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November 5, 2020 Giving Guide: Business Gives Back 2020

Marrakech, Inc.

 

6 Lunar Drive, Woodbridge, CT 06525 | 203-389-2970 | www.marrakechinc.org | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarrakechIncCT/ | https://twitter.com/MARRAKECHincCT

Our Mission: To provide residential, employment, support, referral, and advocacy services to individuals with disabilities and people with similar service needs to assist them in exercising their human rights as citizens and contributing members of society.

Goals

• Reduce dependence on state funding so that we may expand services at a reasonable cost, gain support for underfunded initiatives, and provide staff with COLAs or other incentives, even when not provided in state contracts. 

• Improve accessibility, energy efficiency, and overall functioning of our buildings, which has not been possible due to stagnant or reduced state budgets.

• Develop new recruitment and employee engagement strategies to attract and keep the best human services employees in Connecticut. 

• Assist employees with professional development opportunities that will increase credentials, professionalism, and leadership skills at all levels. 

• Evaluate existing programs and explore service expansion opportunities.

I can’t tell you how important Marrakech and the staff is. It’s not easy. Every child is different. To do an individualized program that meets the needs of the client and the parents — that says a lot.
– Kim Bastoni (Norwalk), Parent

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your organization? How have your organization’s fundraising efforts, giving opportunities and volunteer opportunities changed as a result?

At the onset of COVID, we developed a vision and strategy to ease the minds of our community: 

Vision: to maintain the physical and fiscal health of the people we support, our employees, and our organization. 

Strategy: control what we can in a world where we cannot control much, especially the spread of the virus. Limit the amount of interaction between people and ensure everyone has the recommended personal protective equipment needed to stay safe during the unavoidable interactions. 

Our entire operations changed. Within just a matter of a few days, everyone’s jobs looked a little different and 60% of our employees welcomed significant modification to their work duties. Our staff took on these new job duties, hours, and locations with alacrity because we all have the same vision. We stopped the spread of COVID in our residential settings less than two weeks after our first confirmed case, attributing this success largely to the live-in model and task force services we quickly implemented. It is amazing to see 740 people be so nimble and open to change. 

Maintaining the physical and fiscal health of our Marrakech family remains the priority. We support residents who require personal care around the clock and need frontline staff to provide that care. We have no option to shut down and reopen, which means we will need to continue to address increased needs with decreased resources. 

The pandemic has changed our fundraising efforts drastically. Typically, the majority of funds raised come from three major in-person events each year. All of those were cancelled for 2020. This forced us into using online platforms more for fundraising, which has been met with great success thus far. There have been family members, friends and companies with whom we work that have donated groceries, meals, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, recreation supplies and more. We have received COVID-specific grants from local funders that are helping people we support get through this crisis. 

About Us

Year established: 1971

Total number of employees (FTE): 549

Annual revenues (most recent fiscal year): $30,260,047

Geographic Service Area(s)

Connecticut

Top Funding Sources

Department of Developmental Services (DDS): 67.3%

Department of Social Services (DSS): 11.2%

Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services (DMHAS): 11.4%

All Other: 10.1%

Board of Directors

President/CEO, Heather LaTorra
Chair, Steve Shwartz, Device 42

President/CEO
Heather LaTorra

Chair
Steve Shwartz
Device 42

Vice Chair
Suzanne Letso
Milestones Behavioral Services

Secretary
Deborah Stanley-McAulay
Yale University