How We Are Governed

TNS Board of Directors

The TNS Board of Directors is a volunteer Board comprised of members from three (3) separate sectors for each county in which the organization receives CSBG funding. The sectors represented are; Public (elected officials or their designee), Private Sector and Representatives of the low income. Public Sector representatives (or designee’s) serve for the term they hold publically elected office and leave the board once their term is ended. There is no time limit on how long a Board member can serve from the Public Sector. Private Sector and Representatives of the low income are either nominated or elected based on requirements found in the TNS by-laws. Members of these two sectors can serve for a maximum of 2 five year terms with a sabbatical of one year between the two five year terms. Individuals interested in Board Membership or Organizations wishing to nominate a person for membership on the TNS board should contact the Executive Director, Brad Manning for further details. His e-mail address is bmanning@txns.org.

County	Sector	Primary	Board Officer
Johnson	Poverty	Blythe Williamson
Johnson	Private	Vacant
Johnson	Public	Lisa Tomlinson
Parker	Poverty	Dr. Barbara Mueller	VP
Parker	Private	Vacant
Parker	Public	Brian Lixey
Palo Pinto	Poverty	Marci Senterfitt
Palo Pinto	Private	Misty Nix
Palo Pinto	Public	Jeanette Ender
Somervell	Poverty	Randy Robertson
Somervell	Private	Andrew Lucas
Somervell	Public	Hugh Smith	Pres
Hood	Poverty	Karen Nace
Hood	Private	Patrick Murphy
Hood	Public	Vacant
Erath	Poverty	Tracie Dipple
Erath	Private	Dr. Randy McCamey
Erath	Public	Dr. Joanna Shaw
Wise	Poverty	Marti Hines
Wise	Public	Dick Chase	Tres

How We Work

Texas Neighborhood Services (TNS) is defined by a mission of service, informed by a vision of high expectations, and guided by a philosophy of innovation, responsibility, and excellence. Each of these guiding principles create a powerful alliance with our stakeholders to fulfill our goal of being a key supporter of a dynamic regional economy. The design will expands the partnership between TNS and all stakeholders to more fully realize their complementary visions.

Mission

The mission of Texas Neighborhood Services is found in its chartered by-laws originally created in 1965 and modified throughout the corporation’s history. The chartered mission is to administer the social programs of the United States, State, Public or Private assignment or award in the various counties applied for and to administer other programs designed to assist citizens in the counties we serve. Texas Neighborhood Services strategically targets this mission with the support of three significant groups in the community; representatives of the low-income, elected officials from the public sector, and business leaders from the private sector. The objective of working with these groups is to seek out, identify, and aid in the elimination of the causes of poverty within the communities served, help people prepare for, find and retain long term employment, and match employers with a quality, job-ready workforce. TNS executes this mission to make the entire community more responsive to the needs and interests of its citizens. This is accomplished by mobilizing available resources and bringing about a greater institutional sensitivity to the individuals being helped while at the same time developing a system of priorities among projects, activities, and areas, as needed, for the most effective and efficient use of resources.

Vision

Texas Neighborhood Services is unwavering in its pursuit of the vision of creating value for its stakeholders and providing exceptional customer service to both job seekers and employers. The TNS commitment to ethics, integrity and quality in delivering results through a team atmosphere gives all individuals ownership of the vision established by the Board of Directors along with the vision set by executive leadership with input from all key supporters.

Philosophy

Texas Neighborhood Services fosters innovation, flexibility, responsibility, accountability, and excellence in all of the services that it provides and involvement in collaborations and partnerships. TNS views the staff development and engagement of values, direction, and performance expectations as a long-term process essential to corporate success. Strategic and operational planning provides Texas Neighborhood Services the tools to communicate the vision with: ¨ A common understanding of values, purpose, mission, vision and ethics; ¨ The ability to respond to change and achieve results; ¨ Direction and focus; ¨ Discipline and a plan of action; and ¨ Milestones and benchmarks for measuring performance and progress. TNS’ Board defines and sets the direction and policies for the corporation. From the policies; the Executive Director along with the support of senior management set the values by which the corporation operates. This defines the state of the organization – its past, present and future – and serves to refine the vision for the future. As the mission is confirmed and critical issues identified, strategies are identified along with the goals and objectives required to achieve the mission. The Executive Director ensures the values, directions, and expectations are clearly communicated through out the workforce system and has final authority for all the day to day decision making activities. The Executive Director accomplishes this activity with the support of the Deputy Executive Director, and the Divisional Leadership responsible for the program oversight. This team of workforce experts assures the values, directions and expectations are defined, modeled and implemented. The indivdual Divisional Leadership Teams encourages feedback from all levels of the organization to ensure that decisions are made based on complete and accurate information. Every decision or process implemented in the daily operations for TNS is measured for integrity and quality to ensure alignment with organizational goals.

Our Core Values

Texas Neighborhood Services (TNS) communicates its organizational values through its Mission Statement, and Core Values. The following core values communicate to TNS staff the organizational expectation of excellence in service delivery for each and every staff member:

• We create value for our customers, stakeholders, and communities by providing quality and exceptional customer service in all that we do and the way in which we do it.
• We are committed to being responsive, flexible, and innovative in delivering results and meeting our challenges.
• We work together as a team with each person contributing to his or her capabilities.
• We are committed to the highest standard of ethics and integrity and do not compromise on quality.
• Our interactions with all customers, investors, suppliers, governments, the general public must reflect the high standards we profess.
• We respect all individuals co-workers, customers, and stakeholders.
• We cultivate a sense of pride in ourselves as a company and in our work.
• Second-best is simply not good enough.

Our Commitment to Quality

Texas Neighborhood Services strives to be the employer and provider of choice for households in each community. This can only be achieved through a strong commitment to promote growth and enhance human potential through an effective, efficient and innovative system of services.

To achieve our goals we also remain dedicated to our core values of dignity, diversity, responsibility, integrity and excellence. At both the program and corporate levels, TNS strives to recognize and reward excellence while continuously seeking to identify areas for further improvement.

Management is involved in quality improvement in a variety of workforce, process improvement and customer satisfaction activities. Workforce activities include training programs to orient new staff to the company, teach key skills to new managers and supervisors and develop leaders within the organization. An internal recognition program has been developed to identify staff with exemplary job performance and commitment to quality and to clients.

TNS History

Texas Neighborhood Services Corporation (TNS) is a non-profit community action agency founded in 1965 with a vision to serve others, a budget of $13,359.00, and a staff of nine employees to serve the residents of a single county. The first Executive Dirctor of the organization was the Rev. Richard E. Brown. Through demonstrated performance and continuous improvement strategies, TNS has evolved into a regional entity with the same vision, a budget in excess of $60 million, and a staff of approximately 500 to serve the citizens of fourteen North Central Texas counties. The current service delivery area includes the counties of Collin, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell and Wise. Texas Neighborhood Services serves as the program operator and manager for a portfolio of services to include the following:

Workforce Services

TNS has successfully operated workforce development programs and provided services in North Central Texas for forty-three years. TNS, formerly known as Palo Pinto Community Service Corporation, provided employment and training services to the citizens of Palo Pinto County from 1965 to 1972 under direct contract with the United States Department of Labor through the Manpower Training and Development Act and the Neighborhood Youth Council.

Based on TNS' overall capacity to deliver required services and a history of positive outcomes, TNS became a subcontractor of the North Central Texas Private Industry Council to provide services through the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973. The service delivery area expanded to include the residents of Erath, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker and Somervell counties.

As a direct result of achieving outcomes and exceeding expectations, TNS was awarded the contract to provide WIA Adult and Youth services through the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982. During the course of the Job Training Partnership Act, TNS expanded the scope of services provided to include the WIA Dislocated Worker program.

In 1999, the geographic boundaries of the TNS workforce service delivery area expanded through a contract with the North Central Texas Workforce Development Board to incorporate Ellis, Kaufman, and Navarro counties. Throughout the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, TNS demonstrated a solid track record of meeting or exceeding expectations, providing services of exceptional quality, and working as a strategic partner with the North Central Workforce Development Board.

The strategic vision, results-oriented focus, and demonstrated effectiveness led Texas Neighborhood Services to be selected as the workforce center operator for the North Central Texas Workforce Development Board in 2004. This award also expanded the service delivery area to include Collin, Hunt, and Rockwall counties.

Throughout the history of the corporation TNS has demonstrated success in operating workforce centers and exceeding performance goals in workforce programs. In 2006 and 2007, the North Central Texas Workforce Board, with TNS as its primary contractor of workforce services, won the $100,000 Texas Workforce Commission's performance award for being the number one large board in Texas in incentive measures.

In 2008, TNS was awarded the contract to provide all workforce services for all of the fourteen counties within the North Central Texas Workforce Development Board area.  Thus, workforce services for Denton and Wise counties were placed under the management of TNS.  Along with this award, came the administration of Child Care Services, as well as WIA Youth Services, for all fourteen counties.

Children's Services

Funded under the United States Department of Health and Human Services, TNS operates Head Start centers in eight north central Texas counties (Erath, Hood, Johnson, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell and Wise) and for forty-two years have proudly provided a variety of developmental and supportive services to the families of the children in the program.

Community Services

Funded through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs and private donations, this program is broad in scope and designed to meet the needs of the economically disadvantaged population by providing direct assistance. Through collaboration with other local and state agencies TNS provides emergency assistance for utilities, case management services, and crisis intervention to the citizens of seven counties (Erath, Hood, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell and Wise).