Dear Friends,
Mental health and wellness are at the heart of everything we do at Channel Marker. The clients we serve have remained the #1 priority for our staff as we have learned to pivot regularly in the face of uncertainty. The last two years have taken a toll on our employees and created a workforce under stress who continue to deliver services in new and innovative ways. Workforce retention challenges us, and despite these issues, we persisted in upholding our mission and strengthening our community by offering excellent mental health and wellness support services. The pandemic has compelled us to work harder, learn alternate ways to grow, and adapt during some of the most difficult times our agency has faced.
We invite you to read some of our most exciting highlights of FY21 featured in this annual report. These achievements include:
- Renovating our main campus to create a new 8-bed residential crisis service at our headquarters in Easton, MD;
- Launching a $250K Caroline Youth Center Capital Campaign to serve more children in Denton, MD;
- Using telehealth services to continue to provide essential and safe services to our clients;
- Applying advanced medication-monitoring technology with Medherent medication-dispensing machines to digitally track and monitor the medication intake of our residential clients.
Over the past year, our agency remained steady in providing excellent services to our residents. We also addressed our infrastructure needs with technology and security upgrades, purchased new vehicles for safe and reliant client transportation, and made HVAC and maintenance improvements to our facilities.
We are very grateful to our board members and community leaders for their involvement in evaluating our effectiveness and making key recommendations to us. We were able to employ consultants to help us plan for the future.
None of this work would be possible without the philanthropic spirit of our community of friends, advocates, stakeholders, volunteers, and medical professionals. We are honored that you have chosen to invest in our mission and we thank you. We are extremely fortunate to be a part of a community that dedicates its time, financial support, and expertise to give some of our most vulnerable citizens hope and a brighter future.
We are looking forward to celebrating our 40th-year anniversary. With your help, we will accomplish great things not only in this anniversary year but also in the years to come.
Thank you,
Cathy Cassell, LCSW-C
Executive Director