submitted to the EFP
Community Living Essex County scored high marks from an independent auditor in securing its second FOCUS Accreditation Award for the period of June 2018-2022.
FOCUS Accreditation, a non-profit accreditation agency for community service organizations, looks at all aspects of how an organization provides services, from how people are supported, to the effectiveness of their operations. A team of FOCUS validators spent weeks reviewing and scrutinizing every aspect of the organization’s work through extensive interviews, document reviews, and surveys with all stakeholders and funders.
A total of 15 areas, or domains, were reviewed for accreditation, including Financial Management, Human Resources and relationships, and partnerships and community connections, to name a few.
Community Living Essex County scored 358 out of 364, resulting in an outstanding overall score of 98.35 percent.
Cheryl Whiteman, Focus Executive Director, shared a glowing review. “Community Living Essex County is described by stakeholders, both internal and external to the organization, as one that continuously seeks growth, improvement, and progress, not only for themselves and the people they support, but also for the developmental service sector as a whole.”
Executive Director, Karen Bolger of Community Living Essex County, expressed her satisfaction in stating, “This second accreditation award is a validation of the commitment and hard work of our Board of Directors and all of our employees as we strive to offer quality services and supports to the people and families we serve in Essex County.”