By Barbara Gray, Lead Consultant
Fellowship Living Facilities, Inc. was founded as a nonprofit in 2005 to provide a sober living residential environment for men and women in recovery from Substance Abuse Disorder. More recently, the organization formed a separate nonprofit to expand services to support those living in the community at large as well as those living at Fellowship’s residential community. In June, 2020, the two nonprofits merged and became Fellowship RCO (Recovery Community Organization).
Challenge:
Fellowship RCO has developed an outstanding community reputation for their unswerving focus on caring for their clients. As behavioral and clinical research has begun to show positive outcomes from specific recovery practices and support systems, the CEO and Board of Directors wanted to be better positioned to take advantage of growing interest in recovery support outcomes by public/government entities and donor sectors. However, they lacked a clear roadmap to drive their business objectives toward that end.
Goal:
Fellowship’s Founder/CEO and Board of Directors determined to develop a 5 Year Strategic Plan to provide clarity and consensus on the best path forward.
Process:
Executive Service Corps- South Florida collaborated with the CEO to plan and implement a process leading to a set of strategic priorities, 5-year goals and first year milestones and action plans. This included:
- Conducting individual interviews with 12 to 15 key stakeholders to provide valuable insights and perspectives for the Strategic Planning Committee’s (SPC) consideration;
- Completing an environmental scan of the national and regional sober living/recovery industry to provide hard data for the Committee’s analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats;
- Creating a tailor-made agenda in collaboration with the CEO taking into account the challenge of engaging participants in deliberative discussions simultaneously including both remote and face to face interactions;
- Facilitating a series of productive discussions which incorporated virtual and in person methodologies, individual reflection and group discussion exercises and an accompanying strategic planning workbook to guide the process regardless of each participant’s location;
- Developing a series of post-meeting documents to summarize the Committee’s major discussion points and decisions and to recommend next steps to complete the planning process and enable the organization to kick off the plan at the beginning of fiscal year.
Result:
Fellowship RCO has 5-Year Plan aligned with its Vision and Mission and based on a set of Strategic Priorities in keeping with the desire to build an organization that will create positive impact and outcomes for clients, their families, and the community at large.
