People decide to start businesses or an organization for a variety of reasons. There’s an inevitable rush in starting a business and growing it to be successful that appeals to some people. Trying to solve a problem for a particular part of the population is also an excellent reason to start a business. Some do it for the money, which is fine, while others are more focused on having something that’s their own.
For Carlos D. Cienfuegos, the founder of Sentry Living Solutions, it’s hard to pinpoint the one single thing that led him to build a non-profit organization that provides services for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. However, he knows where the drive started.
“Since forever, my heart has always been mission-driven. I’m Christian and always reaching out and helping people doing missionary work,” he says. “So the heart of helping people has always been there.”
Through missionary work, Cienfuegos got familiar with a couple of key concepts that will help him decide to start the non-profit. Missionary work, the result of assisting the people who need it, is wholly focused on the recipient — the client or the customer, in business terms. It also places the main reward for doing such work beyond the material scope — people engage in it for moral, ethical, humanitarian, spiritual, or religious purposes.
At the same time, however, Cienfuegos’ early experiences brought up in him a strong desire to be his own boss. It’s a shared experience of disillusionment that many people have with their first jobs, especially if their energy to bring about change isn’t met with enthusiasm.
“I saw that there were so many things that could be improved in the previous organization, like streamlining things and being more modern,” explains Cienfuegos. “So there were two things that happened. It was the desire to have my own business and the heart that I have to help people. And so the two came together.”
Set on a mission, he started Sentry Living Solutions, a non-profit with a wide range of services they provide to people with developmental disabilities. It aimed at providing different support and getting different outcomes based on the recipient’s unique needs. For example, the Independent Living Services were created to help people with developmental disabilities gain the life skills they need to be able to live independently.
In case an individual cannot achieve complete independence, they can still have a greater quality of life with the assistance of Supported Living Services. “For individuals with cerebral palsy, as they age, motor skills become more challenging, so we have to be more hands-on, assisting with feeding, medications, and other caregiving tasks,” Cienfuegos explains. “We operate at the intersection of human services and healthcare.”
Sentry Living Solutions offers other services, too. For people and their families who experience behavioral challenges at home, in school, or anywhere in between, the organization provides Behavioral Services, including analysis, consultation and training, and social skills development.
“Additionally, we have recently opened the Employment Program, which operates through the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), introducing yet another different process,” says Cienfuegos.
Sentry Living Solutions and Carlos D. Cienfuegos have helped numerous people advance their independence, productivity, and confidence. That’s been the organization’s mission, and they achieved it while fostering a client-first culture. According to Cienfuegos, they’re not stopping anytime soon. “Our goal is to expand our services and specialize in working with adults with developmental disabilities.”
