Management Incubator Participants Will Help VOAGBR Improve Outdoor Space for Children in Need
Improving a haven for local children will be at the heart of our final Management Incubator program of 2015, which starts today and meets weekly through Tuesday, Oct. 13. Teams will be working with Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge, an organization that continues to be a strong community partner in Success Labs’ Management Incubator program.The program brings high-potential employees and new managers from Baton Rouge-area companies together to go through leadership development exercises and coaching. Participants are also challenged to find an innovative, effective solution to a real-world problem the community partner organization is facing. They’re divided into two teams and given a starting budget of $250. Then they must work together raise additional funds, and then develop and execute an on-budget solution to the community partner’s challenge.VOAGBR is a nonprofit community organization that focuses on supporting abused and neglected children, at-risk youth, people living with developmental disabilities or chronic mental illness, the homeless and others in need. For this session of the Management Incubator, the teams will work with Parker House, a therapeutic group home and one of the programs of Volunteers of America’s Reilly Center for Children and Families. The program provides residential treatment in a safe, family-like atmosphere where young victims of child abuse can heal from past trauma and prepare for family-level care. The participants’ challenge will be to improve two areas of the backyard, which the children use for relaxation and recreation.
The Work Ahead
“Our backyard is one of the children’s favorite places,” says Amanda Gustavson,marketing and fund development director for VOAGBR. “They ride bikes, play basketball and run around outside on a daily basis, weather permitting. We want the children to feel that Parker House is their home while they are in our care. Feeling safe and loved are essential to their healing process. This project will contribute to that goal.”Team 1 will address the relaxation area of the backyard, which includes the patio, flower beds and picnic tables. The children use this area to read and eat afternoon snacks, and the area needs some work to improve the layout, aesthetics and ease of maintenance. Team 2 will address the recreation area of the backyard, which includes a basketball court and concrete play area; they’ll be focusing on improving storage for play equipment and making the area more versatile.
A New Project, a New Challenge
While Success Labs has been working with VOAGBR for some time, this project is unique in that the teams will be working on recreational spaces. And each team will be encouraged to get input from the children who will be using the spaces, Gustavson says.This long-term relationship with the Management Incubator has provided many benefits to VOAGBR, which has been able to revitalize, reorganize and reinvent spaces at many of its program locations, Gustavson says. “Without the involvement of Success Labs, we may not have had the financial and volunteer resources to address various challenges in these spaces. Providing person-centered, high quality services is our passion, and collaboration with Success Labs is one of the ways that we ensure that our residential programs and service locations are meeting the needs of the people we serve.”Want to learn more about how your organization’s leaders can grow while helping build the community? Contact us about enrolling them in the Leadership Coaching Series or Management Incubator.Success Labs is a full-service, strategic organizational and leadership development company located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.