Early Head Start69 served

Children’s DD Services45 served Autism

Homes23 served

Adult DD Supported Living Services

28 served

Targeted CaseManagement673 served

Adult Mental HealthCase Management

377 served

Successful Starts

286 served

Youth Homes

161 served

School-basedServices335 served

Youth Case Management1479 served

Home Support Services807 served

Work & Day Services79 served

Adult DD Homes

65 served

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

147,042 square miles of service.

What kind of service? Choose one. Good preparation = good stewardship.777,697units of mental health services we

delivered to children and adults

472,886units of service delivered to children and

adults with developmental disabilities

For-profit companies around the world have a responsibility to their shareholders. The shareholders expect that the organization they’ve invested in is doing everything it can to balance its diversification, risks, and human capital. We liked that, so we sought some help. Much like with our trainings, we decided to go big. We wanted to move beyond motivational posters, conferences, and webinars, so we began working with Paladino and Associates, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm that has worked with Fortune 500 companies around the world. Working on what? A balanced scorecard.

Like a for-profit venture, we have a responsibility to manage resources in a way that brings the best value to the people who are buying the services we offer.

The balance scorecard uses strategy maps for each service we offer and for the organization as a whole. Think of it as a one-page depiction of a company’s strategy consisting of objectives across the financial, stakeholder, process, and people perspectives. It feeds the scorecard’s primary purpose: answering the question: “how do we know we are making progress toward reaching our strategic goals?”

As AWARE grows more diverse in both its person-centered services and ventures around the country we think it’s more important than ever to be working toward a

clear and common goal, and to satisfy our commitment to our shareholders. Montanans.

Market and providePR for businesses & services

Provide the right services to the right

people, at the right time

Comply with allregulations

Pilot newopportunities (do stuff)

Identify opportunitiesfor growth (try stuff)

We Provide Innovative Services

Proc

ess

We Manage a Sustainable Business

Reinvest cash prudently

Maximize revenuewith quality services

Managecontrollable expenses

Collect receivables Manageorganization-wide risks

Fina

ncia

l

We are Residential, Community Care & Treatment, and the AWARE Business Network

Informal service partnersprovide services

Shape federal and stateregulatory environment

Build strategic relationships

across communities

Provide outstanding service

Improve client outcomes

Stak

ehol

ders

We Value our People, Climate, & Culture

Pursue service excellencethrough professional

development and training

Buildorganizational

depth

Identify, recruit, and retain talent

Enhance and reward

professionalism

Meet health and wellness, safety, and environmental goals

Cultivate a performance-based culture

Peop

le

™Paladino Associates/AWARE, Inc.

Dear Reader,

It’s with a great pride that we submit this report. As you can imagine, trying to pick and choose the things that get highlighted in something like this is an exercise in thrift. Everyone we’ve talked to in the process of putting this together has been eager to talk about the things they’ve done over the course of the year.

When CARF auditors were with us this summer, they spread out in every different direction, auditing files and charts, touring facilities and interviewing staff at every level. Independent of one another, each CARF representative made note of the fact that, regardless of the community they were in, and regardless of the population being served by any given staff member, employ-ees from entry level all the way up to our leadership thoughtfully answered interview questions in a way that incorporated our Principles of Unconditional Care.

You may notice that we’re asking the same questions of ourselves year after year, and you’ll see them here, too: ‘are we doing what we say we’ll do?’, ‘do people like what we do?’ and ‘are the things we do worth doing?’ By asking ourselves these questions at every juncture in our work, we’re forced to examine our ability to work toward our mission and view the challenges and successes of the communities and families we work with through an unconditional lens.

We’ve been doing this for 38 years. For the first 13, we were an Anaconda-grown, grassroots organization helping people we knew. For the last 25, we’ve been led by CEO Larry Noonan, who came in with the confidence that AWARE could keep the intimacy that makes a service relevant to a family or community, while promoting a culture of confidence and risk for the benefit of others. That culture leads to innovation and exemption from the status quo.

Despite being the fourth largest state in the country we’re pretty small, and our community-based work relies heavily on people talking, debating, asking questions, and demanding more for their family. As a board, we value these things, and invite your involvement in the discus-sion, too.

Blast away.

Jack HaffeyChair, AWARE Board of Directors

A note from our Board of Directors.AWARE envisions a world in which no child or adult

with developmental disabilities or mental health diagnoses will ever need to be in an institution, and

will have the opportunity to make choices and benefit from services assisting them in becoming as successful

and living as full a life as they are able.

Our Vision.AWARE will, consistent with its vision, develop the highest quality, individualized, community-based

supports and services, which includes providing access to the right services, to the right people, at the right time while fostering and advocating the inclusion,

acknowledgement, and respect for those with disabilities to be a meaningful part of their community.

Our Mission.

Our Principles of Unconditional Care.We are agents of change.Families are our most important resource.

We take on—and stick with—the hardest challenges.Lighten up and laugh.Everything is normal until proven otherwise.

We strive to the highest quality of care.I’m OK, you’re OK.

It takes a team.

Our connection with communities is vital.

Building on our strengths is the key to our success.

Progress. Governed by values.

Our year in review.

Fiscal Year 2013

Are we doing what we say we’ll do? Are the things we do worth doing?The short answer? Yes, and we say that because we check and recheck. All the time. In fact, we opened our agency to more than 800 hours of surveying by 6 separate accrediting bodies demonstrating our com-mitment to both organizational transparency and a willingness to welcome thorough examinations of our practices at any given time. But just inviting scrutiny doesn’t begin to cover it. We also ask more than 600 of the families we serve how we’re doing and whether we’re living up to their expectations, and hold ourselves

Do people like what we do?

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From left, COO Jeff Folsom, Dr. Amy Hunter, Dr. Rob Corso, Early Childhood Services Director Melinda Edwards, CEO Larry Noonan, and Dr. Pat Friman at the 2013 Consortium.

All of our work, regardless of the service, community, or level of staff, is conducted by Montana’s best-trained, most informed specialists. And the

trainings that we’re conducting aren’t your typical workplace

safety videos, and no name is too big to be put on our list.

We’re not your average Wraparound Care provider. Literally. For four years in a row now, we’ve scored higher than the national mean score of organizations using the University of Washington’s Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale. This isn’t a committee or a taskforce. This is a test. A test that we ace...every time.

In an age when we can access real time information on the experience and proficiency of doctors, car mechanics, dentists, and teachers, shouldn’t people be able to get that kind of information about their human services provider? Yes, they should. The stakes are too high for families not to be skeptical, and for them we carry around our annual report card.

A REPORT CARD WE’REPROUD TO STICK ON THE FRIDGE.

A SERVICECALLED ADVOCACYToo many times, the right thing for a family has been compromised for the expedient thing. We’re committed to doing the right thing, and that doesn’t always mean

providing a traditional service. We’ve long respected the advocacy work of The Arc, a network of more than 140,000 members and more than 700

affiliated chapters nationwide, and the largest grassroots

movement to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities. How have we shown our respect?

We became the Montana Chapter of The Arc, our commitment to the 10,000 people in Montana with developmental disabilities.

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE OPENS IN ANACONDA

After years of development, the Center for Excellence, located in Anaconda, has finally

opened, officially bringing the first phase of a multi-year plan to a close, a plan that involves:

The center as it exists now and into the future is about supporting the high utility services that we offer these kids, and the intensive nature of their

treatment demands it.

The Center for Excellence represents a return to the community for the kids who have had the

roughest go of it, and have often endured multiple

placements at institutions around the country. This

trend of bouncing around placements is common for

this population of kids.

In fact, their familiarity with impermanance leads to more run-ins with the law than

students in all other disability categories. But in our school-based services, we have 8 programs for which there were no referrals

to law enforcement, unheard of for kids with this background of constant institutional

surrogacy.

OUR PERFORMANCE AND OUTCOMES-BASEDCULTURE OF INQUIRY

Outcomes are a priority at every level of service. In the span of one year, we voluntarily underwent independent reviews by three of the country’s leading accrediting bodies; CARF International; the National

Children’s Alliance; and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. None of these accreditations are required, and all of them are rigorous. We like the spotlight, we like speaking with people about what we do, and we speak with conviction.

BIG SERVICES,BIG EXPECTATIONSWhy is it important to offer early interventions to infants, toddlers, and families when they’re showing signs of Severe Emotional Disturbances or developmental delays? Because we

have experience with some of those who didn’t receive those interventions

early enough.

Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child has conducted

significant research on the subject, and have determined that

“high quality intervention programs for vulnerable

infants and toddlers can reduce the incidence of future problems in their learning, behavior and health status.” We address this because we know it’s right. But what about tangible benefits to individuals, families, and communities?

In the nursery, in the classroom, or in the home, the sense of urgency isn’t lost on us.

We hold service and community-wide annual elections for non-magagement-level staff to contribute to our Corporate Congress AWARE’s place for ideas, debate, and the foundation of the coming year’s strategic plan. By the end of the session, on December 7, the Board of Directors was presented with 25 clear set of specific mandates based on the voices of staff, community partners and stakeholders, and, most importantly, the people we serve. The notion of doing what we say we’ll do begins by holding ourselves accountable and ensuring that our efforts originate in a grassroots way that embraces lofty aspirations.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS. WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD

As the first and only accredited autism services provider for adults and children

in the state, Montana’s history of caring for people with autism began with AWARE.

We opened the first and only residential

program in 2008, and since that time,

we’ve become the go-to provider of

services for youth who have presented the very greatest of

challenges. When we were approached about providing academic services for

youth with autism whose disabilities made it nearly impossible for them to get the education they deserved in a traditional

setting, we collaborated with that district to develop, open, and operate the state’s

first high school for youth with autism, the Enterprise Learning Center.

We’re the first and only accredited provider of services for children with autism in

Montana. Outcomes? How about the school’s inaugural graduating class of four? How about the 28 kids who are no longer in an institution and living

in brand new, family-style homes?

BUCKING TRENDSIN COWBOY COUNTRYEven in such a large state, we still take it personally when we hear that people continue to lack access to quality mental health care in Montana. With a staff of more than 1400 people, we all know someone who needs access to psychiatry to be a little easier.

Yes, we offer one of the most dynamic and flexible telepsychiatry networks in the Northwest U.S., and it has grown into a vehicle for psychiatry, referral and assessment, curbside consultation, and professional development. The technology has served as our

tool—not our identity—for Montana’s most rural families. Whether a mother is looking to connect with her child being served out of the home or a family is participating in group therapy between six locations, AWARE has brought human and technological capital together in a way

that brings the best of a community to those who need it.

Whether it’s our services for United States veterans, American Indians. or our correctional (adult and youth) psychiatric interventions with the only child-trained forensic psychiatrist in the state, we couldn’t be more comfortable bringing traditional and non-traditional together in a way that could only suit Montana.

WE TRUST IN THEABILITY TO SUCCEED

Our Supported Living programs have doubled

over the course of the last year. Why? Because

community-based services means more than an office in town, it means constant motion toward increasing

independence at work, at play, and at home. We embrace systems of daily life that

aren’t named, rather, they organically trust in the ability of a person with disabilities to succeed at their employment

and allow for the consequential self-confidence to feed that success in the

community.

AWARE’s Farm in Great Falls is an

example of a program that embraces as many aspects of

independent living as is possible, and we, along with the residents of the

home at the farm, have spent the year laying a foundation of Montana-made success in agriculture and marketing. An operating farm production requires myriad positions,

innovations, supports, and teamwork, and an effective partnership with a community requires the same

Is it possible to intertwine good, quality services and programs and a storybook slice of Montana life? Yep.

Cold Mountain Pottery, located in Billings, is the newest enterprise in our statewide business network. The longstanding privately owned company produces custom earthenware mugs that can be found in national park and museum giftshops around the country.This is the second year in the continuing development of the network, and is the second year that we’ve adopted fully functioning businesses for the sole purpose of giving real jobs with living wages to people with disabilities.

Our work needs to be measured, and we measure all of it. We love to tout the results of surveys and studies that vindicate our approach, results like 98.5% of community stakeholders agreeing that AWARE provides quality services to the community. We care more, though, about what our clients think of our ability to be respectful in their home, be culturally aware, and, above all, facilitate an experience in which the family is in control. Our most recent satisfaction survey showed that an overwhelming 91% of clients and families think that’s the case.

Is it worth it to help someone get their first job? Is it worth it to help a kid succeed at school for the first time? Is it worth it to keep kids at home and nearest to that which is important to them? Is it worth hav-ing an exit meeting with a family after years of exhausting work? Of course it is. We wouldn’t do any of this if the families and communities we serve didn’t deserve every bit of it, and we have a staff that wishes who could do more. We’re keeping kids at home, in school, and out of trouble, and only 89.6% of the kids we’re serving require an intervention that occurs outside of their home community or school. We’re clearly doing something right, especially in light of the 60.6% rate of all other providers combined.

Mary Grealish, M.Ed. of Community Partners, Inc. in Pittsburgh

Dr. Sung Woo Khang of the Kennedy Krieger Institute

Drs. Rob Corso and Amy Hunter of Vanderbilt University

Dr. Pat Friman, Director of Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health

These are the people who write the textbooks, and we search tirelessly to find them and

bring them here. You can’t put a price on excellence, but it’s not cheap, and we

spend $X/year to train our staff.

From left, Dr. Martin Drell, Dr. Brian Matz, Dr. Ellen Leibenluft, Dr. Christoph Correll and Medical Director Dr. Len Lantz at

the 2013 Big Sky Psychiatry Conference in January.

But it’s not only our employees we’re teaching;

psychiatrists from the world’s most prestigious universities and

practices come to Montana for our Big

Sky Psychiatry Conference where the Pacific Northwest’s psychiatrists can spend face-

to-face time with the leaders in their field in an intimate, meaningful way that would be nearly impossible in other venues. The

event grows exponentially every year, and the conference is quickly becoming a destination

event for the field.1,200

hours of business, therapy, and connec-

tions occurring over our video network

8,155psychiatric encounters

1accredited providers of autism services

in Montana

1Montana providers that believe showing results in services is important

4consecutive years using the Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale

100percentage increase in AWARE’s

Supported Living programs 46Montana families served by

AWARE’s Early Head Start

94percentage of school days attended by

youth in AWARE’s School-Based services

33school days out of 4,287 missed due to

behaviors at our Center for Excellence.

That’s less than one percent.

“Programs are operated by a

group of caring, competent, professional staff membes

who take obvious pride in the delivery of quality supports and who demonstrate satisfaction in the effectiveness of the programs

and the benefits of recovery as reflected in the progress of

persons-served.”

-Summary comment, 2013 CARF accreditation

110businesses in southwest Montana for which we provide recycling services

$2.8 million in annual local purchasing

$4 million in annual salaries and benefits

$6 million in short-term local construction impact

66 full time jobs with benefits

$6.6 million in annual direct economic impact

$75 million estimated 10-year economic impact

Are we doing what we say we’ll do? Are the things we do worth doing?The short answer? Yes, and we say that because we check and recheck. All the time. In fact, we opened our agency to more than 800 hours of surveying by 6 separate accrediting bodies demonstrating our com-mitment to both organizational transparency and a willingness to welcome thorough examinations of our practices at any given time. But just inviting scrutiny doesn’t begin to cover it. We also ask more than 600 of the families we serve how we’re doing and whether we’re living up to their expectations, and hold ourselves

Do people like what we do?

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From left, COO Jeff Folsom, Dr. Amy Hunter, Dr. Rob Corso, Early Childhood Services Director Melinda Edwards, CEO Larry Noonan, and Dr. Pat Friman at the 2013 Consortium.

All of our work, regardless of the service, community, or level of staff, is conducted by Montana’s best-trained, most informed specialists. And the

trainings that we’re conducting aren’t your typical workplace

safety videos, and no name is too big to be put on our list.

We’re not your average Wraparound Care provider. Literally. For four years in a row now, we’ve scored higher than the national mean score of organizations using the University of Washington’s Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale. This isn’t a committee or a taskforce. This is a test. A test that we ace...every time.

In an age when we can access real time information on the experience and proficiency of doctors, car mechanics, dentists, and teachers, shouldn’t people be able to get that kind of information about their human services provider? Yes, they should. The stakes are too high for families not to be skeptical, and for them we carry around our annual report card.

A REPORT CARD WE’REPROUD TO STICK ON THE FRIDGE.

A SERVICECALLED ADVOCACYToo many times, the right thing for a family has been compromised for the expedient thing. We’re committed to doing the right thing, and that doesn’t always mean

providing a traditional service. We’ve long respected the advocacy work of The Arc, a network of more than 140,000 members and more than 700

affiliated chapters nationwide, and the largest grassroots

movement to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities. How have we shown our respect?

We became the Montana Chapter of The Arc, our commitment to the 10,000 people in Montana with developmental disabilities.

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE OPENS IN ANACONDA

After years of development, the Center for Excellence, located in Anaconda, has finally

opened, officially bringing the first phase of a multi-year plan to a close, a plan that involves:

The center as it exists now and into the future is about supporting the high utility services that we offer these kids, and the intensive nature of their

treatment demands it.

The Center for Excellence represents a return to the community for the kids who have had the

roughest go of it, and have often endured multiple

placements at institutions around the country. This

trend of bouncing around placements is common for

this population of kids.

In fact, their familiarity with impermanance leads to more run-ins with the law than

students in all other disability categories. But in our school-based services, we have 8 programs for which there were no referrals

to law enforcement, unheard of for kids with this background of constant institutional

surrogacy.

OUR PERFORMANCE AND OUTCOMES-BASEDCULTURE OF INQUIRY

Outcomes are a priority at every level of service. In the span of one year, we voluntarily underwent independent reviews by three of the country’s leading accrediting bodies; CARF International; the National

Children’s Alliance; and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. None of these accreditations are required, and all of them are rigorous. We like the spotlight, we like speaking with people about what we do, and we speak with conviction.

BIG SERVICES,BIG EXPECTATIONSWhy is it important to offer early interventions to infants, toddlers, and families when they’re showing signs of Severe Emotional Disturbances or developmental delays? Because we

have experience with some of those who didn’t receive those interventions

early enough.

Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child has conducted

significant research on the subject, and have determined that

“high quality intervention programs for vulnerable

infants and toddlers can reduce the incidence of future problems in their learning, behavior and health status.” We address this because we know it’s right. But what about tangible benefits to individuals, families, and communities?

In the nursery, in the classroom, or in the home, the sense of urgency isn’t lost on us.

We hold service and community-wide annual elections for non-magagement-level staff to contribute to our Corporate Congress AWARE’s place for ideas, debate, and the foundation of the coming year’s strategic plan. By the end of the session, on December 7, the Board of Directors was presented with 25 clear set of specific mandates based on the voices of staff, community partners and stakeholders, and, most importantly, the people we serve. The notion of doing what we say we’ll do begins by holding ourselves accountable and ensuring that our efforts originate in a grassroots way that embraces lofty aspirations.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS. WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD

As the first and only accredited autism services provider for adults and children

in the state, Montana’s history of caring for people with autism began with AWARE.

We opened the first and only residential

program in 2008, and since that time,

we’ve become the go-to provider of

services for youth who have presented the very greatest of

challenges. When we were approached about providing academic services for

youth with autism whose disabilities made it nearly impossible for them to get the education they deserved in a traditional

setting, we collaborated with that district to develop, open, and operate the state’s

first high school for youth with autism, the Enterprise Learning Center.

We’re the first and only accredited provider of services for children with autism in

Montana. Outcomes? How about the school’s inaugural graduating class of four? How about the 28 kids who are no longer in an institution and living

in brand new, family-style homes?

BUCKING TRENDSIN COWBOY COUNTRYEven in such a large state, we still take it personally when we hear that people continue to lack access to quality mental health care in Montana. With a staff of more than 1400 people, we all know someone who needs access to psychiatry to be a little easier.

Yes, we offer one of the most dynamic and flexible telepsychiatry networks in the Northwest U.S., and it has grown into a vehicle for psychiatry, referral and assessment, curbside consultation, and professional development. The technology has served as our

tool—not our identity—for Montana’s most rural families. Whether a mother is looking to connect with her child being served out of the home or a family is participating in group therapy between six locations, AWARE has brought human and technological capital together in a way

that brings the best of a community to those who need it.

Whether it’s our services for United States veterans, American Indians. or our correctional (adult and youth) psychiatric interventions with the only child-trained forensic psychiatrist in the state, we couldn’t be more comfortable bringing traditional and non-traditional together in a way that could only suit Montana.

WE TRUST IN THEABILITY TO SUCCEED

Our Supported Living programs have doubled

over the course of the last year. Why? Because

community-based services means more than an office in town, it means constant motion toward increasing

independence at work, at play, and at home. We embrace systems of daily life that

aren’t named, rather, they organically trust in the ability of a person with disabilities to succeed at their employment

and allow for the consequential self-confidence to feed that success in the

community.

AWARE’s Farm in Great Falls is an

example of a program that embraces as many aspects of

independent living as is possible, and we, along with the residents of the

home at the farm, have spent the year laying a foundation of Montana-made success in agriculture and marketing. An operating farm production requires myriad positions,

innovations, supports, and teamwork, and an effective partnership with a community requires the same

Is it possible to intertwine good, quality services and programs and a storybook slice of Montana life? Yep.

Cold Mountain Pottery, located in Billings, is the newest enterprise in our statewide business network. The longstanding privately owned company produces custom earthenware mugs that can be found in national park and museum giftshops around the country.This is the second year in the continuing development of the network, and is the second year that we’ve adopted fully functioning businesses for the sole purpose of giving real jobs with living wages to people with disabilities.

Our work needs to be measured, and we measure all of it. We love to tout the results of surveys and studies that vindicate our approach, results like 98.5% of community stakeholders agreeing that AWARE provides quality services to the community. We care more, though, about what our clients think of our ability to be respectful in their home, be culturally aware, and, above all, facilitate an experience in which the family is in control. Our most recent satisfaction survey showed that an overwhelming 91% of clients and families think that’s the case.

Is it worth it to help someone get their first job? Is it worth it to help a kid succeed at school for the first time? Is it worth it to keep kids at home and nearest to that which is important to them? Is it worth hav-ing an exit meeting with a family after years of exhausting work? Of course it is. We wouldn’t do any of this if the families and communities we serve didn’t deserve every bit of it, and we have a staff that wishes who could do more. We’re keeping kids at home, in school, and out of trouble, and only 89.6% of the kids we’re serving require an intervention that occurs outside of their home community or school. We’re clearly doing something right, especially in light of the 60.6% rate of all other providers combined.

Mary Grealish, M.Ed. of Community Partners, Inc. in Pittsburgh

Dr. Sung Woo Khang of the Kennedy Krieger Institute

Drs. Rob Corso and Amy Hunter of Vanderbilt University

Dr. Pat Friman, Director of Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health

These are the people who write the textbooks, and we search tirelessly to find them and

bring them here. You can’t put a price on excellence, but it’s not cheap, and we

spend $X/year to train our staff.

From left, Dr. Martin Drell, Dr. Brian Matz, Dr. Ellen Leibenluft, Dr. Christoph Correll and Medical Director Dr. Len Lantz at

the 2013 Big Sky Psychiatry Conference in January.

But it’s not only our employees we’re teaching;

psychiatrists from the world’s most prestigious universities and

practices come to Montana for our Big

Sky Psychiatry Conference where the Pacific Northwest’s psychiatrists can spend face-

to-face time with the leaders in their field in an intimate, meaningful way that would be nearly impossible in other venues. The

event grows exponentially every year, and the conference is quickly becoming a destination

event for the field.1,200

hours of business, therapy, and connec-

tions occurring over our video network

8,155psychiatric encounters

1accredited providers of autism services

in Montana

1Montana providers that believe showing results in services is important

4consecutive years using the Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale

100percentage increase in AWARE’s

Supported Living programs 46Montana families served by

AWARE’s Early Head Start

94percentage of school days attended by

youth in AWARE’s School-Based services

33school days out of 4,287 missed due to

behaviors at our Center for Excellence.

That’s less than one percent.

“Programs are operated by a

group of caring, competent, professional staff membes

who take obvious pride in the delivery of quality supports and who demonstrate satisfaction in the effectiveness of the programs

and the benefits of recovery as reflected in the progress of

persons-served.”

-Summary comment, 2013 CARF accreditation

110businesses in southwest Montana for which we provide recycling services

$2.8 million in annual local purchasing

$4 million in annual salaries and benefits

$6 million in short-term local construction impact

66 full time jobs with benefits

$6.6 million in annual direct economic impact

$75 million estimated 10-year economic impact

Are we doing what we say we’ll do? Are the things we do worth doing?The short answer? Yes, and we say that because we check and recheck. All the time. In fact, we opened our agency to more than 800 hours of surveying by 6 separate accrediting bodies demonstrating our com-mitment to both organizational transparency and a willingness to welcome thorough examinations of our practices at any given time. But just inviting scrutiny doesn’t begin to cover it. We also ask more than 600 of the families we serve how we’re doing and whether we’re living up to their expectations, and hold ourselves

Do people like what we do?

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From left, COO Jeff Folsom, Dr. Amy Hunter, Dr. Rob Corso, Early Childhood Services Director Melinda Edwards, CEO Larry Noonan, and Dr. Pat Friman at the 2013 Consortium.

All of our work, regardless of the service, community, or level of staff, is conducted by Montana’s best-trained, most informed specialists. And the

trainings that we’re conducting aren’t your typical workplace

safety videos, and no name is too big to be put on our list.

We’re not your average Wraparound Care provider. Literally. For four years in a row now, we’ve scored higher than the national mean score of organizations using the University of Washington’s Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale. This isn’t a committee or a taskforce. This is a test. A test that we ace...every time.

In an age when we can access real time information on the experience and proficiency of doctors, car mechanics, dentists, and teachers, shouldn’t people be able to get that kind of information about their human services provider? Yes, they should. The stakes are too high for families not to be skeptical, and for them we carry around our annual report card.

A REPORT CARD WE’REPROUD TO STICK ON THE FRIDGE.

A SERVICECALLED ADVOCACYToo many times, the right thing for a family has been compromised for the expedient thing. We’re committed to doing the right thing, and that doesn’t always mean

providing a traditional service. We’ve long respected the advocacy work of The Arc, a network of more than 140,000 members and more than 700

affiliated chapters nationwide, and the largest grassroots

movement to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities. How have we shown our respect?

We became the Montana Chapter of The Arc, our commitment to the 10,000 people in Montana with developmental disabilities.

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE OPENS IN ANACONDA

After years of development, the Center for Excellence, located in Anaconda, has finally

opened, officially bringing the first phase of a multi-year plan to a close, a plan that involves:

The center as it exists now and into the future is about supporting the high utility services that we offer these kids, and the intensive nature of their

treatment demands it.

The Center for Excellence represents a return to the community for the kids who have had the

roughest go of it, and have often endured multiple

placements at institutions around the country. This

trend of bouncing around placements is common for

this population of kids.

In fact, their familiarity with impermanance leads to more run-ins with the law than

students in all other disability categories. But in our school-based services, we have 8 programs for which there were no referrals

to law enforcement, unheard of for kids with this background of constant institutional

surrogacy.

OUR PERFORMANCE AND OUTCOMES-BASEDCULTURE OF INQUIRY

Outcomes are a priority at every level of service. In the span of one year, we voluntarily underwent independent reviews by three of the country’s leading accrediting bodies; CARF International; the National

Children’s Alliance; and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. None of these accreditations are required, and all of them are rigorous. We like the spotlight, we like speaking with people about what we do, and we speak with conviction.

BIG SERVICES,BIG EXPECTATIONSWhy is it important to offer early interventions to infants, toddlers, and families when they’re showing signs of Severe Emotional Disturbances or developmental delays? Because we

have experience with some of those who didn’t receive those interventions

early enough.

Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child has conducted

significant research on the subject, and have determined that

“high quality intervention programs for vulnerable

infants and toddlers can reduce the incidence of future problems in their learning, behavior and health status.” We address this because we know it’s right. But what about tangible benefits to individuals, families, and communities?

In the nursery, in the classroom, or in the home, the sense of urgency isn’t lost on us.

We hold service and community-wide annual elections for non-magagement-level staff to contribute to our Corporate Congress AWARE’s place for ideas, debate, and the foundation of the coming year’s strategic plan. By the end of the session, on December 7, the Board of Directors was presented with 25 clear set of specific mandates based on the voices of staff, community partners and stakeholders, and, most importantly, the people we serve. The notion of doing what we say we’ll do begins by holding ourselves accountable and ensuring that our efforts originate in a grassroots way that embraces lofty aspirations.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS. WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD

As the first and only accredited autism services provider for adults and children

in the state, Montana’s history of caring for people with autism began with AWARE.

We opened the first and only residential

program in 2008, and since that time,

we’ve become the go-to provider of

services for youth who have presented the very greatest of

challenges. When we were approached about providing academic services for

youth with autism whose disabilities made it nearly impossible for them to get the education they deserved in a traditional

setting, we collaborated with that district to develop, open, and operate the state’s

first high school for youth with autism, the Enterprise Learning Center.

We’re the first and only accredited provider of services for children with autism in

Montana. Outcomes? How about the school’s inaugural graduating class of four? How about the 28 kids who are no longer in an institution and living

in brand new, family-style homes?

BUCKING TRENDSIN COWBOY COUNTRYEven in such a large state, we still take it personally when we hear that people continue to lack access to quality mental health care in Montana. With a staff of more than 1400 people, we all know someone who needs access to psychiatry to be a little easier.

Yes, we offer one of the most dynamic and flexible telepsychiatry networks in the Northwest U.S., and it has grown into a vehicle for psychiatry, referral and assessment, curbside consultation, and professional development. The technology has served as our

tool—not our identity—for Montana’s most rural families. Whether a mother is looking to connect with her child being served out of the home or a family is participating in group therapy between six locations, AWARE has brought human and technological capital together in a way

that brings the best of a community to those who need it.

Whether it’s our services for United States veterans, American Indians. or our correctional (adult and youth) psychiatric interventions with the only child-trained forensic psychiatrist in the state, we couldn’t be more comfortable bringing traditional and non-traditional together in a way that could only suit Montana.

WE TRUST IN THEABILITY TO SUCCEED

Our Supported Living programs have doubled

over the course of the last year. Why? Because

community-based services means more than an office in town, it means constant motion toward increasing

independence at work, at play, and at home. We embrace systems of daily life that

aren’t named, rather, they organically trust in the ability of a person with disabilities to succeed at their employment

and allow for the consequential self-confidence to feed that success in the

community.

AWARE’s Farm in Great Falls is an

example of a program that embraces as many aspects of

independent living as is possible, and we, along with the residents of the

home at the farm, have spent the year laying a foundation of Montana-made success in agriculture and marketing. An operating farm production requires myriad positions,

innovations, supports, and teamwork, and an effective partnership with a community requires the same

Is it possible to intertwine good, quality services and programs and a storybook slice of Montana life? Yep.

Cold Mountain Pottery, located in Billings, is the newest enterprise in our statewide business network. The longstanding privately owned company produces custom earthenware mugs that can be found in national park and museum giftshops around the country.This is the second year in the continuing development of the network, and is the second year that we’ve adopted fully functioning businesses for the sole purpose of giving real jobs with living wages to people with disabilities.

Our work needs to be measured, and we measure all of it. We love to tout the results of surveys and studies that vindicate our approach, results like 98.5% of community stakeholders agreeing that AWARE provides quality services to the community. We care more, though, about what our clients think of our ability to be respectful in their home, be culturally aware, and, above all, facilitate an experience in which the family is in control. Our most recent satisfaction survey showed that an overwhelming 91% of clients and families think that’s the case.

Is it worth it to help someone get their first job? Is it worth it to help a kid succeed at school for the first time? Is it worth it to keep kids at home and nearest to that which is important to them? Is it worth hav-ing an exit meeting with a family after years of exhausting work? Of course it is. We wouldn’t do any of this if the families and communities we serve didn’t deserve every bit of it, and we have a staff that wishes who could do more. We’re keeping kids at home, in school, and out of trouble, and only 89.6% of the kids we’re serving require an intervention that occurs outside of their home community or school. We’re clearly doing something right, especially in light of the 60.6% rate of all other providers combined.

Mary Grealish, M.Ed. of Community Partners, Inc. in Pittsburgh

Dr. Sung Woo Khang of the Kennedy Krieger Institute

Drs. Rob Corso and Amy Hunter of Vanderbilt University

Dr. Pat Friman, Director of Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health

These are the people who write the textbooks, and we search tirelessly to find them and

bring them here. You can’t put a price on excellence, but it’s not cheap, and we

spend $X/year to train our staff.

From left, Dr. Martin Drell, Dr. Brian Matz, Dr. Ellen Leibenluft, Dr. Christoph Correll and Medical Director Dr. Len Lantz at

the 2013 Big Sky Psychiatry Conference in January.

But it’s not only our employees we’re teaching;

psychiatrists from the world’s most prestigious universities and

practices come to Montana for our Big

Sky Psychiatry Conference where the Pacific Northwest’s psychiatrists can spend face-

to-face time with the leaders in their field in an intimate, meaningful way that would be nearly impossible in other venues. The

event grows exponentially every year, and the conference is quickly becoming a destination

event for the field.1,200

hours of business, therapy, and connec-

tions occurring over our video network

8,155psychiatric encounters

1accredited providers of autism services

in Montana

1Montana providers that believe showing results in services is important

4consecutive years using the Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale

100percentage increase in AWARE’s

Supported Living programs 46Montana families served by

AWARE’s Early Head Start

94percentage of school days attended by

youth in AWARE’s School-Based services

33school days out of 4,287 missed due to

behaviors at our Center for Excellence.

That’s less than one percent.

“Programs are operated by a

group of caring, competent, professional staff membes

who take obvious pride in the delivery of quality supports and who demonstrate satisfaction in the effectiveness of the programs

and the benefits of recovery as reflected in the progress of

persons-served.”

-Summary comment, 2013 CARF accreditation

110businesses in southwest Montana for which we provide recycling services

$2.8 million in annual local purchasing

$4 million in annual salaries and benefits

$6 million in short-term local construction impact

66 full time jobs with benefits

$6.6 million in annual direct economic impact

$75 million estimated 10-year economic impact

Are we doing what we say we’ll do? Are the things we do worth doing?The short answer? Yes, and we say that because we check and recheck. All the time. In fact, we opened our agency to more than 800 hours of surveying by 6 separate accrediting bodies demonstrating our com-mitment to both organizational transparency and a willingness to welcome thorough examinations of our practices at any given time. But just inviting scrutiny doesn’t begin to cover it. We also ask more than 600 of the families we serve how we’re doing and whether we’re living up to their expectations, and hold ourselves

Do people like what we do?

UNWAVERING COMMITMENT TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From left, COO Jeff Folsom, Dr. Amy Hunter, Dr. Rob Corso, Early Childhood Services Director Melinda Edwards, CEO Larry Noonan, and Dr. Pat Friman at the 2013 Consortium.

All of our work, regardless of the service, community, or level of staff, is conducted by Montana’s best-trained, most informed specialists. And the

trainings that we’re conducting aren’t your typical workplace

safety videos, and no name is too big to be put on our list.

We’re not your average Wraparound Care provider. Literally. For four years in a row now, we’ve scored higher than the national mean score of organizations using the University of Washington’s Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale. This isn’t a committee or a taskforce. This is a test. A test that we ace...every time.

In an age when we can access real time information on the experience and proficiency of doctors, car mechanics, dentists, and teachers, shouldn’t people be able to get that kind of information about their human services provider? Yes, they should. The stakes are too high for families not to be skeptical, and for them we carry around our annual report card.

A REPORT CARD WE’REPROUD TO STICK ON THE FRIDGE.

A SERVICECALLED ADVOCACYToo many times, the right thing for a family has been compromised for the expedient thing. We’re committed to doing the right thing, and that doesn’t always mean

providing a traditional service. We’ve long respected the advocacy work of The Arc, a network of more than 140,000 members and more than 700

affiliated chapters nationwide, and the largest grassroots

movement to protect the rights of people with developmental disabilities. How have we shown our respect?

We became the Montana Chapter of The Arc, our commitment to the 10,000 people in Montana with developmental disabilities.

CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE OPENS IN ANACONDA

After years of development, the Center for Excellence, located in Anaconda, has finally

opened, officially bringing the first phase of a multi-year plan to a close, a plan that involves:

The center as it exists now and into the future is about supporting the high utility services that we offer these kids, and the intensive nature of their

treatment demands it.

The Center for Excellence represents a return to the community for the kids who have had the

roughest go of it, and have often endured multiple

placements at institutions around the country. This

trend of bouncing around placements is common for

this population of kids.

In fact, their familiarity with impermanance leads to more run-ins with the law than

students in all other disability categories. But in our school-based services, we have 8 programs for which there were no referrals

to law enforcement, unheard of for kids with this background of constant institutional

surrogacy.

OUR PERFORMANCE AND OUTCOMES-BASEDCULTURE OF INQUIRY

Outcomes are a priority at every level of service. In the span of one year, we voluntarily underwent independent reviews by three of the country’s leading accrediting bodies; CARF International; the National

Children’s Alliance; and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. None of these accreditations are required, and all of them are rigorous. We like the spotlight, we like speaking with people about what we do, and we speak with conviction.

BIG SERVICES,BIG EXPECTATIONSWhy is it important to offer early interventions to infants, toddlers, and families when they’re showing signs of Severe Emotional Disturbances or developmental delays? Because we

have experience with some of those who didn’t receive those interventions

early enough.

Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child has conducted

significant research on the subject, and have determined that

“high quality intervention programs for vulnerable

infants and toddlers can reduce the incidence of future problems in their learning, behavior and health status.” We address this because we know it’s right. But what about tangible benefits to individuals, families, and communities?

In the nursery, in the classroom, or in the home, the sense of urgency isn’t lost on us.

We hold service and community-wide annual elections for non-magagement-level staff to contribute to our Corporate Congress AWARE’s place for ideas, debate, and the foundation of the coming year’s strategic plan. By the end of the session, on December 7, the Board of Directors was presented with 25 clear set of specific mandates based on the voices of staff, community partners and stakeholders, and, most importantly, the people we serve. The notion of doing what we say we’ll do begins by holding ourselves accountable and ensuring that our efforts originate in a grassroots way that embraces lofty aspirations.

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS. WITHOUT THE REVOLUTION.

OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD

As the first and only accredited autism services provider for adults and children

in the state, Montana’s history of caring for people with autism began with AWARE.

We opened the first and only residential

program in 2008, and since that time,

we’ve become the go-to provider of

services for youth who have presented the very greatest of

challenges. When we were approached about providing academic services for

youth with autism whose disabilities made it nearly impossible for them to get the education they deserved in a traditional

setting, we collaborated with that district to develop, open, and operate the state’s

first high school for youth with autism, the Enterprise Learning Center.

We’re the first and only accredited provider of services for children with autism in

Montana. Outcomes? How about the school’s inaugural graduating class of four? How about the 28 kids who are no longer in an institution and living

in brand new, family-style homes?

BUCKING TRENDSIN COWBOY COUNTRYEven in such a large state, we still take it personally when we hear that people continue to lack access to quality mental health care in Montana. With a staff of more than 1400 people, we all know someone who needs access to psychiatry to be a little easier.

Yes, we offer one of the most dynamic and flexible telepsychiatry networks in the Northwest U.S., and it has grown into a vehicle for psychiatry, referral and assessment, curbside consultation, and professional development. The technology has served as our

tool—not our identity—for Montana’s most rural families. Whether a mother is looking to connect with her child being served out of the home or a family is participating in group therapy between six locations, AWARE has brought human and technological capital together in a way

that brings the best of a community to those who need it.

Whether it’s our services for United States veterans, American Indians. or our correctional (adult and youth) psychiatric interventions with the only child-trained forensic psychiatrist in the state, we couldn’t be more comfortable bringing traditional and non-traditional together in a way that could only suit Montana.

WE TRUST IN THEABILITY TO SUCCEED

Our Supported Living programs have doubled

over the course of the last year. Why? Because

community-based services means more than an office in town, it means constant motion toward increasing

independence at work, at play, and at home. We embrace systems of daily life that

aren’t named, rather, they organically trust in the ability of a person with disabilities to succeed at their employment

and allow for the consequential self-confidence to feed that success in the

community.

AWARE’s Farm in Great Falls is an

example of a program that embraces as many aspects of

independent living as is possible, and we, along with the residents of the

home at the farm, have spent the year laying a foundation of Montana-made success in agriculture and marketing. An operating farm production requires myriad positions,

innovations, supports, and teamwork, and an effective partnership with a community requires the same

Is it possible to intertwine good, quality services and programs and a storybook slice of Montana life? Yep.

Cold Mountain Pottery, located in Billings, is the newest enterprise in our statewide business network. The longstanding privately owned company produces custom earthenware mugs that can be found in national park and museum giftshops around the country.This is the second year in the continuing development of the network, and is the second year that we’ve adopted fully functioning businesses for the sole purpose of giving real jobs with living wages to people with disabilities.

Our work needs to be measured, and we measure all of it. We love to tout the results of surveys and studies that vindicate our approach, results like 98.5% of community stakeholders agreeing that AWARE provides quality services to the community. We care more, though, about what our clients think of our ability to be respectful in their home, be culturally aware, and, above all, facilitate an experience in which the family is in control. Our most recent satisfaction survey showed that an overwhelming 91% of clients and families think that’s the case.

Is it worth it to help someone get their first job? Is it worth it to help a kid succeed at school for the first time? Is it worth it to keep kids at home and nearest to that which is important to them? Is it worth hav-ing an exit meeting with a family after years of exhausting work? Of course it is. We wouldn’t do any of this if the families and communities we serve didn’t deserve every bit of it, and we have a staff that wishes who could do more. We’re keeping kids at home, in school, and out of trouble, and only 89.6% of the kids we’re serving require an intervention that occurs outside of their home community or school. We’re clearly doing something right, especially in light of the 60.6% rate of all other providers combined.

Mary Grealish, M.Ed. of Community Partners, Inc. in Pittsburgh

Dr. Sung Woo Khang of the Kennedy Krieger Institute

Drs. Rob Corso and Amy Hunter of Vanderbilt University

Dr. Pat Friman, Director of Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health

These are the people who write the textbooks, and we search tirelessly to find them and

bring them here. You can’t put a price on excellence, but it’s not cheap, and we

spend $X/year to train our staff.

From left, Dr. Martin Drell, Dr. Brian Matz, Dr. Ellen Leibenluft, Dr. Christoph Correll and Medical Director Dr. Len Lantz at

the 2013 Big Sky Psychiatry Conference in January.

But it’s not only our employees we’re teaching;

psychiatrists from the world’s most prestigious universities and

practices come to Montana for our Big

Sky Psychiatry Conference where the Pacific Northwest’s psychiatrists can spend face-

to-face time with the leaders in their field in an intimate, meaningful way that would be nearly impossible in other venues. The

event grows exponentially every year, and the conference is quickly becoming a destination

event for the field.1,200

hours of business, therapy, and connec-

tions occurring over our video network

8,155psychiatric encounters

1accredited providers of autism services

in Montana

1Montana providers that believe showing results in services is important

4consecutive years using the Wraparound Fidelity Index Scale

100percentage increase in AWARE’s

Supported Living programs 46Montana families served by

AWARE’s Early Head Start

94percentage of school days attended by

youth in AWARE’s School-Based services

33school days out of 4,287 missed due to

behaviors at our Center for Excellence.

That’s less than one percent.

“Programs are operated by a

group of caring, competent, professional staff membes

who take obvious pride in the delivery of quality supports and who demonstrate satisfaction in the effectiveness of the programs

and the benefits of recovery as reflected in the progress of

persons-served.”

-Summary comment, 2013 CARF accreditation

110businesses in southwest Montana for which we provide recycling services

$2.8 million in annual local purchasing

$4 million in annual salaries and benefits

$6 million in short-term local construction impact

66 full time jobs with benefits

$6.6 million in annual direct economic impact

$75 million estimated 10-year economic impact

Early Head Start69 served

Children’s DD Services45 served Autism

Homes23 served

Adult DD Supported Living Services

28 served

Targeted CaseManagement673 served

Adult Mental HealthCase Management

377 served

Successful Starts

286 served

Youth Homes

161 served

School-basedServices335 served

Youth Case Management1479 served

Home Support Services807 served

Work & Day Services79 served

Adult DD Homes

65 served

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

147,042 square miles of service.

What kind of service? Choose one. Good preparation = good stewardship.777,697units of mental health services we

delivered to children and adults

472,886units of service delivered to children and

adults with developmental disabilities

For-profit companies around the world have a responsibility to their shareholders. The shareholders expect that the organization they’ve invested in is doing everything it can to balance its diversification, risks, and human capital. We liked that, so we sought some help. Much like with our trainings, we decided to go big. We wanted to move beyond motivational posters, conferences, and webinars, so we began working with Paladino and Associates, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm that has worked with Fortune 500 companies around the world. Working on what? A balanced scorecard.

Like a for-profit venture, we have a responsibility to manage resources in a way that brings the best value to the people who are buying the services we offer.

The balance scorecard uses strategy maps for each service we offer and for the organization as a whole. Think of it as a one-page depiction of a company’s strategy consisting of objectives across the financial, stakeholder, process, and people perspectives. It feeds the scorecard’s primary purpose: answering the question: “how do we know we are making progress toward reaching our strategic goals?”

As AWARE grows more diverse in both its person-centered services and ventures around the country we think it’s more important than ever to be working toward a

clear and common goal, and to satisfy our commitment to our shareholders. Montanans.

Market and providePR for businesses & services

Provide the right services to the right

people, at the right time

Comply with allregulations

Pilot newopportunities (do stuff)

Identify opportunitiesfor growth (try stuff)

We Provide Innovative Services

Proc

ess

We Manage a Sustainable Business

Reinvest cash prudently

Maximize revenuewith quality services

Managecontrollable expenses

Collect receivables Manageorganization-wide risks

Fina

ncia

l

We are Residential, Community Care & Treatment, and the AWARE Business Network

Informal service partnersprovide services

Shape federal and stateregulatory environment

Build strategic relationships

across communities

Provide outstanding service

Improve client outcomes

Stak

ehol

ders

We Value our People, Climate, & Culture

Pursue service excellencethrough professional

development and training

Buildorganizational

depth

Identify, recruit, and retain talent

Enhance and reward

professionalism

Meet health and wellness, safety, and environmental goals

Cultivate a performance-based culture

Peop

le

™Paladino Associates/AWARE, Inc.

Dear Reader,

It’s with a great pride that we submit this report. As you can imagine, trying to pick and choose the things that get highlighted in something like this is an exercise in thrift. Everyone we’ve talked to in the process of putting this together has been eager to talk about the things they’ve done over the course of the year.

When CARF auditors were with us this summer, they spread out in every different direction, auditing files and charts, touring facilities and interviewing staff at every level. Independent of one another, each CARF representative made note of the fact that, regardless of the community they were in, and regardless of the population being served by any given staff member, employ-ees from entry level all the way up to our leadership thoughtfully answered interview questions in a way that incorporated our Principles of Unconditional Care.

You may notice that we’re asking the same questions of ourselves year after year, and you’ll see them here, too: ‘are we doing what we say we’ll do?’, ‘do people like what we do?’ and ‘are the things we do worth doing?’ By asking ourselves these questions at every juncture in our work, we’re forced to examine our ability to work toward our mission and view the challenges and successes of the communities and families we work with through an unconditional lens.

We’ve been doing this for 38 years. For the first 13, we were an Anaconda-grown, grassroots organization helping people we knew. For the last 25, we’ve been led by CEO Larry Noonan, who came in with the confidence that AWARE could keep the intimacy that makes a service relevant to a family or community, while promoting a culture of confidence and risk for the benefit of others. That culture leads to innovation and exemption from the status quo.

Despite being the fourth largest state in the country we’re pretty small, and our community-based work relies heavily on people talking, debating, asking questions, and demanding more for their family. As a board, we value these things, and invite your involvement in the discus-sion, too.

Blast away.

Jack HaffeyChair, AWARE Board of Directors

A note from our Board of Directors.AWARE envisions a world in which no child or adult

with developmental disabilities or mental health diagnoses will ever need to be in an institution, and

will have the opportunity to make choices and benefit from services assisting them in becoming as successful

and living as full a life as they are able.

Our Vision.AWARE will, consistent with its vision, develop the highest quality, individualized, community-based

supports and services, which includes providing access to the right services, to the right people, at the right time while fostering and advocating the inclusion,

acknowledgement, and respect for those with disabilities to be a meaningful part of their community.

Our Mission.

Our Principles of Unconditional Care.We are agents of change.Families are our most important resource.

We take on—and stick with—the hardest challenges.Lighten up and laugh.Everything is normal until proven otherwise.

We strive to the highest quality of care.I’m OK, you’re OK.

It takes a team.

Our connection with communities is vital.

Building on our strengths is the key to our success.

Progress. Governed by values.

Our year in review.

Fiscal Year 2013

Early Head Start69 served

Children’s DD Services45 served Autism

Homes23 served

Adult DD Supported Living Services

28 served

Targeted CaseManagement673 served

Adult Mental HealthCase Management

377 served

Successful Starts

286 served

Youth Homes

161 served

School-basedServices335 served

Youth Case Management1479 served

Home Support Services807 served

Work & Day Services79 served

Adult DD Homes

65 served

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

147,042 square miles of service.

What kind of service? Choose one. Good preparation = good stewardship.777,697units of mental health services we

delivered to children and adults

472,886units of service delivered to children and

adults with developmental disabilities

For-profit companies around the world have a responsibility to their shareholders. The shareholders expect that the organization they’ve invested in is doing everything it can to balance its diversification, risks, and human capital. We liked that, so we sought some help. Much like with our trainings, we decided to go big. We wanted to move beyond motivational posters, conferences, and webinars, so we began working with Paladino and Associates, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm that has worked with Fortune 500 companies around the world. Working on what? A balanced scorecard.

Like a for-profit venture, we have a responsibility to manage resources in a way that brings the best value to the people who are buying the services we offer.

The balance scorecard uses strategy maps for each service we offer and for the organization as a whole. Think of it as a one-page depiction of a company’s strategy consisting of objectives across the financial, stakeholder, process, and people perspectives. It feeds the scorecard’s primary purpose: answering the question: “how do we know we are making progress toward reaching our strategic goals?”

As AWARE grows more diverse in both its person-centered services and ventures around the country we think it’s more important than ever to be working toward a

clear and common goal, and to satisfy our commitment to our shareholders. Montanans.

Market and providePR for businesses & services

Provide the right services to the right

people, at the right time

Comply with allregulations

Pilot newopportunities (do stuff)

Identify opportunitiesfor growth (try stuff)

We Provide Innovative Services

Proc

ess

We Manage a Sustainable Business

Reinvest cash prudently

Maximize revenuewith quality services

Managecontrollable expenses

Collect receivables Manageorganization-wide risks

Fina

ncia

l

We are Residential, Community Care & Treatment, and the AWARE Business Network

Informal service partnersprovide services

Shape federal and stateregulatory environment

Build strategic relationships

across communities

Provide outstanding service

Improve client outcomes

Stak

ehol

ders

We Value our People, Climate, & Culture

Pursue service excellencethrough professional

development and training

Buildorganizational

depth

Identify, recruit, and retain talent

Enhance and reward

professionalism

Meet health and wellness, safety, and environmental goals

Cultivate a performance-based culture

Peop

le

™Paladino Associates/AWARE, Inc.

Dear Reader,

It’s with a great pride that we submit this report. As you can imagine, trying to pick and choose the things that get highlighted in something like this is an exercise in thrift. Everyone we’ve talked to in the process of putting this together has been eager to talk about the things they’ve done over the course of the year.

When CARF auditors were with us this summer, they spread out in every different direction, auditing files and charts, touring facilities and interviewing staff at every level. Independent of one another, each CARF representative made note of the fact that, regardless of the community they were in, and regardless of the population being served by any given staff member, employ-ees from entry level all the way up to our leadership thoughtfully answered interview questions in a way that incorporated our Principles of Unconditional Care.

You may notice that we’re asking the same questions of ourselves year after year, and you’ll see them here, too: ‘are we doing what we say we’ll do?’, ‘do people like what we do?’ and ‘are the things we do worth doing?’ By asking ourselves these questions at every juncture in our work, we’re forced to examine our ability to work toward our mission and view the challenges and successes of the communities and families we work with through an unconditional lens.

We’ve been doing this for 38 years. For the first 13, we were an Anaconda-grown, grassroots organization helping people we knew. For the last 25, we’ve been led by CEO Larry Noonan, who came in with the confidence that AWARE could keep the intimacy that makes a service relevant to a family or community, while promoting a culture of confidence and risk for the benefit of others. That culture leads to innovation and exemption from the status quo.

Despite being the fourth largest state in the country we’re pretty small, and our community-based work relies heavily on people talking, debating, asking questions, and demanding more for their family. As a board, we value these things, and invite your involvement in the discus-sion, too.

Blast away.

Jack HaffeyChair, AWARE Board of Directors

A note from our Board of Directors.AWARE envisions a world in which no child or adult

with developmental disabilities or mental health diagnoses will ever need to be in an institution, and

will have the opportunity to make choices and benefit from services assisting them in becoming as successful

and living as full a life as they are able.

Our Vision.AWARE will, consistent with its vision, develop the highest quality, individualized, community-based

supports and services, which includes providing access to the right services, to the right people, at the right time while fostering and advocating the inclusion,

acknowledgement, and respect for those with disabilities to be a meaningful part of their community.

Our Mission.

Our Principles of Unconditional Care.We are agents of change.Families are our most important resource.

We take on—and stick with—the hardest challenges.Lighten up and laugh.Everything is normal until proven otherwise.

We strive to the highest quality of care.I’m OK, you’re OK.

It takes a team.

Our connection with communities is vital.

Building on our strengths is the key to our success.

Progress. Governed by values.

Our year in review.

Fiscal Year 2013

Early Head Start69 served

Children’s DD Services45 served Autism

Homes23 served

Adult DD Supported Living Services

28 served

Targeted CaseManagement673 served

Adult Mental HealthCase Management

377 served

Successful Starts

286 served

Youth Homes

161 served

School-basedServices335 served

Youth Case Management1479 served

Home Support Services807 served

Work & Day Services79 served

Adult DD Homes

65 served

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

Westby

Sidney

Glendive

Miles City

Hardin

BillingsLaurelColumbus

LivingstonBozeman

Lewistown

Whitehall

DillonRed Lodge

Joliet

ButteAnaconda

Deer LodgeBonner

Missoula

Polson

Kalispell

Eureka

Columbia Falls

Cut BankShelby

Conrad

Choteau

Vaughn Great Falls

Cascade

HelenaEast Helena

Townsend

GlasgowMalta

147,042 square miles of service.

What kind of service? Choose one. Good preparation = good stewardship.777,697units of mental health services we

delivered to children and adults

472,886units of service delivered to children and

adults with developmental disabilities

For-profit companies around the world have a responsibility to their shareholders. The shareholders expect that the organization they’ve invested in is doing everything it can to balance its diversification, risks, and human capital. We liked that, so we sought some help. Much like with our trainings, we decided to go big. We wanted to move beyond motivational posters, conferences, and webinars, so we began working with Paladino and Associates, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm that has worked with Fortune 500 companies around the world. Working on what? A balanced scorecard.

Like a for-profit venture, we have a responsibility to manage resources in a way that brings the best value to the people who are buying the services we offer.

The balance scorecard uses strategy maps for each service we offer and for the organization as a whole. Think of it as a one-page depiction of a company’s strategy consisting of objectives across the financial, stakeholder, process, and people perspectives. It feeds the scorecard’s primary purpose: answering the question: “how do we know we are making progress toward reaching our strategic goals?”

As AWARE grows more diverse in both its person-centered services and ventures around the country we think it’s more important than ever to be working toward a

clear and common goal, and to satisfy our commitment to our shareholders. Montanans.

Market and providePR for businesses & services

Provide the right services to the right

people, at the right time

Comply with allregulations

Pilot newopportunities (do stuff)

Identify opportunitiesfor growth (try stuff)

We Provide Innovative Services

Proc

ess

We Manage a Sustainable Business

Reinvest cash prudently

Maximize revenuewith quality services

Managecontrollable expenses

Collect receivables Manageorganization-wide risks

Fina

ncia

l

We are Residential, Community Care & Treatment, and the AWARE Business Network

Informal service partnersprovide services

Shape federal and stateregulatory environment

Build strategic relationships

across communities

Provide outstanding service

Improve client outcomes

Stak

ehol

ders

We Value our People, Climate, & Culture

Pursue service excellencethrough professional

development and training

Buildorganizational

depth

Identify, recruit, and retain talent

Enhance and reward

professionalism

Meet health and wellness, safety, and environmental goals

Cultivate a performance-based culture

Peop

le

™Paladino Associates/AWARE, Inc.

Dear Reader,

It’s with a great pride that we submit this report. As you can imagine, trying to pick and choose the things that get highlighted in something like this is an exercise in thrift. Everyone we’ve talked to in the process of putting this together has been eager to talk about the things they’ve done over the course of the year.

When CARF auditors were with us this summer, they spread out in every different direction, auditing files and charts, touring facilities and interviewing staff at every level. Independent of one another, each CARF representative made note of the fact that, regardless of the community they were in, and regardless of the population being served by any given staff member, employ-ees from entry level all the way up to our leadership thoughtfully answered interview questions in a way that incorporated our Principles of Unconditional Care.

You may notice that we’re asking the same questions of ourselves year after year, and you’ll see them here, too: ‘are we doing what we say we’ll do?’, ‘do people like what we do?’ and ‘are the things we do worth doing?’ By asking ourselves these questions at every juncture in our work, we’re forced to examine our ability to work toward our mission and view the challenges and successes of the communities and families we work with through an unconditional lens.

We’ve been doing this for 38 years. For the first 13, we were an Anaconda-grown, grassroots organization helping people we knew. For the last 25, we’ve been led by CEO Larry Noonan, who came in with the confidence that AWARE could keep the intimacy that makes a service relevant to a family or community, while promoting a culture of confidence and risk for the benefit of others. That culture leads to innovation and exemption from the status quo.

Despite being the fourth largest state in the country we’re pretty small, and our community-based work relies heavily on people talking, debating, asking questions, and demanding more for their family. As a board, we value these things, and invite your involvement in the discus-sion, too.

Blast away.

Jack HaffeyChair, AWARE Board of Directors

A note from our Board of Directors.AWARE envisions a world in which no child or adult

with developmental disabilities or mental health diagnoses will ever need to be in an institution, and

will have the opportunity to make choices and benefit from services assisting them in becoming as successful

and living as full a life as they are able.

Our Vision.AWARE will, consistent with its vision, develop the highest quality, individualized, community-based

supports and services, which includes providing access to the right services, to the right people, at the right time while fostering and advocating the inclusion,

acknowledgement, and respect for those with disabilities to be a meaningful part of their community.

Our Mission.

Our Principles of Unconditional Care.We are agents of change.Families are our most important resource.

We take on—and stick with—the hardest challenges.Lighten up and laugh.Everything is normal until proven otherwise.

We strive to the highest quality of care.I’m OK, you’re OK.

It takes a team.

Our connection with communities is vital.

Building on our strengths is the key to our success.

Progress. Governed by values.

Our year in review.

Fiscal Year 2013