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Annual Plan

Each summer, we begin our planning process for the coming year, looking at our three-year strategic plan Charting Our Course 2010-2012, considering the current economic situation and listening to our various constituencies. We publish a draft in September, inviting public comment, and then present a draft plan at a public meeting immediately preceding the regularly scheduled October board meeting. Our board then votes on the plan at that board meeting. The Cuyahoga County Council must then review and approve our plan before the end of the year.

Here's a summary of our 2012 Program & Expenditures Plan or, if you prefer, the unabridged plan as well as a five-minute video summary of our 2011 accomplishments.

Shared Commitment 2015

We have announced a three-year plan called Shared Commitment 2015 to align expenses with the reality of reduced revenues. Over the next three years, we will reduce costs and use reserves to move to a balanced, sustainable budget. Wherever possible, we will minimize the impact on services by growing public-private partnerships to emphasize community inclusion, choice, healthy competition and service leadership.

The steps we plan to implement in 2012 are:

• Moving early childhood services to a home- and community-based model by July 1, 2012. This is the direction that state and federal rules require, and we believe that it will improve our team approach and offer more coaching to families. We will NOT reduce the number of children and families served.
• Complete the transition of school-age students to public schools by June 2012. Students will be served in school settings across the county by our behavior and curriculum intervention staff, early childhood intervention staff and speech-language therapists, occupational and physical therapists and adaptive computer staff and through our partnerships with the Educational Service Center.
• Because all eight of our adult activities centers are over their enrollment capacities, we will gradually reduce enrollment there by 10 percent and specialize services within our facilities.
• At the same time, we will work with community providers to increase their capacity. The end result will be more choices for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. We do NOT plan to close any of our adult centers.
• We will continue to develop innovative community employment opportunities through our SAW, Inc. division and other community providers.
• As a result of these changes, we will adjust the mix of internal and external transportation service provides to meet the needs of our new service models.
• We will manage our use of various Medicaid waivers so we can serve more people but lessen our long-term funding needs. We expect to implement the new SELF waiver in July 2012.
• We will delay the purchase of additional community homes and reduce maintenance costs of existing homes by 25 percent.
• While we will continue to maintain high standards for our buildings, we will reduce our operating expenses by 30 percent.
• As programs change, we will re-examine building use.
• Within the coming three years, we will reduce our total number of employees by 100 (seven percent) through retirements, attrition and reductions in force.