Communitas is a community-based, person-centered non-profit organization headquartered in Bremerton that provides residential services for adults with developmental and cognitive disabilities. It was organized in 1979 by parents of institutionally-housed adults, who formed a board of directors, obtained Washington State certifications, and set up four group homes that enabled their adult children to live in the community.
There are now twelve remote residential sites, ranging from Port Orchard to Poulsbo, housing thirty-nine adults. Unlike other facilities, Communitas refers to the people in their care simply as individuals; “Label jars—not people,” says Alan Petersen, the Executive Director of Communitas, “Not focusing on their disabilities, but rather focusing on their gifts. When we recognize that people have more in common than differences, the differences go away.”
Communitas has a compassionate staff of 110 skilled caregivers providing 24-hour personal care, financial management, and community integration activities for the individuals in their facilities. These dedicated caregivers believe that a healthy community includes everyone. Alan says that the individuals are very patient with their caregivers in explaining how to best support them, even though some of the residents can only speak or be heard through their behaviors. Alan explains, “Not being able to speak isn’t the same as having nothing to say. Teaching and training new skills is important for an increased quality of life, but sometimes you just need to let someone be, and get out of their way when they are learning.”
Although Communitas has a robust technology network now, that wasn’t true a couple of years ago. When their server went down they lost considerable data and it took nearly three months to reconstruct what was lost and get their systems back online. Computers, Internet access, and phone systems frequently went down, and each of their remote facilities had to manually prepare required reports and drive them to headquarters in Bremerton.
Realizing that they didn’t have the right technology team or system to provide critical services, they contacted Help Desk Cavalry, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) with a passion to serve local business and organizations. We conducted a thorough network assessment, considered the stringent healthcare regulation requirements, and discussed business objectives with Communitas before making our recommendations.
“Help Desk Cavalry presented a comprehensive hardware, vendor management, security, software, and technical services package in an understandable manner,” says Alan Petersen. “The flat rate cost was spread in an easy-to-budget monthly amount that we can count on not to fluctuate each month. They actually knew what they were talking about, which took the fear away. Since coming onboard to manage our IT network, we regularly sit down and discuss our needs and then agree on a roll-out schedule that is least disruptive to our services. The Help Desk Cavalry and Communitas relationship is a true partnership that helps Communitas to better serve. Isn’t that the way that it should work?”