Spring Has Arrived

I love that we get to experience every season in Missouri - each with its pros and cons. While this has been a chilly spring so far, spring is my favorite season. The landscape greens as plants start to come alive, colorful displays of flowers pop up, birds are chirping. . .

Just as the seasons and people go through cycles of growth, maturity and renewal, so must businesses. It’s appropriate that during this season of renewal and rebirth, LifeBridge Partnership has entered into a strategic planning process. While it is very early in the process, a few themes have emerged:

• Needs Assessment - To remain relevant and grow in a meaningful way, we want to better understand the needs of our community in regards to disability services.

• Collaboration - We believe strategic partnerships have potential to stretch resources so we can increase our impact, whether that is through shared programming or building operational capacity or both.

• Guiding Tools - We want tools to guide our decisions about growth and collaboration to ensure fiscal responsibility and full alignment with our vision and mission.

Whether it’s keeping up with the needs of the community or a changing business landscape, businesses, including nonprofits such as LifeBridge Partnership, must remain cognizant of the need for change, be intentional about growth, and be fiscally responsible. Otherwise, we become stagnant and, rather than renew to a new level of maturity, we decline and fade away.

The end goal is always the same, helping people thrive. LifeBridge Partnership achieves this through a mission of building bridges to a life of social independence for individuals with disabilities. By crossing those bridges, individuals find belonging, maximize their potential and experience well-being.

We would love to hear your thoughts on how we can or should build these bridges. What opportunities do you see for LifeBridge Partnership? How can we strengthen our partnership with you? Share your thoughts with me at 314-926-0942 or karens@lifebridgestl.org

Karen Schuster, CEO