LEWES — The Board of Trustees of Children’s Beach House recently elected Tom Sheridan to serve as board president for three years.

Mr. Sheridan joined the board in 2017 and has served as its vice-president since 2021.

In 2020, when COVID forced a stoppage in Children’s Beach House’s programs and services, the Board of Trustees used the pause to develop a new strategic plan that reimagined how Children’s Beach House showed up in the community.

The goal was to think of Children’s Beach House less as a building, vaguely associated with the du Ponts, where children went to summer camp, and more as a dynamic partner who showed up alongside families and communities across the state, working with them in integrated ways to transform lives and futures.

That plan, now three years in execution, has led to new opportunities, including Children’s Beach House’s new social enterprise catering company, Greater Good Events, as well as expanding partnerships with schools in Milton and the establishing of allies in the general assembly who see Children’s Beach House as an innovative, agile service organization whose impact stems from its all-in commitment to those it serves.

Mr. Sheridan began his career in New York as a social worker, opening group homes for individuals with developmental disabilities at a time when the state was shuttering large institutions and moving individuals to neighborhood-based homes.

Later, as a lobbyist in Washington, DC, he was instrumental in the enactment of the Ryan White CARE Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In 1991, he founded the Sheridan Group, a lobbying firm with a mission to put public interest causes and the common good at the center of public policy. 

Mr. Sheridan said, “This is the most forward-leaning and risk-affirmative the Board of Trustees has ever been. The organization is not stuck in past practices. Rather we stand on the firm foundation of our past with the privilege to embrace the future. The ethos here is ‘We’re going to stretch, and we may fail at some things.’ I don’t think you’re trying hard enough unless you’re failing, and when you do, you reward that failing with learning. The byproduct of innovation is failure, and the gift of failure is adjustment and improvement.  I’m excited to see Children’s Beach House become the preeminent statewide organization serving communities, families, and children with special needs.”

For more information, visit cbhinc.org.