| Agency Information. Agency Vission and Values. Agency Personnel Philosophy | ||
|---|---|---|
| Agency Overview | Agency History | Community Action Agency/Special District |
| Mission and Values | Staff/Operational Values | Customer Service |
| Personnel Philosophy | 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Licensee | |
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Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. is an “umbrella” agency that operates many projects under it organizational structure. The agency functions like several “businesses” under the unified management of the Executive Director, a consolidated accounting/fiscal control and disbursement system, a single personnel department and personnel policies and procedures, a common electronic infrastructure, and the policy governance and oversight of the Board of Directors.
Each agency project has its own budget and “program account” by which funding and budget considerations are made. While every employee is an employee of the AACS, he/she is “budgetarily” attached to one or more program account/funding stream. All programs contribute to the continued growth, success, and services the AACS provides. So, take pride as a member of the Audubon Area Community Services team!
The agency is a 1975 consolidation of two agencies — one based in Henderson, the other in Owensboro — both founded in 1966 through the efforts of local school and political leaders. In 1980, the IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit agency became “special district” of the Commonwealth of Kentucky under K.R.S. Chapters 65 and 273.
The agency added Head Start in the Pennyrile Area January, 1979. The Kentucky Education Reform Act [KERA] passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in the spring of 1990 and implemented in the fall of that year was the next boost for the agency. Today, the agency has KERA 4-year-old at-risk program contracts with fifteen local school systems.
From 1975 to 2001 the agency grew from $1 million in funding and sixty-five staff members to approximately $45 million in annual funding, with nearly 900 staff and other paid personnel. In 1975, the agency served seven counties — the Green River Area. Today, thirty-four counties including those of the Green River Area are in the AACS service area — the nine Pennyrile Area counties, ten Barren River Area counties, and eight Purchase Area counties. The Barren River and Purchase Area counties were added to the AACS service area in mid-1997 when the agency was selected as western Kentucky’s 34-county Child Care Assistance Program provider.
The agency’s principal funding sources are the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — the AACS’ “cognizant agency” (the “lead” grantor agency which supervises AACS fiscal operations), the Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children (formerly the Cabinet for Human Resources), the Kentucky Department of Education — through local school boards, Corporation for National Service(formally ACTION), HUD, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, and the United Way.
Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. is a Community Action Agency - such agencies are often referred to by the acronym, CAA. Audubon is, in fact, one of twenty-three (23) Community Action Agencies in Kentucky — and is now Kentucky’s largest CAA. A Community Action Agency is a local public or nonprofit entity created under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and/or its successor legislation, the Community Services Act of 1976 (and their successive “reauthorizations” and amendments).
As a Special District of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the agency participates in the Kentucky County Employees Retirement System (CERS). All qualified employees — generally, any employee who works at least 1,200 hours per year — must enroll in the CERS.
Organizational Mission and Values
The current Mission Statement for the agency was developed through a year-long strategic visioning and planning process during 1996 and approved by the Audubon Area Board of Directors on February 18, 1997.
Staff Vision, Career Values and Agency Operational Procedures
Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. strives to be very precise and “selective” in its hiring processes. We strive to select the very best individuals available to us for each respective position with the agency. Ultimately, we seek to bring into the organization those persons who are:
In other words, we fully expect employees to share our vision — as outlined above. We expect our employees to embrace our organizational values and plans. And although we are always open to ideas to improve them, we also expect employees to operate according to the agency’s established methods and procedures. And finally, we expect to share with you our corporate success, service reputation and achievement.
Everyone at Audubon Area Community Service is engaged in “customer service”! Whether your first-level “customer” is a “client” or a “co-worker,” all of us have customers, both within the agency and outside the agency with the “recipients” of our services and the larger community within which and at whose favor we serve. You, for examples, are my internal “customers” as well as my employee(s).
Three simple and straightforward elements comprise our customer service philosophy:
Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. (AACS) is an agency whose Mission is “Developing human resources...Investing in human potential.” Its programs and client services are directed toward that end-goal. And the same is true with Audubon’s most vital resource: its people, its employees.
The agency values its personnel. It also places the highest value on employee qualification, performance, and personal growth.
It is no cliché to say that there is an underlying premise that employees should continually be growing. The agency invests much in its employees and their personal growth and development — in their jobs and in themselves.
The agency values and rewards quality people and quality work! It expects no less.
“Seniority” only receives consideration among a number of factors reviewed in the event of determining the order of departure in a reduction-in-force within an agency project. (Agency-wide “bumping” is not allowed.) It is crucial that agency employees understand that years of service will be valued and assessed in terms of employees’ personal growth in their position and value with the agency.
Sometimes, a staffer might contend a number of years of experience, but in reality what they truly have is one “year” of experience repeated many times over. Simply stated: That person has not grown — either in the job or as an individual. Audubon employees are encouraged to attend to their personal growth and development. Audubon supervisors will counsel and guide employees’ growth in their jobs and in their personal growth beyond the job.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Licensee
Among the many things Audubon provides to aid employees’ growth and development are the courses relating to Dr. Stephen R. Covey’s influential work, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the top-selling business book of all time. Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. is a licensee of the FranklinCovey “7 Habits” and related content. The agency offers several courses each year for both employees and community associates in “7 Habits” — people and families courses, “4 Roles of Leadership,” “What Matters Most” (time and priority planning), and Student Achievement Workshops. All of these courses fit into Audubon’s Mission and provide the fundamental principles, shared language, and cultural backbone for the individual staff persons and the collective body of the staff to be more effective in their personal and family lives as well as our shared work lives.
