left to right: Brian Nageotte, Vicki Bradshaw, and Rev. Sam Marchetta received Wesbury’s official recognition at the “Celebration of Excellence” during UMA’s Annual Meeting held in Ft. Meyers, Florida in May. Photograph by Strattons Photography.

2018 was an exciting year for Wesbury as we celebrated 100 years of service to the community with special parties, events, and sharing stories of our history. As the festivities wrapped up, notification was received that the United Methodist Association of Health and Welfare Ministries (UMA), a national network of health and welfare-related organizations, granted Wesbury EAGLE Accreditation for the sixth consecutive time. UMA consists of 400 health and human service organizations that provide its members with education, accreditation, networking, communication, and business services while keeping with the rich, historical, Wesleyan traditions and practices of the United Methodist denomination.

The Educational Assessment Guidelines Leading toward Excellence (EAGLE) accreditation is a quality enhancement program offered every five years to faith-based organizations providing care to older adults, children, youth and families. The intensive self-assessment and peer review process encourages and recognizes excellence in Christian mission and ministry. EAGLE accredited facilities are stringently reviewed based on business practices, social principles as well as their Christian mission. EAGLE peer reviewers focus on an organization’s relationships within its local community, on the persons being served, as well as governance and management.

“As a Christian organization with a focus on excellence in achieving our mission, EAGLE accreditation is a great fit for us. Although we do not strive for excellence because of EAGLE, it is a large part of our plan for trying to achieve excellence. Not only does EAGLE provide specific guidelines that continually push us to improve our processes and services, but it is also an unbiased assessment of the level of those services. One of my guiding principles in our organization is that we put monitors in place for all of our policies and procedures so we can determine if we are doing what we intended. EAGLE is our monitor for excellence. I would like to thank EAGLE, The Commission and all of the reviewers for pushing us to soar higher,” notes Brian Nageotte, Wesbury President and CEO.