^th Anniversary Gala in November; this was a world class party attended by four hundred supporters at the Philadelphia Seaport Museum. It was our privilege to honor the Genuardi family for their long-standing and generous support of both Devereux and other critical charities in the region. During the celebration, we awarded the annual Weaver E. Falberg Leadership Promise Fellowship to support the graduate education of one of our outstanding staff members.  Through the generosity of the sponsors and a matching gift of the net proceeds by our Board leadership, the Gala raised almost $500,000 for Devereux’s Pennsylvania programs.

On a less positive note, the Federal government continued its efforts to reduce Medicaid expenditures. The reduction affects Devereux in two ways. First through audits, either state-wide or program specific, which search for non-compliance with federal requirements. Second,  draft regulations will negate the Medicaid coverage of long-standing approaches to consumer care. Although the direct risk from these initiatives to Devereux is modest, the potential impact on the states is catastrophic. Added to the very negative trends in state budgets – California and Florida are already forecasting enormous deficits for fiscal 2009 – public funding for the care of the intellectually disabled and behaviorally challenged will almost certainly be negatively impacted. 

Another major challenge for Devereux is the rapid growth of its major for-profit competitors.  Although Devereux is the largest non-profit provider in the country, two for-profit providers have rapidly grown to four times the size of Devereux, and these providers are formidable competitors.   

As we head into 2008, I anticipate the following critical work in front of us.   

• With the support of the Board of Trustees and the encouragement of many staff, we are undertaking a major “green” initiative. To this end, we will review our facilities, transportation, technology, and waste to find economical ways to reduce consumption of natural resources
  
• We are rapidly upgrading our marketing capacity to effectively compete with the major for-profit organizations. 
  
• We are also building upon the success of our outstanding prevention programs, including the resiliency-based Devereux Early Childhood Initiative and School-wide Positive Behavior Supports.  Specifically, we will be aligning resources, conducting research and forging community-based partnerships to ensure the continued development and adoption of cost effective, evidenced-based and sustaining prevention programs that improve outcomes for children and adolescents. 
  
•  In order to support our employees in healthful lifestyle choices, we are offering a significant discount on employee medical insurance if employees complete a health assessment, obtain age and gender appropriate diagnostic evaluations, and take steps to address the serious health issues of smoking and obesity. Through a partnership with NutriSystem, we will offer a weight reduction program to employees at a sharply reduced cost (and I will be among the first participants in this weight reduction program). 
  
• Through increased staff tuition assistance, we will increase our support for the continuing training and education of our staff. We view the training of our staff as critical to the execution of our mission and the optimization of our own best practices.  

I thank all of you who have helped build this wonderful organization and deliver on our mission: 

Devereux changes lives and nurtures human potential. We inspire hope, ensure well-being, and promote meaningful life choices.  

Happy New Year.

 

An Evening to Remember

On Friday night, November 16, the city of brotherly love was host to a special night for Devereux. Old friends from around the country and new friends from businesses in the greater Philadelphia area gathered to help us celebrate.

We were gathered to recognize the 95th anniversary of Devereux, a venerable Philadelphia institution built by education pioneer and humanitarian, Helena T. Devereux. We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Clinical Training and Research (ICTR), another one of her extraordinary visionary ideas. Throughout the evening’s celebrations, I couldn’t help but wonder what Miss Devereux would think, looking out at a sea of 400 faces who were all there to honor the legacy she created.

This legacy is the nation’s largest, non-profit provider of behavioral healthcare in the country for individuals with intellectual disabilities, behavioral disorders and mental illness. We touch more than 15,000 people each year. What a testament to the woman who cared enough about the forgotten children sitting in the back of the classroom!

During the evening, we recognized Devereux’s outstanding employees, recipients from each center, of the Tom Donovan Culture of Caring Award, as well as Margo Volkmer the quality management coordinator for Devereux Texas, who was the 2007 Weaver Falberg Fellowship Promise Award recipient. Margo will be using scholarship money from her award to pursue a master’s degree in healthcare administration.

We honored a very special former ICTR intern and former Devereux chief clinical officer, Dr. Howard Savin, with the first ICTR Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to his work with Devereux, Dr. Savin was a pioneer of the managed behavioral health industry in the 1980’s.

We also honored some very special friends of Devereux, the Genuardi Family. For eighteen years, the Genuardis have offered Devereux their unwavering support in numerous ways. The prestigious Helena T. Devereux Humanitarian Awards was given to a very special family and very special friends.

The evening was made even more memorable by the hundreds of friends who came to support Devereux. These friends, along with a cadre of generous event sponsors, helped to net $245,000 for the evening. With the generous match provided by the Tom Hays and Skip Genuardi challenge grant, the evening’s grand total was $490,000 raised for Devereux’s Pennsylvania campaign.

I thank all of you for making it a tremendous night for Devereux.

 

Looking at Alternatives to Keep Kids in Residential Treatment Programs Closer to Home

Earlier this year, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article about the tragic death of a Philadelphia boy who died in a Tennessee treatment facility, similar to Devereux behavioral treatment centers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas.

According to the article, in June of 2005, a Philadelphia childcare investigator heard about allegations of abuse and three months later, the city learned of a 14-year-old New York resident who had died of a heart attack in the Tennessee facility after a confrontation with a staff member.

The article went on to report that 17-year-old Omega Leach of Philadelphia died in June of 2007 after he was pushed, face down, on the floor, obstructing his breathing. At the time, 44 Philadelphia children and adolescents, more than 50 percent of the facility’s population, were in the same Tennessee center.

This young man’s death offers the opportunity to address options for organizations, like Devereux and others, to treat these children closer to home.

Below is a letter to the editor, published the week after the original report. I share the
letter here in the hopes that as a society, we can discuss reforms that will allow future incidents, like the one in Tennessee, to be avoided. With a new Philadelphia city administration only a few weeks away, we must begin having that conversation.

Dear Editor:
Your thoughtful article about the death of a Philadelphia teenager in a Tennessee psychiatric residential treatment facility highlighted the difficulty in monitoring distant treatment. One critical issue was not explored - why did every comparable facility in the Commonwealth refuse to admit this teenager? Does Tennessee have better or more specialized programs? No - Pennsylvania is home to outstanding psychiatric programs such as KidsPeace, Wordsworth Academy, and Devereux. Philadelphia children are served in Tennessee primarily because Pennsylvania’s licensing rules aggressively limit a facility’s ability to lock doors, to employ restraints, and to seclude an angry child. This laudable philosophy has the unintended consequence of making it impossible, with normal staffing, to safely treat some disturbed adolescents in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania children are sent to more “secure” facilities in states with less stringent regulations that undercut the philosophy of Pennsylvania’s regulations.A facility can be made “staff secure” by increasing the number and training of staff as noted by the Allegheny County official quoted in the article. Allegheny County places its severely challenged children closer to home by paying for the extra staffing. Philadelphia has been reluctant to take this approach given budgetary pressures. Perhaps your article wi11 catalyze the difficult but necessary discussions to find a means to keep all of our children safe here in Pennsylvania.

Sincerely,
Robert Q. Kreider
President & CEO
The Devereux Foundation

 

Preparing our Children for Resiliency

The 2007 hurricane season is upon us and the first major storm, Hurricane Dean, has pummeled Jamaica and is currently bearing down on eastern Mexico. Mother Nature’s fury can have devastating effects on those people who survive the storm with their lives, but lose so much in the aftermath.

It was almost two years ago to the day that Hurricane Katrina was quickly approaching the shore of the United States. Her aftermath left the city of New Orleans decimated and the lives of its survivors shattered. Two years later, the area surrounding New Orleans has not improved much and those affected are still dealing with the residual effects of the storm. Based on FEMA estimates, 25,000-30,000 children, displaced by Hurricane Katrina are still living in the temporary trailers.

The American Psychological Association held a conference last week and in preparation, USA Today ran articles on the mental health struggles the victims still face in the August 16, 2007 issue. For adults, post traumatic stress disorder has increased five percent in the past year. The number of people contemplating suicide has increased from three percent a year ago to between six and eight percent now. Many adults are struggling with the stresses of rebuilding delays, loss of community and financial pressures.

For children, doctors report seeing an increase in panic attacks that come with rainy weeks. The wait to see a therapist at the Children’s Hospital in New Orleans is about a year, compared to a six month wait time pre-Katrina. There are reports of children’s increasing violent behavior, often a symptom of depression in children. One pediatrician estimates that 50 percent of his patients have mental health problems as opposed to five percent only two years ago.

While resources to support the mental health needs of people living in Louisiana, post-Katrina are desperately needed, this ordeal also reminds us that adults need to work with young children, beginning at infancy, to help them build their internal resilience. For more than a decade, the Devereux Early Childhood Initiative (DECI) has been working throughout the country assessing children’s resiliency factors and helping teachers, parents and care givers to learn how they can help children develop better internal resiliency factors. A person’s resiliency is a key factor to helping them better cope with the challenges throughout their lives.

We don’t know where our nation’s next big catastrophe will be, but we do know that we need to invest in helping all children to become resilient so that they can weather whatever storm their life’s circumstances will bring.

 

Fiscal Year 2007 Ends on a Positive Note

Devereux has closed the books on fiscal year 2007, which ended on June 30, and it was an extraordinary year for Devereux.  A safer environment for our consumers and employees, a more stable workforce, wider support from our communities and financial success led to making this an excellent year.  Some of our specific organization-wide achievements included: 

• The number of donors supporting Devereux at $1,000 or above during the year was above 750, exceeding the target by almost 10%.
• Normalized operating earnings continued a positive four-year trend to the highest level in many years.
• Risk management expenses were 20% below the annual target.
• Employee turnover was below the annual target.

Strong financial results for fiscal year 2007 were primarily driven by outstanding Center operating results, more than $3,000,000 better than what was budgeted. Residential census grew significantly in the fourth quarter and this trend provides strong operating momentum going into fiscal year 2008.   

Almost $6 million in non-operating gain was provided by the sale of Pennsylvania real estate. Together with the strong operating results, this real estate gain enabled us to post what we believe is the highest excess of revenues over expenses in Devereux’s history.

Some other notable factors that led to our success include investment earnings that were slightly ahead of plan, but because of another strong performance by Devereux’s investment portfolio, unrealized gains increased by more than $8.8  million for the year. Also, a major bequest enabled Devereux to meet its 2007 fund raising goal. In addition, a major four-year commitment was received from the Marcus Foundation to support the expansion of Devereux’s Center for Effective Schools into the Atlanta School System.

The employment of the best and brightest is a good way to insure Devereux’s future and fiscal year 2007 was a very successful recruiting year for key Devereux positions. We filled four vacant center clinical director positions and two senior corporate clinical positions. Our national marketing capacity was enhanced by recruiting two senior professionals, one from inside Devereux and one from a major competitor, as well as several new center marketing directors. We were also able to attract a leading recruiting consultant to join Devereux, and most recently we added a very experienced finance and business development professional to lead the effort to market our intellectual properties.

During fiscal year 2007, we also developed and adopted a new mission statement and a statement of core values: 

Our Mission

Devereux changes lives and nurtures human potential.  We inspire hope, ensure well-being, and promote meaningful life choices.  Our mission is achievedthrough a wide range of services and supportsfor individuals and their families. 

Core Values 

We support a respectful and integrated team approach.We foster personal and professional growth of our staff.We develop innovative and effective solutions.We partner with families and communities.  

Together with the Strategic Plan developed in fiscal year 2006 and the Philosophy of Care developed in fiscal year 2005, we have a clearer sense of direction for Devereux’s long-term success, a direction that is supported by an ever widening range of stakeholders.

With key staff additions, our strong operating momentum, the sharply increased strength of our balance sheet and our clearly outlined strategic direction, we are very well positioned for the future. As we prepare to celebrate Devereux’s 95^th anniversary, we will reflect on our commitment to fulfill Miss Devereux’s dreams for her clients. We must continually strive to be the Provider of Choice, the Employer of Choice, and the Charity of Choice.                                                               

 

School-Based Services

Devereux is extremely proud of its 95 year history of providing outstanding residential services to individuals with special needs. Tens of thousands of individuals have received life-changing care in our residential programs across the country.

Despite this extraordinary history, over the last fifteen years Devereux has increasingly focused on developing additional community-based services because care in the least restrictive, clinically appropriate setting is most respectful of the autonomy and dignity of the individual served. Our experience has also indicated that community care, when done well, can be more cost-effective in many situations. It can serve as prevention or early intervention on the front end, and as a step-down from residential care on the back end. Today, for each one of the twenty-four hundred consumers Devereux treats residentially each year, six to ten individuals are served in an array of community settings, including foster care, outpatient, supported living, wraparound, and in-school services.

As we look ahead, the provision of in-school services is one of our most promising areas for impact and growth. Although the funding will be complex and challenging, the benefits to individual students and society will be enormous. Many of our public schools, especially in urban areas, are clearly struggling - if not failing - in their mission to graduate informed and thoughtful citizens with the skills to succeed in 21st century jobs. Virtually all of our most difficult social problems – including poverty and violence – are directly impacted by this educational failure.

The Federal legislation, No Child Left Behind, promotes and emphasizes academic accountability, an important element of this problem. Unfortunately, it consumes significant local resources without, in any way, addressing the most important problem. The vast majority of today’s teachers do not have either the behavioral or developmental training, or the appropriate support resources, to address the social and emotional health of their students. If the social and emotional needs of students are not adequately addressed, not only will those students not be successful, but their disruptive behaviors will make it difficult for other students in the class to be successful.

Over the last ten years, Devereux has developed two sets of educational programs: one directed at early childhood education and one directed at primary and middle schools. The Early Childhood program is built around a strength-based assessment tool (The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment), which has been administered to well over a million three to five-year olds across the country. This assessment tool is supported by teacher and parent training, and curricular materials to build on the strengths identified and to address indicated needs for social and emotional support.

The primary and middle school program, School-Wide Positive Behavioral Supports, provides developmental and behavioral mentoring for teachers and other school staff to understand how to use behavioral approaches for all students in order to maintain a positive environment in the school, provide targeted interventions for the students most likely to be disruptive, and help in identifying students who will need mental health resources from outside the classroom to be successful.

When teachers are provided with information about why many of the children are exhibiting challenging behaviors, and the real meaning behind the behaviors, they are frequently receptive and eager to receive new tools, training, and approaches to try to engage the children. This results in positive culture change throughout the schools.

Both of these programs have secured significant governmental and private foundation grant funding over the last ten years and have produced very exciting results. Devereux is now committed to promoting a large scale implementation of these programs. Toward that effort, this week Martha Lindsay became Devereux’s Vice President for Product Development. Martha has a very impressive resume as Chief Financial Officer of a major for-profit organization, Chief Operating Officer of a successful start-up, and a long history of successful product development. Martha will quarterback our efforts to further develop and market both these exciting products, as well as other intellectual properties in earlier stages of development.

I am pleased to announce that the Marcus Foundation, under the leadership of Bernie Marcus, a founder of Home Depot, has provided a significant, four-year grant to implement School-Wide Positive Behavioral supports in twelve to fifteen Atlanta public schools. This is a wonderful first step in our effort to expand the use of these important programs.