I did not realize Colson was not done until the end of this year, I thought he was out by now. This "society" is a huge umbrella over a lot of homes and things and major donations. The new one being put in charge I just want to make clear if I understand it correctly is for all of the facilities. Sioux Falls is about 370 miles from the home which Serenity allegedly ran from. It is not like she will be on premise ensuring how the home is run as Colson was not either... Or that employees are trained, overseen or follow protocol. At minimum
Serenity, you were one of my first child cases here. Didn't know you but you are in my heart solidly
Yes, you are correct. She will be the Exectutive Director for Children's Home Society...overseeing the entire organization and its many programs throughout South Dakota. She will be based out of Sioux Falls where Colson was often in the Rapid City area.
Other similiar organizations in this state have treatment centers, other agencies or programs throughout the state too with the Executive Director or President offices located in Sioux Falls or Rapid City. They travel to other locations and do video conferencing. Not sure if that is a national thing or just common around here. Most programs have separate program directors that actually run the individual programs or maybe a group of programs.
That being said, in my opinion the first person responsible for ensuring staff training should lie with the program director or associate program director (depending on how CHS delegates that duty.) Fitzgerald was the Program Director of BHCH when Serenity went missing...not sure if he still is. He should have been aware of how the BHCH program and staff were operating. He would also likely be responsible for updating policies or changing them, once approved. If I remember correctly he was quoted in the reports too. Fitzgerald should have been involved in the day to day operations of that program.
Obviously, Colson has fault too with regards to the lack of staff training, outdated policies, etc. since he is the CHS Executive Director. Colson also worked onsite at that location at times too but Fitzgerald also should have accountability too. Colson did seem to be pretty hands on at BHCH though...maybe I am reading that and other interviews wrong though.
CHS was ran a bit differently than the place I worked but from my knowledge of them and other similiar organizations, I don't think I am too far off on this. The people I knew that worked at SFCH reported a similiar hierarchy to what I described. Granted that was a few years ago so things may have changed. I just don't see how an executive director could be hands on in every program though and still be efficient.
My experience was that the overall leader of the organization I worked for was not hands on with the staff, program, or residents. Their office was in the same town but not in our building. We only saw the head of our organization a few times a year.
I still don't understand completely how they got away with the outdated policies and lack of training since it seems to be so different from my experiences during licensing and inspections. I worked for a similiar organization here and there were so many checks on that type of stuff. I do know the organization I worked for had someone in charge of the training schedules, plus supervisors made sure staff were current with training hours and subjects, then our Associate Director also double checked and made sure all that info was in the employee personnel files as well as to the head office. Our Program Director also made sure that was all completed properly. Maybe our inspectors were more thorough too though since I know that stuff was checked then too.
Not sure if that helped explain anything but I tried.
Serenity where are you?????
MOO
Edited for spelling and spacing errors
