Elaine Sibley’s Passion for Human Rights Advocacy Fuels Her Commitment to Quality and Care in DBIS
Elaine Sibley is the Human Rights Coordinator, Senior Director of Operations, and Director of Quality and Licensing in the Developmental and Brain Injury Services (DBIS) division at ServiceNet. As part of her multi-faceted role, she serves as a fierce advocate for all DBIS participants, ensuring they have a voice in their care and that systems and processes are in place to allow them to live their lives to the fullest.
Elaine’s commitment to DBIS participants is apparent in everything she does. As a member of the systems team, for example, she helps put in place new processes and system implementations to make work clearer and more efficient. She also recently began a manager training program for the various site managers and program directors in DBIS to build more collaborative support, shared understanding, and consistency. Elaine continually works to improve and ensure quality in all operations. But she views her role as Human Rights Coordinator as the most valuable.
“For me, first and foremost, my passion is human rights,” Elaine says. “My job is to ensure that every person in our program has the rights we all have as human beings. That’s important because they are one of the most vulnerable populations, and we need to advocate for them at every level.”
Elaine began her career at ServiceNet as a Program Director 17 years ago, eventually working her way to her current position and greatly expanding the Human Rights Committee and its work. Ensuring that ServiceNet maintains a high quality of service and respect is also personal to Elaine, whose son suffered two brain injuries and eventually left her home to live in a ServiceNet DBIS residence.
“ServiceNet was the first agency I ever allowed to take care of my son,” Elaine says. “And that is another reason my work at ServiceNet has such deep meaning for me—I understand what it means to feel so strongly that I don’t want anyone to hurt my son. And I bring that feeling to all the people we work with now.”
Elaine not only wants to ensure fundamental human rights in every DBIS individual’s experience, but also joy and community. Elaine helps plan all the large-scale events for the DBIS division, which include the annual Halloween and holiday parties, summer barbeque, and much more. These events are also where she finds the most joy herself.
“When I put a party on for the individuals, and I’m part of that, there’s nothing that makes me happier than seeing it in action,” Elaine says. “The people we serve, our staff, everyone. They need to be able to come together and network and meet up with other people as a community. And we have amazing staff and volunteers who help make these events happen. That’s also important because it shows that we’re vested. We’re interested. We want the best for our folks.”
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