The
ALTRUIST Group
sponsor of the month By Maria Smietana
Meet Jeanine Coleman
Jeanine Coleman
Long before she launched The ALTRUIST Group, Jeanine Coleman had developed a strong concern for the needs and welfare of others. Growing up in Indianapolis, Jeanine attended a large, urban high school with students from a broad spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds. She began to observe the plethora of problems affecting many of the students and their families. She took this strong desire to help those most at risk to college with her, earning a bachelor’s degree in social work from Indiana State University in 1992. After supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and mental illness in frontline capacities, Jeanine returned to graduate school in 1999 and obtained a master’s degree from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University. The knowledge she gained from pursuing this degree, along with her goal to be a catalyst for change, offered her a new opportunity to champion the cause in administrative and leadership roles with various organizations. In these roles, she worked tirelessly to implement effective and efficient programming that helped individuals and families gain the information and skills needed to become healthier, wiser, and more self-sufficient. In every organization Jeanine has worked for, she has led with personal integrity and accountability. Despite the disillusionment she has experienced in the human services industry, she has continued to demonstrate unselfish regard for the welfare of others. In 2015, Jeanine, along with Lori Kincy, a very close friend, founded The ALTRUIST Group, a home and community-based agency that provides services and support to individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities throughout central and southern Indiana. Jeanine and Lori both shared having family members with these disabilities and wanted to build a company culture based on true values and a true vision. However, Lori
22 Special Needs Living • May 2022
chose to leave the company in 2017 to pursue other endeavors, and as a result, Omie Spivey, Jeanine’s mother, purchased Lori’s interest and became Jeanine’s business partner. “We have made an impact by championing vulnerable populations,” Jeanine said. “Along the way, we have brought on team members with the same mission in their hearts. My mother and I share the experience of having loved ones with intellectual disabilities. This allows us to empathize and consider the quality of support families need for their own loved ones [with disabilities].” The ALTRUIST Group is recognized as an industry leader, respected for its values, and referred by clients and families due to their satisfaction with the company’s competent, compassionate professionals. The company further sets itself apart for having achieved ISO 9001:2015 certification, which is rare for an organization in the human services sector. “Our quality objectives include a customer satisfaction rating of 97%, a client retention rate of 96%, an employee retention rate of 78%, and a client goal achievement rate of 80%,” Jeanine said. “The ALTRUIST Group recognizes that all stakeholders are our customers and therefore are at the forefront of all decisions. We lead the way by serving first. This means that we focus on client/customer development through our client values. Similarly, through ongoing training, we focus on staff development through our team values.” Jeanine encourages special-needs families to invest in the understanding of broad system issues, as well as local provider issues within the special needs community. “It is important that we recognize and lobby against the roadblocks that make obtaining quality support services so bureaucratic in nature,” she said. “Some of the issues that we can speak up for as a community include better pay for frontline workers and requiring standardized training for our direct support professionals. Also, once you
