A Call to Greatness — A LETTER FROM JOHN AND LISA

As author Jim Collins put it, “Great organizations understand the difference between their core values and purpose (which almost never change), and operating strategies and cultural practices (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).” Every few years, it is healthy for us to realign our strategic and operational efforts, pause, and consider this question: how can we adapt to meet the changing needs of the children and families in Mississippi?

In 2022, the pursuit of that question took us on a full-circle journey that reaffirmed our core values (that remain unchanging) and fueled our resolute commitment to our strategic and operating strategies (that must continue to adapt to respond to the needs of our state). Our strategic planning journey afforded us the privilege to lean into feedback from a cross-section of our stakeholders and led us back to the cornerstone upon which we must build to transform more lives – our core values:

• The voice of our children and families always comes first
• Relationships matter and our di”erences make us stronger
• We take great joy in service to other
• Our families and our communities deserve our very best

Our strategic planning process developed a three-tiered framework to help us design pathways to meet children’s and families’ needs now and into the future by:

1. Enhancing Organizational Effectiveness – Growing deeper in capabilities to enhance our effectiveness in the rapidly changing healthcare landscape with a focus on measurement, data, learning and clinical expertise to stay on the leading edge of best practices.
2. Expanding Our Sphere of Influence – Expanding our mission wider through transformational partnerships with providers and communities who share our vision, values and mission.
3. Driving Innovation – Growing taller through innovation that allows us to be more responsive to the needs of children and families who are searching for solutions.

Building on the foundation of our values, our three-tiered framework was brought to life in the fall of 2022 with the opening of The Canopy School. The Canopy School, located in Ridgeland, MS, is an accredited school devoted to providing an individualized educational solution for children with an array of learning differences. It has been incredible to see the voices of families, our partners, and our community stakeholders coming together to provide an innovative solution for children in need. Truly, it has been a beautiful picture of what can be accomplished when community leaders, partners and donors come together to solve a vexing problem that could never be accomplished alone.

2022 was another high-watermark year for us in so many domains. This report will highlight a few of those accomplishments, such as:

• Serving a record number of children and families — nearly 8,000
• Maintaining our Great Place to Work® certification for a third consecutive year
• Piloting an innovative Trauma Informed Care Training
• Laying the strong groundwork to not only intervene in the challenges facing the children of Mississippi, but also to help prevent many of these challenges before they start

We have also spent this year celebrating our 110th birthday! While our operating strategies and cultural practices have continued to change to meet the evolving needs of our community, our mission and our values remain immutable and continue to serve as the platform on which we expand, grow and provide solutions. Indeed, our mission is more relevant and urgent today than ever and our commitment to children and families is more resolute than at any other time in our history.

2022 has been an incredible year and we want to end by thanking our transformational partners. On behalf of the thousands and thousands of lives that your trust and your support have enabled us to change, and for all that you have made possible for the children of Mississippi – thank you! We are filled with deep gratitude, hope and excitement as we look to the future of Canopy Children’s Solutions.