Greetings Friends,

As another year comes to an end, my guess is that we will all stop at least for a few moments to reflect on our personal and professional lives – both to celebrate accomplishments and to recommit ourselves to addressing remaining challenges.  Taking time to reflect is especially important this year. It helps us stay focused on current and future priorities. More importantly, it allows us to recognize that good things are being achieved even in a global pandemic.  Because of the work you do in this state, children, families, and communities are better off – for that, we are grateful! Even though the pandemic caused all of us to adjust the services offered through our organizations and change to a virtual environment rather than our historical face-to-face interactions, we all continued to make a difference.  However, we did learn that change, whether anticipated or not, is inevitable and that by being flexible and staying focused on priorities, we can not only survive change, but we can thrive during the change.

The Alliance, like most of you, adjusted and grew its membership and services.  Because we all have by necessity learned lessons during the past year, we thought it worthwhile to devote an issue of The Ally to the change experience – the successes and challenges we have experienced.

I hope that by sharing our own experience, you will learn something you didn’t previously know and that you will pause long enough to recognize and celebrate your success.  We welcome your insights, thoughts, and comments.  And, as always, we thank you for what you do!

We wish you the most wonderful holiday season ever!