Employee Newsletter
Welcome to the new Kennedy Care monthly employee newsletter! Here, you will find important announcements, celebrations, new hire details, and company information we think you’d like to hear about. Great things are happening at Kennedy Care and we want to share the good news regularly with all of you…our trusted and valued employees!
Team Updates
| Kate Bechtel-Akhtar Director of Human Resources | Kate Steffes Administrative Assistant |
| Kate is an HR professional with over 15 years’ experience working from Chicago to Las Vegas. She holds a master’s degree in Organizational Behavior. Her undergraduate schooling was spent at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Kate is thrilled to be moving back home after years away! | Kate is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Health Administration. She is passionate about helping others and loves working in the healthcare field. She also enjoys listening to music, reading, and spending time outdoors. |
Welcome to the KC family, Kate and Kate!
Exciting News For Our Caregivers
This past month, we launched our new Kennedy Care Academy program for our valued caregivers. Additionally, all our caregivers now have a new title: Life Care Professional (LCP).
Learn what being a Life Care Professional means to us.
Through our Kennedy Care Academy, we will be providing LCPs with ongoing training opportunities in advanced healthcare, life skills, and customer service related topics. This allows the LCP to further develop their knowledge and skills in order to have the ability to care for a wider range of clients based on their needs.
We are very proud of our new Life Care Professional program and the many opportunities it will bring for our trusted and valued caregivers.
Please join us in congratulating our new Life Care Professionals!
We would like to recognize some of our very special Life Care Professionals. They are chosen by their respective teams and each brings amazing caregiving, compassion, and love to our clients and families. Thank you for going the extra mile with your care!
| June | July |
| Patriot Care: Trisha Deaton Complete/Catastrophic Care: Stacie Rutley Patriot Care: Amanda Frisbie Brookhaven Manor: Chiffon Walker | Patriot Care: Krysta Gravelle Complete/Catastrophic Care: Mackenzie Carano Safe At Home: Kaley Kauff Brookhaven Manor: Kathy Hunter |
Congratulations, LCPs!
Patriot Care Updates
The Patriot Care team has continued to grow throughout the last quarter and has expanded as far north as Traverse City and Rogers City.
Patriot Care is now serving 160 Veterans throughout the state of Michigan and even into Ohio.
Safe At Home Child Care Updates
Safe at Home Child Care will be expanding their training to help families navigate through virtual learning for the upcoming school year.
Also, Safe at Home’s new Nanny Share program will be rolled out this month. A nanny share can be a great way to lower the cost while allowing families to reap the same benefits as a nanny.
Kennedy Care Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
In alignment with our core value of authenticity, we have come together to form a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. We intend for this to be a space where all of us feel welcome to not only express thoughts or concerns involving diversity, equity, and inclusion but also enlighten and empower each other. We hope to aid in the development of life-long foundational skills that enable us to understand the diverse world around us through open communication, increased self-awareness, and mindfulness of our own as well as others’ behavior.
Since its inception in June, the committee has already made large strides toward making Kennedy Care a more inclusive workplace. In a few months, the administrative employees will be attending multiple training sessions delivered by a third party in an effort to uncover and combat our unconscious biases. We then plan to develop training modules in LearnUpon to make this same information available to all Life Care Professionals.
In addition to the administrative training, we are currently working on revisions to our Client Agreement to strictly define tolerable behaviors and grounds for terminations for clients in all programs. This will work in tandem with a third-party reporting system that Life Care Professionals can use to safely and effectively divulge information regarding mistreatment, discrimination, and other breaches of this contract.
While all of this is taking place, we have developed a large number of resources that Life Care Professionals can use to educate themselves, understand their own unconscious biases, and recognize discriminatory behaviors. You can access a few of these resources by clicking the links below. New resources will be available in each edition of this newsletter.
- Knowing Your Rights (ACLU)
- Teaching Tolerance (Child Care Focused)
- Assess Your Own Biases (Project Implicit)
Happy Birthday!
| August 1st Kalilan Alhousseini-Goga Keshona Miller Marisa Davis Savannah Schroeder Makayla Roeder August 2nd Abigail Puckett August 3rd Athari Aziz Diamond Wojciechoski August 4th Anna Sharp August 5th Oluseyi Gabriel Kenley Jewell August 6th Felly Thoye Shannon Turco Quasheena Weaks Katie Wood August 7th Carrie Garrett Safire Perea Daryl Bonner August 9th Barbara McGuire Allison Little Rebecca Fellows August 12th Kathy Hunter Becky Cooper Grainisha Pierce August 16th Tracy Cervenka August 17th Haya Beydoun | August 19th Thelma Squires Lauren Nyitray August 20th Amanda Frisbie Amber Woosley Alexis Johnson Grace Krzyzaniak August 22nd Doug Daggs August 23rd Holly Stanley August 24th Lisa McMillan August 25th Amanda Marceau August 26th Monica Buckley Victoria Bishop Savanna Colter August 27th Amanda Choryan August 28th Bridgette Walker Carolyn Latham August 29th Dashia McCaw-Lanehart Samantha Young August 30th Erin Yoder August 31st Tashana Franklin |
