Posted on May 6, 2026
Find out how we’re building the next strategic plan for Penn-Mar.
Gregory Miller
President/CEO Penn-Mar Human Services
As each new fiscal year approaches, many of us at Penn-Mar are already making notes of things we want to accomplish, attain, or do differently in the coming months. Setting more ambitious future goals often requires a structured plan to help track our progress over months, and sometimes even years.
For the last 30 years, we have been guided by a thorough Strategic Planning process. This important work continued in the last week of April when our Board convened to help us explore where Penn-Mar directs its efforts in the next 2-3 years, and how we continue growing in the ways that matter most.
But before putting the finishing touches on our Strategic Plan, we want everyone involved to weigh in before we ask them to buy in.
To help us create a realistic vision of how the organization can become more than we are now — and what actions will be required to make that happen — we scheduled experts from PAR (Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources) and MACS (Maryland Association of Community Services) to kick-off the Board meeting with an overview of the critical issues that confront our industry today.
In the months leading up to this meeting, our Directors and Leadership Team have analyzed our current Strategic Plan by charting our execution of strategic goals to-date and providing recommendations for new initiatives going forward.
Once the Board reviews these initial recommendations, they and the Leadership Team will form sub-committees to surface priority issues to ensure we focus on what is most important for the organization.
Throughout this process, we need to be realistic about the financial resources we can expect from our state and federal governments. Public funding continues to be restrained, and it’s important to factor that ongoing reality into our planning.
The State of Maryland recently cut our budget by 2 percent, which puts a tremendous burden on us to creatively cover the shortfall through private donations, grants, innovative programming, and cost-effective ways to meet our mission on a day-to-day basis. Continued support from our community has never been more essential, as these partnerships help ensure we can sustain the life-changing services Penn-Mar provides.
Retaining our amazing team members at Penn-Mar is a top priority. As our services evolve, finding better, more efficient ways to do our work will remain a shared priority across the organization.
One of the things we’ve learned over time is that the best strategic priorities don’t stay on paper. They become part of how we work every day.
Our “Belonging” initiative is a good example. What began as a focused effort to strengthen connection across our team is now part of who we are as an organization.
Right now, we are building a plan that strengthens how we drive change without losing sight of our core support. It lays out clear priorities and shared accountability across the organization.
We will be focusing on new strategies specific to technologies, data analysis, and efficiencies that will strengthen and equip our organization for the future.
Our current Plan established the need for us to develop a technology leadership position for Penn-Mar, and we subsequently equipped our residences with introductory Smart Home technology that is helping the people we support greatly simplify their lives.
These tech advancements are growing like a snowball rolling downhill, and we need to pay attention to what impact they could have on our services. And one can only imagine how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enhance these services going forward!
To help the people we support Live Courageously, we need to be Leading Courageously.
All organizations will rise or fall depending on how they are led. The good news is Penn-Mar’s leadership continues to ensure that our mission is never compromised, even when events outside our control intervene.
I am grateful to our Board for helping us to develop the best Strategic Plan possible to protect the organization’s future and I look forward to sharing it with our Team Members and supporters in the Fall.