Congratulations, Michelle!

Congratulations are in order for Michelle Steele being selected as the January 2015 recipient of the Imagine! Excellence in Customer Service Award. Here’s why she was honored, as reported by one of her co-workers:

“Michelle used her day off work to bring Donna and Gerald, who live in Imagine!’s Santa Fe Group Home in Broomfield, to the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont so that they could watch the Broncos game with Toby for his birthday. Toby was just so happy that they could be there and that they could share their love of football together on his birthday. Michelle deserves an award for going above and beyond to try and help one of our consumers have one of the best birthdays ever.”

Great work, Michelle, and congratulations on this well-deserved honor!

Technology Tuesday

Imagine! doesn’t only embrace technologies that offer opportunities for greater self-reliance among the individuals we serve. We also explore the use of technologies that can make us more effective as an organization, and that will save us time and money.

One example of how we have explored technology to improve our efficiency as an organization is through our use of FleetCommander. FleetCommander is a web-based fleet and motor pool software tool. Imagine! has a large fleet of vehicles, and this software has greatly improved our ability to manage that fleet.

FleetCommander helps Imagine! maintain electronic preventive and repair maintenance records in one spot, which can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection; allows Imagine! to tailor maintenance data and reports to show repair trending among like vehicles, or age of vehicle, or mileage or other desired criterion; and Imagine! can use mileage as a guide to set repair schedules at the appropriate time. This permits required work to be performed at the optimum time so warranty requirements are met. It also extends the life of the vehicle components by tracking when maintenance and repairs should occur.

Through FleetCommander, Imagine! can monitor accident records in one accessible location that permits simple, accurate updating. This allows easy data extraction for use by company personnel or claims. FleetCommander integrates with US Bank Voyager system so monthly fuel records are easily downloaded. Miles per gallon can be computed instantly for any vehicle or combination of vehicles to measure against factory specs. This allows for research of significant mpg differences to be explored and corrective actions to be taken as needed.

FleetCommander system data is capable of monitoring variances of parts and/or labor costs so that the most economical resources are used, and system data can be organized so that trends of parts replacements can be tracked – such as tires, brakes, shocks/struts, etc. Reports can be created that are supportive of efforts for fleet obsolescence and upgrading plans.

Finally, the FleetCommander system allows for vehicles to be grouped/assigned to departments or individuals so that cost allocation is simple and accurate.

Check Out The Latest SmartHomes Newsletter

Imagine!’s latest SmartHomes newsletter is available online.

Check it out here. 

Technology Tuesday

This week’s Technology Tuesday comes to you from Suzanne Phillips, Communication Teacher at Imagine!’s Longmont CORE/Labor Source (CLS) hub. Today, Suzanne talks about AbleNet’s Sounding Board app, and how she and others are using it to open doors to new communication opportunities. 

Now that Longmont’s new iPads are up and running, it’s been great to see how staff and teachers are using them to improve client’s daily lives at CORE/Labor Source. Longmont’s first iPad specific class has begun, clients check them out during lunch to play educational games, and many have learned to access the iBooks library. Everyone enjoys using the iPads, but some staff members have really gone above and beyond to use these devices to their full potential. Alexa Weitzeil is one such staff member. She is our primary Sensory teacher, and she works with many adults who are non-verbal and have trouble communicating wants, needs, and preferences. When the iPads arrived, she was immediately interested in the communication-based adaptive technology apps. She quickly learned to use AbleNet’s Sounding Board app, which essentially turns an iPad into a customizable communication device. Using Sounding Board, you can create communication boards of up to nine messages per screen, use symbols (or your own photos) for visual content, and record messages that will play when a picture or symbol is pressed. Alexa has already had great success with this app! Here’s a bit of her success shared in her own words (names changed to protect privacy):

Hey everyone! 

I just wanted to share some exciting news about our friend “Jane.” 

I have been working with her the past few days on using the Sounding Board app on the iPads to help her communicate, and she has responded extremely well! I created a single-button board on the app so that when she touches the screen, it says, "I would like some attention please." For the past two days, Jane has independently touched the screen multiple times to get staff attention instead of hitting herself. YAY! After getting staff attention, Jane would use the yes/no buttons on a different board to tell staff if she needed to use the restroom or not. 

While there is still some work to do, Jane has done a wonderful job using the app instead of hitting herself to get staff attention thus far. Other staff members are using the app as well when working with Jane to help her continue to improve her communication. I love seeing the progress she's making! Thanks for reading and sharing in the excitement! 

I love to see teachers like Alexa promoting this kind of self-reliance, and creating such successful teachable moments! I know that this is just the beginning, and we will continue to work as a team to build on this success. I look forward to sharing more stories with you soon – stay tuned!

Happy Birthday, Loren!

Wishing the happiest of birthdays today to Loren, who lives in the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont. Make it a great one, Loren!

Thank You, 1stBank Center

Last week we showed you some pictures of residents of the Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome attending the “So You Think You Can Dance?” 2014 Dance Tour at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield.

We neglected to mention that the 1StBank Center donated a suite at their venue so the residents could attend this fantastic event. So we’d like to share a few more photos from the sutie and a great big “THANK YOU” to the 1stBank Center for making this magical evening a reality!

New Tour Dates For Charles Family SmartHome

Starting in January, we will have new dates for available tours of the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont. Tours of that home will now be hosted the 3rd Monday of each month at 10:00 a.m. Why not make a New Year’s resolution to take a tour and see first-hand how technology is changing the way services are delivered to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities?

Schedule your tour today!