News and notes from Imagine! and the Imagine! Foundation.
Thank You, Jim
Mar-17-2022
Employees
Imagine! recently nominated longtime employee Jim Nelson for Alliance Colorado’s prestigious DSP of the Year Award. Check out his nomination below to see why he was chosen for this honor.
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Jim Nelson has worked for Imagine! for 27 years now. That alone is quite admirable. He is loyal to our organization, but most of all to our clients. He has seen so many changes throughout his time working in Imagine!’s supported employment department and has assisted our clients through it all. Jim has developed a strong rapport with our clients over the years as well as their families and providers. These relationships have resulted in a feeling of support and deep trust in the services provided by the employment department. The stories Jim tells about Imagine!'s history with supported employment and the growth he's seen in our clients are priceless.
Those stories are born of deep experience. When Jim began working at Imagine!, many of the clients he worked with had only recently been integrated into our community after spending the majority of their lives in institutions. Needless to say, those clients brought with them numerous challenges as they were learning to navigate a world only recently opened to them. Jim’s combination of smarts, compassion, and clear desire to support these individuals in finding success brought about amazing results. Clients who were once considered unemployable found, and kept, steady jobs out in the community thanks to Jim’s careful and skillful tutelage.
Never one to rest on past accomplishments, Jim continues to provide stellar support to Imagine! clients in the workforce. The data backs this up. Work crews under Jim’s supervision consistently show fewer days with negative behavioral issues, escalations, or outbursts as compared to other crews (and all of Imagine!’s Supported Employment team members are amazing, so this is truly an accomplishment to celebrate).
During his tenure, Jim has seen many changes to his work, and has always been willing to adapt and adjust. Even now, as Imagine! makes the transition to an Employment First approach to our supported employment services (a huge cultural shift from our past approach), Jim remains steadfast in doing all he can to support our clients during this change, serving as a role model not only for clients but for his fellow employees.
Perhaps the finest compliment about Jim comes from one of the Imagine! clients he works with. “Matt,” who likes to refer to himself in the third person, frequently can be heard saying “Matt is number one guy, Jim is number two guy” when enthusiastically greeting Jim before a work shift. Jim may be number two in Matt’s ranking system, but for the rest of us at Imagine!, he is number one in our hearts!
