Via Services Strategic Plan
We are excited to present our new strategic plan for how we will enhance our services for the special needs community and their families, as well as a new vision, mission, and core values for the organization. To read the strategic plan in full, please click here.
Vision, Mission, and Values
Guided by our Strategy Committee and with support from the Executive Director and our strategic planning consultants (Mosaic Consulting and Coaching), Via’s Board of Directors engaged in visioning, reviewed the organization’s mission, and reflected on its deepest-held values. Articulated below, these shared commitments provide a foundation for Via’s strategic direction moving forward.
We envision an inclusive world in which individuals with disabilities and their families are living rich, joyful, and fulfilling lives, actively participating in the community, achieving their potential, and realizing their dreams.
We recognize that this vision is broad, ambitious, and larger than us. Via will not achieve this desired future alone, nor is it likely to come to fruition for many years. Still, we believe it a worthy dream to aspire to — and to be inspired by — as we pursue our mission.
Our mission is to empower people with disabilities and their families to grow, develop, and thrive by providing essential skill-building, therapeutic, and recreational programs.
Via is a deeply values-driven organization. Our core values are a powerful statement of who we are as an organization and our promise to our clients, families, and community.
Love: Love is the foundation of everything we do and is ever-present in our interactions with clients, our relationships with their families, and our engagement of our staff and the community.
Family: We form valued relationships with our families and their loved ones by understanding their needs and collaborating with each on their unique journeys of growth and development.
Trust: Your trust in us is essential; we strive to earn it every day by ensuring the safety and dignity of all those in our care.
Quality: We provide expertly designed, high-impact, life-changing programs and services.
Inclusion: We believe in, and actively promote, a community of diversity, equity, and inclusion that embraces all people and celebrates their differences.
Partnership: We actively seek innovative, value-added partnerships with other organizations to meet the needs of our clients, their families, and the community.
Big Questions (Strategic Issues)
Big questions are those opportunities or challenges to which an organization must respond. After an assessment of Via’s internal strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats in its external environment, the Strategy Committee recommended that the Board consider four Big Questions:
How do we make Via West viable and sustainable (operationally & financially)?
How do we evolve our funding model, especially to increase earned income?
How do we evolve our funding model, especially to increase contributed income?
How do we enhance our infrastructure and operations to support programs, with a special focus on quality and safety?
Organizational Strategies in Response
With the focus on the above Big Questions, the following strategies were identified and tested. Even though actions will be taken on all strategies over the next 18-36 months, some actions will need to be phased in over time. Those details will be identified in the implementation plan to be created later.
Via West Strategies
- Ensure quality, availability, consistency, and retention of staff.
- Elevate the amount/type of training, support, safety protocols, behavior management, reporting, etc.
- Explore alternative structures of camp leadership, staffing, scheduling, durations, programmatic offerings, participant/staff ratios, etc. Additionally, consider rentals/use groups, revisit rates, number of groups, durations, etc. to help cover the costs of camp.
Earned Income Strategies
- Identify potential new programs that fit with our mission, values, and competitive advantages.
- Identify alternative funding sources for programs (e.g., private pay). Additionally, reevaluate fee structures and funding sources for existing programs, expand their reach, etc.
- Enhance Via’s visibility in the community
Contributed Income Strategies
- Increase development resources, including hiring a new Director with expertise in major gifts and/or corporate donations and develop a fund development plan.
- Clarify the fundraising role and build the fundraising capacity of the Board.
- Enhance Via’s visibility in the community.
Infrastructure Strategies
- Hire talented Program Director and Via West Director, focusing on staffing, management, and culture.
- Develop staff onboarding and ongoing training and education program supported by clear policies and practices (e.g., transparent communication, etc.).
Additional Overall Strategy
- Enhance Via’s visibility in the community. This strategy cuts across all Big Questions, enhancing workforce recruitment for Via West and other programs (existing and new) as well as supporting fund development efforts to increase earned and contributed income. It is a core component of organizational capacity that is tied to IT and marketing communications capacity, such as SEO, social media, etc.