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Member Spotlight: Marc Hines of Crossroads, Inc.
Meet Marc Hines of Crossroads, Inc.
Cultivating Choice, Inclusion and Community at Crossroads
For Marc Hines, CEO of Crossroads, Inc., leadership is about more than overseeing an organization. It is about helping people live their lives on their own terms.
Crossroads is a nonprofit serving Muscatine and Cedar counties with a mission of cultivating choice and inclusion for seniors and people with disabilities. The organization provides a broad range of home- and community-based services across the lifespan, including supported community living, day habilitation and supported employment, along with senior-focused programs such as chore services, Meals on Wheels, the Senior Health Insurance Information Program and a senior center.
That variety is part of what first attracted Hines to the organization.
After spending five years at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, following 11 years working for an HCBS provider in Iowa City, the opportunity to return to community-based services was compelling. When the Crossroads position opened in early 2022, it offered a chance to return to work that had long felt meaningful.
“I didn’t know much about the organization or about Muscatine,” Hines said. “After the first of five interviews, I knew this was where I wanted to be and where I wanted to grow.”
Crossroads’ unique mix of services also stood out.
“Crossroads is a bit of a unicorn,” Hines said. “I don’t think there are many, if any, providers who offer the same variety of services for both seniors and people with disabilities.”
Opportunity and Challenge in Muscatine
Sometimes called the “Pearl of the Mississippi,” Muscatine offers Crossroads both significant opportunities and challenges. The community’s strong industrial presence creates opportunities for partnerships and employment for people with disabilities. At the same time, that same concentration of employers means intense competition for workers.
For an organization whose wages are largely influenced by reimbursement rates, building a workplace culture where employees want to stay becomes especially important.
Those local workforce pressures reflect some of the broader issues facing community-based service providers across Iowa. Access, funding and staffing remain interconnected challenges, compounded by factors including managed care and an aging population.
Yet despite the complexity of the system, the people at the center of the work continue to provide motivation.
“We’re humans taking care of other humans in a system designed by humans. It’s messy and flawed,” Hines said. “But that’s part of what draws me back.”
There is also something deeply personal and joyful about the work.
“On any day of the week, I can choose to take part in the care of someone who is singular, whose view on the world and the way of moving through it is entirely theirs,” Hines said. “Helping them live their lives their way is an inspiration to do the same for myself.”
Finding Community Through IACP
That sense of connection extends to Crossroads’ involvement with the Iowa Association of Community Providers.
Hines began engaging more closely with IACP as managed care was first taking hold in Iowa. For an individual organization, navigating administrative requirements, state systems and managed care organizations can be difficult. IACP provided access, expertise and, just as importantly, a larger community of organizations facing many of the same challenges.
“The community that IACP cultivates helps me realize that we’re not alone and that there’s something bigger we’re trying to build,” Hines said.
Today, that support is also practical and immediate. Whether Crossroads needs help understanding regulations, navigating a process or finding an answer, the IACP team is readily available.
“They’re knowledgeable, resourceful, and responsive,” Hines said. “I can’t ask for much more.”
Taking the First Step
For people outside the field, there is one misconception Hines would like to challenge: that providing services to people with disabilities or seniors requires some extraordinary level of patience or selflessness.
Comments such as “I couldn’t do what you do” or “You’re an angel” may be well-intentioned, but they can unintentionally make the profession seem inaccessible.
The reality, Hines believes, is that many more people could find success and fulfillment in this work if they gave themselves the opportunity.
“It’s really about taking the first step.”
At Crossroads, that first step can lead to a career centered on something fundamental: creating opportunities for people to make choices, participate in their communities and live their lives in the way that is right for them.
Website: crossroadsmuscatine.org/
TAGS: Spotlight
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