Meet our new President & CEO, Mary Beth O’Neill

We are excited to introduce our new President & CEO, Mary Beth O’Neill!

Mary Beth comes to Four Oaks from MOSAIC, a nonprofit based in Omaha, Nebraska, where she served as vice president of operations and oversaw six agencies serving adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the state. Prior to her role at MOSAIC, O’Neill served as president and chief executive officer for the last seven of her 21 years at Key Human Services, Inc. in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

In addition to her human service agency leadership, Mary Beth is a licensed occupational therapist who has provided direct patient care in skilled nursing, short-term rehabilitation, home care, and hospice settings. She also previously served as an adjunct professor of occupational therapy at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In their free time, Mary Beth and her husband, Palmer, enjoy playing with their two Labrador Retrievers, biking and running.

Mary Beth will succeed Anne Gruenewald who will be retiring after 40 years of service to Four Oaks.

We could not be more excited to have Mary Beth join our organization. Her experience and leadership will allow the Four Oaks to continue to be a leader in children and family services. Please join us in welcoming Mary Beth!

You can learn more about Mary Beth by checking out this Q&A video with her!

TotalChild® Workforce Mentor Spotlight: Connor Vincent

Meet TotalChild® Workforce Mentor, Connor Vincent

1. Where do you work and what is your job title?

I work for Hills Bank and my job title is Commercial Banker.

2. What is something you like to do for fun?

In my spare time, I really enjoy cooking and trying new culinary dishes with my wife.

3. What made you want to become involved in TotalChild® Workforce?

The main reason I wanted to get involved with TotalChild® Workforce is because of my desire to volunteer and give back to young adults. Before I started working for Hills Bank full-time, I experienced my fair share of employment struggles. During that time I wished to have someone that could relate to my struggles, listen to me, and support my employment and professional goals. Serving as a mentor with the TotalChild® Workforce program is my attempt to fill that position for young individuals that are going through the same thing I did.

4. HOW DO YOU SEE TotalChild® Workforce BENEFITING YOUTH?

I believe TotalChild® Workforce has tremendous value for the youth involved in the program for multiple reasons. First, the great people at Four Oaks provide a tremendous amount of support to individuals involved in the program. They serve as facilitators between young adults seeking guidance and experienced professionals looking to volunteer their time. Second, pairing the youth with relatively young professionals is effective because the two groups have a lot in common. Lastly, TotalChild® Workforce is beneficial for youth because it gives them real opportunities to explore careers and ask questions in a flexible setting. There are no grades, there is no homework (unless you’re paired with me), and there are certainly no dumb questions. Ultimately, it is about the employment development of youth and supporting them on their journeys to success.

5. How do you see TotalChild® Workforce benefiting the community?

This program benefits the community because it supplies the youth with the human capital and life experiences they will need to one day be independent. As one becomes more independent, they are able to act more selflessly and focus on positively building the community around them. On the other hand, it also encourages professionals to give back and volunteer their time. By volunteering, you meet new people, hear uniqiue stories, and share more about yourself than you otherwise would in a cubicle. Participation in TotalChild® Workforce and similar programs is foundational to a strong and healthy community because it builds and fosters trust. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a part of a community where we all trust one another?

The Importance of Perspective Taking

The Importance of Perspective Taking by Kara Grafft, Education Liaison

As a mother of two boys I’m familiar with what skills are traditionally viewed as superpowers; flying, super strength, slam dunks and posterizing, shapeshifting, and teleportation. Don’t get me wrong, these are exceptionally cool. However, throughout my years in the mental health field, I’ve discovered a superpower I believe to be even more powerful than a radioactive spider bite or a nuclear blast.

Perspective Taking!

Ok ok, I’ll allow that at first glance it may not have the same appeal as the previously stated superpowers, but let me explain.

Perspective-taking is the all-important skill of being able to look at things from a point of view other than our own. When we are able to reflect on someone else’s point of view, we offer compassion and empathy to that interaction. When these qualities are present in our interactions, mutual respect, success, and movement forward are guaranteed. When we get stuck in ‘my way or the highway’ thinking or right vs. wrong, we aren’t building bridges to a solution, we are creating roadblocks.

One of my favorite ways to explore perspective taking with a group or team is with a Values Circle rooted in Restorative Practice Principles. When we are able to discover what someone’s core values are, it helps us to have a greater understanding of where they are coming from as they operate in their day/life.

For example, if a co-worker shares one of their top core values is safety, it helps us understand why they may pay more attention to incoming weather reports, take a long time making decisions, or spend extra time with sanitizing or crisis preparations. Instead of being frustrated about their additional questions or time, we can shift our thinking from a place of irritation to compassion and understanding.

We’re living in a unique time and as we approach the start of school, perspective-taking can help us to understand others and ensure empathy and grace in our everyday interactions.

Here are two sample Values Circle scripts for you to try!

Script 1

Opening: Share a quote about Values. For example:

“Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ‘em all over everything you do.” –Elvis Presley

“Your core values are the deeply held beliefs that authentically describe your soul.” –John C. Maxwell

Prompt Options

  • Identify a value that is important to you in relationships.
  • What core value guides your work?
  • How do your core values show up in your day-to-day life?
  • When do you feel you’re living in alignment with your core values? When do you feel you’re out of alignment with your core values?

Script 2

Identify Core Value and place in the center of the circle: Provide post-it notes and have people write their own and place them in the center OR spread out The Values Cards in the center of the circle and have people choose one, then offer the following prompt:

Reflection

  • Share why you choose the word you did and how this value is expressed in your work/life.

Closing

“Perspective-taking is taking on the perspective of others. It’s what we do anytime we buy a gift for someone else (‘What would they like?’). So it means breaking the golden rule (‘Treat others the way you want to be treated’) and instead acknowledges that others may not want what you want.” –David Livermore

Expecting success in the face of great adversity brought by derecho

Reflecting on the derecho one year later

As I reflect on the past year since the August 10th derecho, I am struck by the resilience, strength, and neighborliness of our community. The generosity and commitment to helping those most in need that our community exhibited immediately after the storm truly illustrates what it means to be “CR Strong.”

None of us could have anticipated or prepared for the severe damage that the derecho would leave in its wake. Four Oaks and its affiliate organizations, Jane Boyd Community House and the Affordable Housing Network, Inc., experienced over $1 million of damage that was not covered by insurance and across our various locations in the area, lost an estimated 400 trees.

These numbers do not even begin to illustrate the mental, emotional and physical toll that the storm had not only on the children and families we serve but also on our staff and community partners. However, in the face of disaster and crisis, our agency and the community came together and asked, “What can we do to help?”

I witnessed countless good deeds following the storm — from staff helping get generators set up at our residential programs to volunteers helping pass out hot food and non-perishables in the hardest-hit neighborhoods. One staff member even went as far as independently raising nearly $5,000 to distribute supplies to anyone in need in the community, including current and past clients of the agency.

We did not have power, cellphone service, or, for some of us, running water. Despite these challenges, staff worked tirelessly to ensure that our children and families were being taken care of and getting connected to resources and support. They then turned their attention to helping their colleagues clean up the damage and begin the recovery process.

Four Oaks’ vision is “Expect Success.” I truly saw this vision lived out as the community and our agency came together to stand strong as the mighty oak in the face of great adversity.

A year later, as we continue to see the needs of those affected by the derecho persist, Four Oaks, Jane Boyd Community House, and the Affordable Housing Network, Inc., remain committed to ensuring the success of the children and families we serve.

The generosity, strength, and neighborliness I saw in countless actions in the weeks following the derecho continue to inspire me. As we reflect on last year’s natural disaster, I urge you to continue to lead your lives with that same CR Strong spirit, ensuring that all members of our community have the support and resources to achieve success — no matter the challenges that blow through our lives.

-Debbie Craig, Four Oaks Enterprise Chief Advocacy Officer

 

Click here to see Debbie’s guest column featured in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Reunification Month: Keeping Families Together

June is Reunification Month, a time to recognize the people and efforts around the country that help families to stay together. A Four Oaks Family Connections foster family shared their reunification story for a placement they had earlier this year. The ultimate goal of foster care is to reunify children with their birth families.

“We had our first placement from January 2020 to January 2021 and we had a really positive experience. We supported the family and cheered them on through their accomplishments. As sad as it was for us to say goodbye to a kiddo who we’d cared for and loved for a year, it was such a fulfilling and exciting experience to watch them be reunited! We now see the kiddo about every other week and keep him overnight about once a month. We even joined the family for our kiddo’s little brother’s birthday party.

During the year we had the kiddo it could be stressful at times. We were on opposite ends of the system from the birth family, we were both trying to live our lives our way, and it was a pandemic! We parented differently, but we kept the focus on the kiddo and stayed respectful and considerate. It was hard to establish a set visitation schedule at one time, but we communicated well with the birth family and cared about each other and about making sure the kiddo had visits!

It was important that they didn’t see us as the enemy and that we didn’t see them as bad. We were a team with the shared goal of providing this kiddo with the best care possible. The family is now thriving and they’ve made leaps and bounds to better their family. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of this experience, and I believe our teamwork is what has allowed us to have a positive relationship with them even after reunification!”

Thank you to all of our staff who help support our families and help keep them together!

“We” Means Everyone

Sometimes I forget. Like, completely forget. Sometimes I am putting gas in my car, or buying groceries, or nagging my kids about their homework and too much screen time and shouldn’t they go play outside for a while?…

Sometimes I completely forget that I am not at all like most of the people around me. I forget that my difference is very visible to them. I forget that the written and unwritten rules in my country, my community, my state, my workplace, my kids’ school, many “mainstream” faith communities, etc., etc., etc., were written by, for, and about people who are not like me. The written and unwritten rules in all of those places often never even considered the existence of a person like me. Or if they did consider my existence, the written and unwritten rules were created to protect others from people like me. In some cases, they were written by, for, and about people who firmly believe that people like me should not be able to experience a physical, social, emotional, or spiritual life in the same way they do or to the same extent they do.

Sometimes I forget all those things…until I don’t. Until I can’t. Until there’s an ugly word, a dirty look, or a comment that was “just a joke”. I forget until I see body language that communicates clearly a person’s complete discomfort in my presence, a news piece about another new law proposed that makes sure that people like me don’t get to have, do, or be, in the same way as everyone else.

Sometimes I forget that I am not like most other people until that moment inevitably comes when I am in a new environment or talking to someone I don’t know. I have to evaluate in a split second whether or not I will still be safe or accepted if I own my voice, my life, my identity, and show who I am at my most authentic. Sometimes I have to evaluate if I even care if I will be accepted or rejected, if I will be safe, or if I will have to defend myself and my right to exist and be who I am… in a split second.

Moreover, sometimes there is violence. On June 12, 2016, in the early morning hours, a man opened fire for unknown reasons in a gay bar in Orlando, Florida, killing 49. On June 13, I woke up to that news and it broke me. And I broke again when I learned that many significant others and life partners weren’t being notified of their loved one’s death, because only next of kin can be notified. However, in some of these cases, the next of kin had already previously rejected and ejected that person from the family for being gay and did not know or care that there was a life partner, or a chosen family, desperately searching for news of their loved one. Instead, they had to wait for the media to release the names of the victims so they would know why their person did not come home and would never come home again.

I broke again when later that week I heard a well-known public figure congratulate the shooter and then go on to say that ALL gays should be lined up against the wall and shot. I am the mother of twins and they are my entire heart displaced from my body, just out walking around the world on their little legs with their achingly beautiful smiles. When this…person….said all gays should be lined up against a wall and shot, my children were 5 years old. How does someone look at two 5-year-olds, the very essence of purity, innocence, love, goodness, and vulnerability, and tell them that their mothers should be lined up against a wall and shot?

I continued to break when I heard that many of the victims’ bodies were not being claimed because again, bodies can only be released to next of kin and those kin would not relent in their rejection long enough to ensure a proper burial.

The United States Supreme Court had just legalized gay marriage, with a one-vote majority in June 2015, just one year before the shooting. Since then, there have been court battles over whether or not someone can be fired for being anything other than heterosexual, there have been social and court battles over whether transgender individuals can use the bathroom or play on a sports team appropriate to their gender identity, and hate crimes have continued and even increased in recent years. Hostility that had previously been at least quiet and more covert is being expressed openly in many environments and communities.

June is LGBTQ Pride Month. There are those who ask, “Why can’t I have a straight Pride month?” There are those who say an LGBTQ Pride Month is discriminatory or hurtful to those who are not LGBTQ. To those individuals, I say this…I do not fly an American flag to make Canadians feel bad.

Pride is the time I pay deliberate homage to those who went before me; who did the impossible in creating a world where the United States Supreme Court recognizes that I should be allowed to legally marry the mother of my children and receive the same rights and benefits of marriage as all others.

Pride is the time I reaffirm MY voice, my journey, my joyful existence, and my most authentic self. Pride is the time I reaffirm my responsibility to those who still haven’t found their voice, haven’t completed their journey, haven’t found their joyful existence, and who don’t know how beautiful and welcometheir most authentic self is.

The other 11 months of the year, I reaffirm YOUR voice, your journey, your joyful existence, and your most authentic self. The other 11 months of the year, I work to help you find your voice, complete your journey, find your joyful existence, and learn how beautiful and welcome your most authentic self is.

Because “we” means everyone.

-Kai McGee, Quality Improvement Director

Two Local Advocates Honored in Tree-Planting Ceremony at Smith Center

 

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n Friday, May 7, in conjunction with National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, a tree-planting ceremony was held at the Smith Center. Trees were planted in memory of Dr. Larry Richards, Four Oaks’ longtime psychiatric physician, and in honor of Iowa State Senator Liz Mathis, who served as Four Oaks’ Chief Community Officer before her election to the Legislature. Dr. Richards and Sen. Mathis were recognized for their service and advocacy in the name of children’s mental health.

Trees Forever, a Marion-based nonprofit that works to connect people to the environment through the planting and care of trees, prairie, and other natural areas, donated the Bur Oak that was planted in memory of Dr. Richards. He retired in 2020 and died in June of that year. A Red Maple was planted in honor of Sen. Mathis.

“We are so pleased to be able to honor and remember Dr. Larry Richards in such a meaningful way. He is remembered for his many years of service and the care he provided to youth in our in-patient programs at the Smith Center campus,” Anne Gruenewald, Four Oaks President and CEO, said.

Sen. Mathis was recognized for championing children’s mental health. During her time in the Legislature, she has introduced several bills about children’s needs, worked on the children’s mental health system design, and currently sits on the Children’s Behavioral Health System State Board. She continues to advocate on behalf of Iowa’s children and families and on ensuring strong health and human services across the state.

Parents As Teachers program awarded grant from the Dubuque Racing Association

Four Oaks’ Parents As Teachers (PAT) program in Dubuque has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Dubuque Racing Association (DRA). The funded project, Enrichment of Home Visitation Through Technology, purchased laptops that will enrich home visits or allow virtual visits with families in the PAT program.

Offered to more than 400 families in Dubuque each year, PAT is a parent education and family support program for families with at least one child prenatal through age 5. All family members are invited to participate in programming, including older siblings. PAT is internationally-recognized and research- and evidence-based. The PAT model’s four core components are home visits, screenings, resource networking, and group events. Program activities encourage language development, intellectual growth, and social and motor skills, allowing parents with children ages 0-5 to make the most of their child’s crucial early years.

Since COVID-19 required a shift to virtual work and life, adequate technology resources have become a necessity for conducting business. In addition, for a data-driven program like PAT, up-to-date computers are vital to accurate and immediate data collection. Data, both current and historical, is critical to the successful growth of each child in the PAT program.

“This is such a great opportunity for our team to provide parents with access to a wealth of information and online resources,” said Amy Kallaher, PAT Program Manager. “When we can’t do in-person visits, the technology ensures staff can stay connected to families, helping them understand what to expect as their children grow and offering practical suggestions on encouraging learning, managing challenging behavior, and promoting strong parent-child relationships.”

Four Oaks joins Georgetown University’s New Strategies Symposium

Four Oaks and President and CEO Anne Gruenewald are honored to be funded by Alliant Energy to virtually participate in New Strategies, an advanced online training program conducted over four consecutive Wednesdays from March 3-24 by Georgetown University’s Business for Impact. Anne will join a class of 64 nonprofit executives from around the country to participate in New Strategies Symposium specifically designed to help nonprofits increase and diversity their revenue streams.

Executives will learn from leaders in the nonprofit and philanthropy fields, Georgetown business school faculty, and each other on topics ranging from cause marketing, earned revenue, using predictive analytics to increase individual giving levels, deferred and major funding options, virtual fund raising, alliances and mergers, and more. Ongoing access to the expert speakers and networking among the nonprofit executives is a hallmark of New Strategies.

There is no application to apply to New Strategies, so being named by Alliant Energy is itself an honor. Only those nonprofits funded by a corporation or foundation are invited to participate in the program and only after being approved by New Strategies.

Honoring Black History Month

February 24, 2021

As Black History Month is drawing to a close I want to give honor to it, but also look at it through the lens of where Four Oaks is taking our DEI initiative in the future.

For those of you who have never met me, I identify as Black. I am proud to be a part of the Black community and honor the accomplishments and successes of all Black individuals; past, present and future. A question that comes to mind when I think about Black History Month is why there is only one month out of the year designated to honor these accomplishments or learn about my (everyone’s) history. Shouldn’t there be honor daily in being who I am; including acknowledging I am a woman, a Christian, a social worker, an advocate, a daughter and many other identities. For those of us belonging to non-dominant groups such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), LGBTQ+, women, veterans, people with disabilities, etc., awareness months and days such as Black History Month serve as a way for our voices to be heard, our history to be acknowledged and for us to be seen and valued for who we are. Four Oaks’ DEI initiative wants to take this a step further by intentionally creating spaces daily where our staff, the children and families we serve and our community partners feel they can be their authentic selves.

Four Oaks is committed to assessing our current diversity policies and practices to have a better understanding of what we are doing well and to guide our future decisions of continuous improvement on our DEI journey. We will choose to enter into courageous and brave conversations about our differences, even when it feels uncomfortable to do so. Lastly, we will be intentional in our actions to cultivate an environment that all feel a sense of belonging.

– Ashley Hopkins, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director