Trinity Receives the 2025 CQL President's Award!
Trinity Services is being recognized by CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership with the 2025 CQL President’s Award. This prestigious designation highlights Trinity’s tireless commitment to implementing innovative practices, advancing person-centered approaches, and supporting people with disabilities to realize their dreams. The CQL President’s Award, while part of the biennial CQL Awards of Excellence, is a unique honor, as it is independently selected by the President and Chief Executive Officer of CQL| The Council on Quality and Leadership.
“We want to congratulate the entire team from Trinity for receiving the CQL President’s Award,” says Mary Kay Rizzolo, President and CEO of CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership. “They embody the very best in human services and it’s an honor to recognize them for all of their impressive contributions to the field and their lasting impact on so many lives.”
Trinity Services makes an intentional effort to consistently enhance the services it provides to better support people and strengthen the broader community as a whole. The organization provides a wide range of services, from more traditional residential, day, and employment services to unique offerings including counseling, crisis support, health and well-being programs, and a school for children and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Due to the contributions to the disability services sector and beyond, Trinity is considered to be an architect for best practices, and is recognized by numerous renowned entities for its imprint on the field.
“We are deeply honored to be selected by CQL to receive the President’s Award,” said Thane Dykstra, Ph.D., President and CEO of Trinity Services. “There is no doubt that the rigorous accreditation process of CQL has had a most profound impact on the quality of our services and supports. We are grateful to CQL for its leadership in advancing person-centered excellence, and we share this award with our entire Trinity community.”
Trinity Services: Some Examples Of Excellence
From its rich history to the connections it creates in the community, the following are just some examples of how Trinity Services demonstrates excellence in the human services field.
75 Years Of Transforming Lives
Founded in 1950, this year marks the 75th anniversary of Trinity Services. Beginning as a small school for children with disabilities, the organization has evolved into providing services for approximately 6,000 people with disabilities and behavioral health needs across Illinois. This milestone amounts to countless lives transformed through innovation and impactful services over the course of more than seven decades.
An Award-Winning Organization
Beyond receiving the 2025 CQL President’s Award, Trinity Services is recognized for excellence in the disability services sector. This year alone, the organization received numerous accolades. These include the Outstanding Family Member Advocate Award and the Distinguished Service Award from The Arc of Illinois in April 2025. During that same month, two staff members from Trinity Services were honored with awards by the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR). Trinity Services also received the De La Salle Medallion for Excellence in Community Partnership from Lewis University in May 2025. In 2022, Trinity Services was also a recipient of a CQL Award of Excellence for its Mobile Crisis Response Unit.
Continuous Quality Enhancement
Trinity Services has maintained a decades-long commitment to ongoing organizational transformation through its achievement of CQL Accreditation. Since 1992, Trinity Services has maintained CQL’s most stringent level of accreditation, currently accredited with CQL’s Person-Centered Excellence Accreditation, With Distinction. This demonstrates how the organization prioritizes the improvement of its services with a focus on supporting people to achieve their goals and dreams.
Strong Organizational Culture
Trinity Services has several initiatives that promote a strong culture. Trinity Services developed a “Small Group” experience – a structured 26-week positive psychology program where staff and the people supported are encouraged reflect on their values, develop goals, and engage in meaningful dialogue about purpose and gratitude. “What makes this initiative so remarkable is not just the content, but the connections it creates,” said Thane Dykstra. “I consider Small Groups to be one of the most impactful programs I have ever been a part of.”
Staff recognition is also essential to a positive work culture. Trinity has a long-standing recognition program that includes Lillie Leapit Awards that acknowledge staff for demonstrating servant leadership and going above and beyond their work responsibilities.
Community Engagement
Trinity Services has established meaningful relationships with the broader community, connecting civic clubs, churches, volunteer groups, schools, local businesses, law enforcement, and more. Trinity Services is one of the providers in Illinois taking part in the Living Room Program, which offers a safe, home-like space where anyone in the community experiencing a mental health crisis can visit to receive support. During a recent focus group conducted by CQL, participants shared that “they are one of the best collaborators in the community,” and that “they are responsive to the community and put things in place that are needed.”
“We’re grateful for a long-standing partnership with Trinity Services and look forward to our relationship growing for many years to come,” adds Rizzolo.
About Trinity Services, Inc.
Trinity Services, founded in 1950, is a nonprofit, nonsectarian organization that provides the highest quality person-directed services and supports to people with disabilities and mental health needs so that they may flourish and live full and abundant lives.
Trinity provides services to more than 6,000 adults and children who have intellectual/developmental disabilities or mental health issues. Trinity’s mission to help people flourish is at the heart of all it offers, including residential services, numerous community day services, employment services, a school, therapeutic horseback riding, respite services, a recreation center, a range of therapeutic services, and more. Services are provided in more than 30 Illinois communities in the Southwest, Northwest, and Western suburbs of Chicago, as well as Southern and Central Illinois.
About the CQL Awards of Excellence
Established in 2015, the CQL Awards of Excellence recognize individuals, organizations, and/or systems that demonstrate excellence in the support of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, psychiatric disabilities, as well as older adults. The 2025 CQL Awards of Excellence recipients were selected among numerous nominations by professionals and providers in the disability services sector, for exemplifying the very best practices, programs, and initiatives across human services. Over the past ten years, from 2015 through 2025, there have been a total of 23 award recipients.
Receiving the award, from left to right: Sally Ritchey, John Young, Stephanie Behlke Leigh, Amy Cords, Thane Dykstra, Ph.D., President and CEO of Trinity Services, Megan Koszela, Susan Faulk, Bob Sandidge, Amy Tabor, and Anne Ward.