After 40 years of service, Four Oaks President and CEO Anne Gruenewald will be retiring this month from the Cedar Rapids-based child welfare, juvenile justice and behavioral health agency.
To celebrate her legacy of service, Four Oaks held a celebration event for community partners, stakeholders and donors in December. At the event, Ms. Gruenewald was recognized by the Coalition for Family and Children’s Services in Iowa for her many years of dedicated service to Iowa’s children and families.
The event also celebrated the 10-year anniversary of TotalChild, the organization’s service delivery model that was developed by Ms. Gruenewald, which addresses four key risk factors in a child’s life including childhood basic needs, education and work, family and community.
Ms. Gruenewald realized that human-services agencies had spent too long concentrating their efforts on helping children based on a single factor and instead needed to focus on addressing all the barriers to success that a child may face. She also recognized the importance of helping and monitoring children’s progress into adulthood.
In the 10 years since its conception, TotalChild has served 1,500 youth and their families and helped 90% of them achieve stability. More than 500 youth are now considered to be in the continuing support phase of the model.
“It would be difficult if not impossible to sum up Anne’s achievements over her 40 years of service to Four Oaks,” Lydia Brown, Four Oaks Board of Directors Chair, stated in a release. “Her deep understanding and creativity in how to work with troubled children and bringing the family into the plan, as well as her architecture of the innovative TotalChild model of service delivery has ensured Four Oaks will continue to be a nationally recognized leader of children’s services. To say we will miss Anne does not come close to the reality. We wish her the very best in the next chapter of her story.”
