Presentation to Meals on Wheels Ottawa Annual General Meeting June 17, 2015 AN ORGANIZATION THAT DELIVERS GREAT MEALS AND SO MUCH MORE: PROVIDING OPTIONS THAT CHANGE LIVES Keenan Wellar Co-Leader & Director of Communications LiveWorkPlay.ca
Transcript
1. Presentation to Meals on Wheels Ottawa Annual General
Meeting June 17, 2015 AN ORGANIZATION THAT DELIVERS GREAT MEALS AND
SO MUCH MORE: PROVIDING OPTIONS THAT CHANGE LIVES Keenan Wellar
Co-Leader & Director of Communications LiveWorkPlay.ca
2. LiveWorkPlay 1995-2015 Engines of Success Celebrating 20
years of helping the community welcome people with intellectual
disabilities to live, work, and play as valued citizens.
3. Thank you for including me in this Annual General Meeting
and before I start I just want to say that delivering more than 250
hot meals a day which we all know is only a part of what Meals on
Wheels Ottawa contributes to our community is a remarkable
achievement. This organization does not get nearly enough
recognition considering how much of a difference it makes in the
lives of people in this community. So while I appreciate the
invitation to talk about LiveWorkPlay, I want to do so for the
purpose of showcasing some of the features of Meals on Wheels
Ottawa as I have experienced as a representative of a partner
agency and from my own personal experience. Two weeks ago I was
celebrating the 20th anniversary of the LiveWorkPlay organization
which my wife Julie Kingstone and I co-founded back in 1995, and
more of less by accident it became a career starting in 1997, and
some 18 years later we now have a staff of 15 and about 150
volunteers supporting about 100 people with intellectual
disabilities and their families. A lot of what we celebrated on
June 4 was not so much the internal progress of the organization
but rather the community-building and benefits to the community as
a whole derived from being neighbours, co-workers, classmates, and
teammates. In other words, when we think and act more inclusively,
it is better for everyone.
4. We also celebrated key partnerships, with a particular
emphasis on those organizations where we have a longstanding
relationship. Meals on Wheels Ottawa was chosen as one of three for
formal recognition, representing a group of about 50 organizations
that were eligible for the award. This was not a difficult choice,
because back in 1998, thanks in part to a tip from Lucas Rogers who
was already a Meals on Wheels volunteer and became part of
LiveWorkPlay after that relationship was already in place, we found
a willing partner in Meals on Wheels Ottawa. Initially, we had
staff members as drivers and the young people we were supporting as
servers. Over time our operations changed and we moved away from
having individuals come to our centre and instead we began offering
individualized supports based in peoples own neighbourhoods. The
challenge there was wed need to continue the Meals on Wheels
partnership differently could the individuals involved with
LiveWorkPlay be matched up with drivers from the general Meals on
Wheels volunteer pool instead of with LiveWorkPlay staff was the
question, and the answer was YES they can! This has been the
arrangement for more than 5 years now. I want to point out that I
am also speaking here today as a former delivery driver myself, and
Im proudly wearing my 500 and 1000 and 1500 hours of service pins.
Here is a little flashback to one of my favourite days.
5. Sometime In The Winter Of 2008
6. And so in conclusion, I want to pay tribute to Meals on
Wheels not simply as a remarkable operation that delivers
consistent quality meal service to seniors, those with chronic
illness, people with disabilities, or people with medical needs or
other reasons that make Meals on Wheels the right answer for them,
but because Meals on Wheels is also part of the bigger social
benefit of helping keep our community strong by supporting people
who want to say in their homes with options other than
institutional solutions. Meals on Wheels provides part of the
answer to the questions raised about how people who are less able
to care for themselves than in the past will remain in their homes,
and the peace of mind provided by the remarkable quality of service
from the Meals on Wheels team of dedicated staff and volunteers is
of such great value there are no words to describe. Thank you for
all that you do and I look forward to the day when my schedule
permits me the time to return to active duty.