State Of NRS

Dear NRS Clients, Families, Case Managers, Staff, and other Stakeholders,

 

I hope everyone is doing well! It has been an extremely busy past several months, so I wanted to take the time to reach out to all our NRS family to ensure that we are keeping you all informed with agency updates, staffing updates and our future plans as we continue to grow and improve. As you all know, our mission at NRS is to ensure the highest quality of services to individuals we support that are centered in community inclusion, person centered and individualized to meet the needs of each unique person.

 

This past several months, as with all human services providers, all of this work has been extremely challenging given the busy holidays, recent COVID variant as well as the continued uncertainty with state funding to increase DSP wages and still NO reimbursement for DSP bonuses from DHHS as of today. Though it all, I am so extremely proud of our dedicated DSPs and management team that continues to work around the clock to continually improve our services. Below are some updates I wanted to share:

 

  1. Overall Agency Updates:

 

First and foremost, to our amazing DSP’s, I have decided to more all NRS employees to a minimum of $16.00 starting this Sunday, February 13, 2021. This is just the beginning as we will be paying those DSP’s who provide quality services more than this. This also is despite DHHS still not funding the increased rates to pay DSP’s 125% of minimum wage, like the bonuses in December.

 

  • We successfully closed our last program in So Paris moving those we support into other NRS homes. This has improved our oversight and quality of staff teams by consolidating and redistributing staff and individuals served and distributing experienced staff to other programs that were short staffed.

 

  • We opened a duplex a few months ago in Westbrook which provides a better commute for many of our current staff as well as many people who have shown interest in joining NRS but unwilling to do the commute to So Paris.
  • We continue staffing recruitment efforts with focus of always improving our quality of services and oversight of our programs.
  • We are working on a transportation fleet partnering with Enterprise Fleet Management, so that we ensure that we always have safe and consistent transportation in EVERY program for our staff and those that we support to be an active, integral part of their community.

 

  1. Staffing Updates: We have recently changed our Inland Team Structure to house manager model to having program managers and changed our regional administrators’ titles to Area Directors.
  • New Program Managers: We continue to restructure our services to better support our teams and continue to provide better oversight. In this effort, we welcome the following new Program Managers:
  • Please welcome Daniel Clifford. Daniel joins the agency with unique and worldwide leadership experience. This includes 12 years of service in the US Army followed by over 17 years in the private security industry as a Security & Operations Manager. Daniel is excited to begin his career in human services and he is already diving in! Daniel is located at our Westbrook home.
  • John Callahan is our second integral addition to the management team. John joins us with years of experience in providing care to those with mental health needs. John possesses a variety of unique insights into the field of human services and is excited to develop his leadership skills here at NRS! John is located at our Ridge Rd, Lisbon home.

 

  • New 2nd Area Director for Inland Team: Ilea Sangillo
  • Please welcome Ilea Sangillo, who joined NorthEast Residential Services as an Area Director about a month ago. She comes to NRS with over 20 years of experience in the social services and healthcare field. Ilea started as a DSP in 2000, with experience as a Licensed Assisted Living Facility Administration in Florida, State of Maine DHHS Office for Family Independence, DHHS Fraud Investigations and Recovery, Vocational Rehabilitation Certified Employment Specialist and Program Management. We are truly excited to have her as part of our new administrative team. During this time, Aaron Bilodeau (Director of Operations) will continue to supervise her and Tori Hobson to oversee the inland programs.

 

3. Future Plans

  • We are currently interviewing for a full time, Director of Human Resources position and have already seen some very solid candidates. We look forward to adding this position to our executive management team and updating everyone once we have hired this new addition.
  • Today we are posting a full time Director of Residential Services position in hopes of improving the oversight in all programs. This will be an additional position hired to support our current team.
  • We recently were approved to provide shared living services as a separate housing model under the waiver.
  • A long with this, we are also applying as an agency to become a Community Membership 1:1/1:2 service provider under the waiver. We will be advertising for a full-time clinical coordinator who will oversee this future service as well as support the growth of our shared living program and services.
  • I am also incredibly pleased to announce we are continuing to build our organizational leadership team and will be posting for Chief Operating Officer and additional Quality Assurance positions for both regions in the coming months.
  •  As part of this start, NRS business office is also proud to announce our business consultant and project specialist, Stanley Hill. Stanley joined Northeast Residential Services in September as a business strategist and is currently also serving as our interim HR Director. Stanley joined NRS with a well-rounded background in business management, HR, and finance. Stanley’s passion is helping businesses strategize and position themselves for growth. He believes that one of the core requirements of being able to accomplish this is taking care of your employees first. Please welcome Stanley when you see him.

 

 

4 .NRS Management Restructuring and Contact Info:

I wanted to ensure that everyone has the new administrative oversight contact for each area. Please see below:

 

  • Inland Team Contact Info:

Director of Operations: Aaron Bilodeau

Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance, Ryan Jackson

Director of Training, Stephanie Hatcher

 

 

  • Tori Hobson, AD overseeing the following homes/house managers:

Aiden Drive Sabattus, PM Brittani Degen

Stevens Mills Auburn, PM Brittani Degen

Ridge Road Lisbon falls, PM John Callahan

Phippsburg, Danielle Brooks

 

  • Ilea Sangillo, AD overseeing the following homes/house managers:

Melody Lane Lewiston, PM Keri Karston who also recently returned to NRS.

Pagoma Lane, PM Robert Dow

Westview Raymond, PM Keri Karston

Westbrook, PM Daniel Clifford

 

  • Coastal Team Contact Info:

Supervisor of managers for Coastal Team: Charlie Binette

Warren:

Middle Road, house manager, Heather Brewer

Arboretum, house manager, Jo Fales,

Owl’s head:

Farmhouse down, house manager, Mike Timmermeyer

Harborview, house manager, Viktoria Robinson

Lincolnville, house manager, Tammy Conrady

Belfast:

Marsh road, house manager, Veronica Cook

Ablerock, house manager Mike Timmermeyer

 

As always, we continue to appreciate the support we get from all our partners, as we work our hardest to continually improve our quality of services to the individuals we serve. I am excited about NRS’s goals for 2022 and look forward to continuing to support our staff and individuals served throughout this next year. If you have any questions about any of these updates, feel free to reach out at any time.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris Call, CEO/NRS