From Improvement to Possibility: Hope as the Foundation for Meaningful Change
Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 in Delavan, Wisconsin

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Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is often viewed as a technical process focused on metrics, outcomes, and systems. For this year’s WAFCA Institute, we invite you to explore CQI from a different angle: what if improvement is less about fixing what's wrong and more about connecting to what's possible? Emerging from a collaborative planning process engaging the WAFCA team, WAFCA member agency leaders, and Anna Jackson of Alpinista Consulting, this two-day experience will create space for leadership teams to step out of the day-to-day and reflect on the deeper purpose and drive behind continuous efforts to improve. 

Join us in Delavan this fall to engage with CQI in a new and deeply intentional way, exploring hope as a central condition for meaningful change and considering improvement as the ongoing practice of orienting to possibility. Through thoughtful discussion, interactive activities, and opportunities for connection, we will explore how hope can act as fuel for change, innovation, resilience, and a shared commitment to better serving our communities. Supported by our partners from the Midwest Hub of the Center for Mental Health Implementation Support (CMHIS) and informed by the science of hope, this collaboratively designed member event will inspire leaders and teams to embrace the spirit of possibility.  

Held near the beautiful shores of Lake Geneva during the early autumn season, this waterfront getaway offers space to step away from daily demands, reconnect with purpose, and explore new possibilities alongside colleagues. Leadership teams are encouraged to attend together to strengthen shared learning. As a family-inclusive event, the schedule also allows time for exploration, relaxation, connection with teams or loved ones, and enjoying the scenery. 

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About Our Facilitator: Anna Kathleen Jackson is a consultant who specializes in strategy development, program design and evaluation, implementation, systems change, capacity building, and designing and facilitating collaborative learning experiences. She has worked in many domains and contexts and spent much of her career promoting mental health in communities and shifting practices within the public behavioral health system. 

Since 2009, she has been a change agent focused on transforming behavioral health systems so that peer support services are widely available and all services are person-centered and wellness-and-recovery-oriented. To that end, she has led many programs and collaborative learning initiatives that integrate implementation science and participatory change methods, helping organizational teams work with complexity while implementing peer support services, person-centered planning, and centering the voices and leadership of people with lived experience. 

Liberating Structures are participatory methods that are central to Anna’s work. She first adopted the repertoire in 2011 and now works with others as they integrate the methods into their everyday and strategic work, using the repertoire to help individuals and groups imagine new possibilities for their work and move toward the future together. Anna holds a Master of Science in Social Work from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology from the University of California, Davis. Learn more about Anna’s work here. 

Hotel Information: Overnight accommodations are available at the Lake Lawn Resort; room prices vary by selection. Please note that suites are set up with a lofted sleeping space; see room set ups before making a reservation.

To book under our room block please call the Lake Lawn Resort at 1-800-338-5253 and ask for the special WAFCA group discount rate. If you would like to book online please follow this link and use Group Code 11C29J and Password WAFCA2026. 

Be sure to reserve your room by August 28th!

Lake Lawn Resort
2400 E. Geneva St.
Delavan, WI 53115
262.728.7950

Click here to register!