Testimonials
Testimonial from Charles Rapp author of the Strengths Model
Affinity Services is an international leader in the successful implementation of strengths-based, recovery-oriented service. Case management services, supported employment program and the Wellness Recovery Action Planning program are implemented with high fidelity and producing exceptional outcomes. Group service follow the same commitment to clients and their well-being. Specialized services for Maori and Chinese immigrants are innovative and reflect the organization's profound sensitivity to cultural uniqueness.
The high quality is not an accident but rather is built on a foundation of leadership that refuses to be second-best and a staff who are compassionate and skilled. The highest praise I can offer is that if I had a loved one with a psychiatric disability, I would want their services to come from Affinity.
Sincerely yours,
Charles A. Rapp, PH.D.
Professor
University of Kansas
School of Social Welfare
1545 Lilac Lane
Lawrence, KS ?66044-3184
785-864-8946 (work)
785-864-5277 (fax)
e-mail: charlier@ku.edu
Copeland Center For Wellness and Recovery
November 29, 2006
Dear Barbara,
I want to thank you for a wonderful shared learning experience. It was an honor and a privilege to work with you, your staff and the peers of Affinity Services. You brought me in as a consultant/trainer, but I feel I learned as much from all the good people at Affinity as I was able to impart about WRAP and peer support. I honestly don’t believe that I have ever encountered an organization that has created a stronger corporate culture of ongoing innovation, learning and development, or that is built so solidly upon the principles and values of recovery and wellness for all. Your strong leadership is evident, but so is the personal leadership of all your employees—everyone that I had the pleasure to work with proved him - or herself a true steward of all that Te Korowai Aroha and Affinity Services stand for.
I want to comment on the obvious value of your having brought Charles Rapp’s Strengths Model to Affinity Services. Coming from a solid strengths foundation, your staff easily grasped the simplicity and common sense of WRAP. They readily embrace and apply WRAP because they were already committed to seeing people in their wholeness and committed to empowering people through mutual relationships that unleash the native gifts of each unique individual. In other words, your staff already holds and honors the values of recovery and wellness we teach in WRAP. Given the strengths your staff brought to the training, we were able to create a powerful synergy between WRAP and each professional’s specialty practice that will yield exceptional outcomes for all involved, especially for those you serve.
With all the positives I could note, it seems unfair to single out any one program of Affinity Services for special comment, however my long-term involvement with supported employment compels me to mention that I was particularly impressed with the way your staff are enhancing what is already a best practice through their strong strengths approach and now by bringing WRAP insights into supporting individuals to succeed on the job. Their approach is innovative, true to values of recovery, and it supports genuine self-determination in ways that are truly empowering. The work your staff have already done with the creation of a “self-awareness record” was quite inspiring, and I plan to follow their success closely with hopes that we can import their ideas back to the USA.
Having learned about the New Zealander’s penchant for understatement, I hope you won’t misjudge my use of glowing superlatives in describing what I found in your organization. Truly, I have rarely had such a uniformly positive training experience. It is not hyperbole to say that Affinity Services is now my personal benchmark for organizational excellence and I look forward to a long collaboration with you and your wonderful staff.
Again, thank you for a most rewarding learning experience.
Sincerely yours,
Stephen Pocklington
Executive Director
Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery
1322 Spencer Avenue
New Bern, NC 28560
252-638-7080
e-mail: spocklington@cox.net
