Healthiest Employers of Rhode Island 2023
100-499 Employees 1. Children’s Friend & Service
CEO (or equivalent): David Caprio, CEO and president
Number of employees: 384
EVERY DAY, employees at Children’s Friend & Service address difficult situations while delivering services to the community. It’s not an easy scenario given that the Providence-based nonprofit supports the area’s most vulnerable children and families.
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But the leadership at Children’s Friend understands the importance of maintaining a healthy workforce, which now numbers 384, so that the staff can properly offer those services to residents in serious need. Children’s Friend wants to ensure that each staff member can thrive by offering everything from a robust benefits plan to employee assistance programs.
Health insurance is available to all full- and part-time employees and is subsidized by Children’s Friend. The employee contribution to these plans has not increased in 17 years, yet benefits have been added based on the needs identified through plan usage.
Some examples of recently added resources include 24/7 Doctor On Demand online care, as well as Talkspace virtual therapy and even 2nd.MD, which provides a second opinion from top specialists.
“We have incredible, free wellness benefits added to the plan based on where we see employee needs through our claims data,” said Julie Colangeli, the nonprofit’s manager of benefits and employee experience.
Given the nature of their work providing support to vulnerable children and families, employees’ mental health is always a top concern. Children’s Friend’s health insurance includes free virtual behavioral health visits along with other counseling services.
‘Children’s Friend helps employees lead more balanced lives, and allows us to model that balance for the kids and families who share our days.’
KATY KILLILEA, Head Start nurse
Whether an employee is facing an issue in the workplace or at home, the employee assistance program is there to help. There’s even the Calm mindfulness app available for staff members and five of their dependents. Should an employee need time out of work, Children’s Friend’s leave policy is more extensive than what is allowed under the federal Family and Medical Leave and Paid Family and Medical Leave acts.
“We know that mental health can be affected by so many areas in life, including work. We are touching upon all of these areas as we address mental health within our agency,” Colangeli said.
Katy Killilea, a Head Start nurse at Children’s Friend, said she feels happy to work for the nonprofit “knowing that my workplace leadership prioritizes self-care.”
The Head Start program promotes school readiness in low-income preschool children. Staff members encounter families who experience everything from homelessness to physical and mental disabilities. That’s why a robust health care package that focuses on making wellness a priority is so critical in this particular environment.
“By promoting comprehensive benefits and well-being programs, Children’s Friend helps employees lead more balanced lives, and allows us to model that balance for the kids and families who share our days,” Killilea said.
Killilea especially appreciated participating in the Walk This May steps challenge, which qualified her to pay nothing for her health insurance plan and save $1,500 in deductible expenses for the year. By joining in the challenge, she restarted some of her old healthy habits.
“I joined the challenge and realized that I could take a lot more steps each day. I remembered that I love running and the habit has lasted well beyond the duration of the incentive challenge,” Killilea said.
The organization’s benefits and wellness programs encourage employees to maintain their health, but they also lead to increased job satisfaction and retention. In citing a recent survey, Colangeli said that 87% of employees are proud to work at Children’s Friend and 78% are happy in their jobs.
The questionnaire also asked employees to recommend other programs and services they’d like to see. The results included a wide range of topics such as increasing compensation, employee recognition, leadership training and development, site beautification projects and hybrid work arrangements.
“Our employees are caregivers and are incredibly dedicated to our mission and to the healthy well-being of the children and families we serve,” Colangeli said.
