ACCESS 2012 “Your Key to Independence” Friday, September 21 10:00am - 9:00pm Saturday, September 22 10:00am - 5:00pm Kitchener Auditorium Kiwanis Arena 400 East Ave. Kitchener, ON www.access2012.org A Message from the ILCWR Board.................2 A Message from the Executive Director.........3 ILCWR’s Summer in Review........4 Spotlight On...Sue!........5 London 2012: An ILCWR Retrospective.............6-7 THE FORUM AUGUST 2011 Inside... “Together, Freedom Through Access and Choice” FALL 2012 ACCESS 2012 M ark your calendars on Friday, September 21 st and Saturday, September 22 nd , because the Independent Living Centre of Waterloo Region’s ACCESS 2012 tradeshow is returning to the Kitchener Auditorium! The ACCESS 2012 tradeshow features the best in accessible products and services for people with disabilities, seniors and field professionals! Modeled after Toronto’s People in Motion show, ACCESS 2012 highlights businesses that are making our community more accessible, and supporting people with disabilities to live full, adventurous and independent lives with the help of their resources! This year, ACCESS 2012 features a variety of accessible vehicles including the MV-1, the world’s first vehicle to be made accessible right off the line! The show will also include a fashion show exhibiting a full line of clothing designed specifically for seated clientele by IZ Adaptive Clothing. We are also excited to announce that Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Hines will be headlining a full schedule of entertainment, taking the stage on Friday, September 21 st for a 7:00pm performance! And don’t forget, ACCESS 2012 also includes the Independent Living Centre of Waterloo Region’s Annual General Meeting in the Kitchener Auditorium’s Viewing Lounge. Join us on Friday, September 21 st at 5:30pm to exercise your rights as an ILCWR member and give us your vote! We’ll see you there! Find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/ilcwr Follow us on Twitter! @ILCWR Watch us on YouTube! www.youtube.com/ilcwr Keep in Touch! www.ilcwr.org
Transcript
ACCESS 2012“Your Key to Independence”
Friday, September 2110:00am - 9:00pm
Saturday, September 2210:00am - 5:00pm
Kitchener AuditoriumKiwanis Arena
400 East Ave. Kitchener, ON
www.access2012.org
A Message from the ILCWR Board .................2
A Message from the Executive Director .........3
ILCWR’s Summer in Review........4
Spotlight On...Sue!........5
London 2012: An ILCWR Retrospective...... .......6-7
THE FORUMAUGUST 2011
Inside...
“Together, Freedom Through Access and Choice”
FALL 2012
ACCESS 2012
Mark your calendars on Friday, September 21st and Saturday,
September 22nd, because the Independent Living Centre of Waterloo Region’s ACCESS 2012 tradeshow is returning to the Kitchener Auditorium! The ACCESS 2012 tradeshow features the best in accessible products and services for people with disabilities, seniors and field professionals! Modeled after Toronto’s People in Motion show, ACCESS 2012 highlights businesses that are making our community more accessible, and supporting
people with disabilities to live full, adventurous and independent lives with the help of their resources! This year, ACCESS 2012 features a variety of accessible vehicles including the MV-1, the world’s first vehicle to be made accessible right off the line! The show will also include a fashion show exhibiting a full line of clothing designed specifically for seated clientele by IZ Adaptive Clothing. We are also excited to announce that Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Hines will be headlining a full schedule of entertainment, taking the stage on Friday, September 21st for a 7:00pm performance! And don’t forget, ACCESS 2012 also includes the Independent Living Centre of Waterloo Region’s Annual General Meeting in the Kitchener Auditorium’s Viewing Lounge. Join us on Friday, September 21st at 5:30pm to exercise your rights as an ILCWR member and give us your vote! We’ll see you there!
Find us on Facebook!www.facebook.com/ilcwr
Follow us on Twitter! @ILCWR
Watch us on YouTube!www.youtube.com/ilcwr
Keep in Touch!www.ilcwr.org
and how to get there. There is certainly room for comment and debate, but the long-term plans ensure a defined goal or path, guarding against sudden surprises or changes of direction. The best strategic plans involve all stakeholders in the process: staff, consumers, members, volunteers, funders and community partners.
The ILCWR Board is looking at refreshing its Strategic Plan beginning in 2012-13. These are goals that we will set ourselves to pursue and monitor over the next few years. It is worth noting that our accountability agreement with the Waterloo-Wellington Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) enjoins us to align with its identified strategic priorities, which envision a high-quality, cost-effective and highly integrated health system. The LHIN arranged a series of education and engagement sessions in July and August to explain its own strategic goals, including enhancing access to primary care, improved coordination and transitions in care across the system, an emphasis on evidence-based best practice to control costs and improve quality, assuring and improving the quality of access to care, and supporting system change and integration among health service providers. These are future blueprints for Ontario’s health care, and will inform our work in setting strategic direction for ILCWR. Stay tuned, since there will certainly be many more updates coming your way on our progress towards new strategic goals. As always, the board values your involvement and input, and will continue to do so as our discussions evolve into a brand-new term in September.
Taposhi Batabyal, President,ILCWR Board of Directors
FALL 2012
2
Strategic Plans That Don’t Gather Dust
One of the
responsibilities of any organization is to formulate a strategic plan—that is to say, a schedule of goals that the agency will work toward within the next three years or so. For example, a strategic direction
might mean improving the quality of services, adding new ones, building new infrastructure, expanding an agency’s outreach, or even revising its vision, mission, and values. Of course, whatever these goals are, they need to be clearly articulated and understood, and involve a process for completion. Otherwise, the strategic plan sits around and looks pretty, doing nothing to inform the service delivery of the organization. It is best to make sure the strategic plan speaks to the organization’s vision, mission, and values. It is equally important not only to identify operations or actions to reflect the strategic goals, but to look at them carefully each year to ensure that progress is being made. Some organizations even consult third-party volunteers to examine and report on progress in an arms’-length process each year, a valuable tool for any evaluation. A good strategic plan is essential to good governance, as it gives owners and stakeholders the opportunity to assess the performance of the Executive Director and Board. It acts as a blueprint, offering the agency a long-term vision and focus. Everyone, from Executive Director to staff and volunteers, understands where the organization is headed,
Taposhi Batabyal,Board President
“A good strategic plan is essential to good governance...”
event. Summertime is BBQ season here at ILCWR. In addition to the events held at each of our Assisted Living Sites, we had a great turnout at our annual Family BBQ at Victoria Park back in July. In all, hundreds joined us for fun, food and fellowship. Here in the office, we are working closely with our partners in the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network to ensure that the residents of our region receive the best possible supports and services on the journey to independence. Evidence shows that the best performing health systems are those that are fully integrated and our Network has charged us with the task of integrating services to achieve better health, better care and better value. ILCWR is a proven leader in Waterloo Region and will work to ensure that the needs of those we support are front and centre as health care delivery in the province is re-designed. This year, be sure to join us for our Annual General Meeting which will be held in conjunction with ACCESS 2012 at the Kitchener Auditorium. Please plan to join us at the Auditorium on Friday at 5:30 pm, September 21. Following the business meeting you will have plenty of time to visit the show and see Justin Hines perform. As always, I am pleased to hear your comments and feedback so that we can continue to improve our programs and services. Please keep in touch and enjoy the remainder of this beautiful summer.
Bil SmithExecutive DirectorIndependent Living Centre of Waterloo Region
3
A Message from the Executive Director
Bil Smith, Executive Director
Warm summer
greetings! We have been very active here at ILCWR over the summer months. In June we hosted the tremendously successful Tournament of Hope Golf Classic. With
your support, the Tournament raised over $30,000—money that goes directly towards the purchase of equipment and home modifications that assist people to live independently in their own home. On the heels of that great event, we have shifted into high gear to prepare for our upcoming ACCESS 2012 show to be held on September 21st and 22nd at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. ACCESS 2012 is a showcase of products, technologies and services of interest to people with disabilities and those who support them. This year’s show will be headlined with a Friday evening performance by Justin Hines. Justin, a Canadian singer-songwriter, has performed across the globe, throughout Europe, the Middle East, China and North America and is sure to put on a great show. Mark your calendar to make sure you don’t miss this
“ILCWR is a proven leader in Waterloo Region and will work
to ensure that the needs of those we support are front and
centre...”
FALL 2012
FALL 2012
4
ILCWR’s Summer In Review
On Wednesday, June 13th, the Independent Living Centre of Waterloo Region hosted the 15th Annual Tournament of Hope at
Grand Valley Golf and Country Club! This year, the Tournament of Hope raised over $30,000 to help 10 recipients to purchase assistive devices to help them live more independently in their homes and communities. The all-day Tournament includes 18 holes of golf, a silent auction and a celebratory dinner featuring speeches from some of the Tournament’s recipients and their families. We are already looking forward to the 2013 Tournament of Hope—stay tuned for details!
At ILCWR’s Shamrock Project on Wednesday, July 4th, gardeners took to the courtyard to prepare potted plants to add elegance
and liveliness to their balconies for the summer months! Special thanks to Colour Paradise Greenhouses and Garden Centre for donating plants to the event, and to Jim Kinsie, our resident horticulturalist, whose educated recommendations helped create some truly beautiful Balcony Gardens.
No summer at ILCWR would be complete without our annual Family BBQ at Victoria Park!
On Wednesday, July 18th, over 100 members of the ILCWR family including staff, consumers and volunteers gathered for an afternoon of food and fun! This year’s highlights included a Kung-Fu Panda piñata, kids’ games cleverly planned and enthusiastically hosted by Jackie from ILCWR, and one of the best dessert buffets in recent memory! We hope you’ll join us for the ILCWR Family BBQ next year!
The 15th Annual Tournament of Hope
Balcony GardeningBalcony Gardening
ILCWR Family BBQ
FALL 2012
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Sue Morgan is used to looking forward in her life--not backward. But now that she is retiring from the Independent
Living Centre of Waterloo Region’s Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on September 21st, it gives her a golden opportunity to realize just how long ILCWR has been part of her life—and how long she has been part of ILCWR. “I began volunteering in 1998 and it is now 2012,” Sue recalls, realizing, “Wow! That is fourteen years! It honestly does not seem that long.” It has certainly been a distinguished career for Sue. Starting out as a volunteer on the steering committee for ILCWR’s Independent Living Awards, she could tell immediately that it was an organization she wanted to support.
“When you’re a member of ILC[WR], you’re treated by the staff as if you’re family, and you feel like part of the organization,” Sue says. “It’s natural, and it always has been.” After the 1999 Independent Living Awards, Sue continued her involvement with the yearly event, but sought other ways she could support the organization—an agency to which she began to feel an emotional attachment. In 2003 she joined the Board of Directors for what would become a nine-year career, including five years as Board President. In this role, Sue shaped the organization by helping to modernize its policies, and sitting on the hiring committee that brought current Executive Director Bil Smith into his role. She also had a number of
opportunities to travel all over the country attending Independent Living Canada’s Annual General Meetings in Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Richmond and Victoria. No stranger to travel, Sue has also traveled frequently to Toronto during her tenure on the ILCWR Board, serving on the committee that brought the Information and Communication standard into law under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). “I feel like I’ve learned a lot from doing things with ILC[WR],” Sue states, citing the organization’s encouragement of self-advocacy as a motivating factor behind joining groups like the AODA committee. While her tenure on the ILCWR Board has come to a close, Sue has no plans to retire completely. “I’ll always be active, but I’ll never be as involved in an organization as I have been with ILC[WR].” Certainly, the word ‘active’ is an understatement. For those who read the recent article about Sue in the Waterloo Region Record, she is a beacon of energy and enthusiasm for her community. Sue will certainly be missed in the Board Room at ILCWR, but her impacts as an ILCWR volunteer will never disappear from the organization. And incidentally, they will never disappear for Sue either. “I still have my 10-Year Volunteer Pin,” Sue mentions nostalgically. “And I wear it often.”
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot from doing things with ILC[WR]...”
Spotlight On...Sue!
Name: Im Dong-HyunCountry: South KoreaEvent: Archery
Being legally blind may make archery a little more difficult, but it did not prevent Im Dong-Hyun from breaking the world record of 699 points for 72 arrows! And believe it or not, the record he broke was his own! Dong-Hyun has excellent muscle memory, which means he does not need to see the target to shoot accurately—he simply feels his shots.
FALL 2012
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LONDON 2012:
The 2012 Paralympic Games are coming up on August 29th, but there have been plenty of athletes with disabilities to root for in the Olympic Games already! This year, these five extraordinary athletes who self-identify as having disabilities competed in the London
Games, quite literally leveling the playing field and demonstrating that people with disabilities can and do take the world stage alongside their peers without disabilities. This retrospective offers brief profiles of five Olympians from four continents around the world, all of whom held their own against the world’s best athletes.
Name: Oscar PistoriusCountry: South AfricaEvent: 400m Race, 4 x 400m Relay
Nicknamed “Blade Runner,” Oscar Pistorius had both of his legs amputated just before his first birthday. He now runs on prosthetic blades, modeled after the legs of a cheetah. While Pistorius did not capture a medal during the London games, he will participate in London’s Paralympic Games later this month.
An ILCWR Retrospective
Be sure to follow ILCWR on Facebook and Twitter for updates on our local athletes during the 2012 Paralympic Games, starting August 29th!
Oscar Pistorius is not the only athlete to be participating in both London’s Olympic and Paralympic Games this year. Poland’s Natalia Partyka is doing the same in table tennis. Partyka was born without a right hand and forearm, and balances the ball on her elbow before serving. In 2008, Partyka was awarded the Gold Medal in the Beijing Paralympics, and will defend her title in London this year.
FALL 2012
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LONDON 2012:
Name: David SmithCountry: U.S.AEvent: Volleyball
American volleyball player David Smith took to the court this summer without fear—and without the hearing aid he is used to. Smith was born with severe hearing loss, but is vigilant about guarding his area of the court. His teammates also help, abiding by the playfully named, “David Smith Rule.” If Smith goes for the ball—it’s his.
Name: Chris ColwillCountry: U.S.AEvent: Diving
Diver Chris Colwill says that his hearing loss actually helps him on the diving board, giving him an opportunity for uninterrupted focus. On the board, Colwill enjoys a serene silence, which helps his performance—and his nerves. Colwill participated in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and returned this year to represent the United States once again.
An ILCWR Retrospective
AUGUST 2011FALL 2012 ILCWR PROGRAMS AND STAFF
Executive Director - Bil SmithDirector of Business Services - Angela KornDirector of Human Resources - Laura SparksEmployee Health Coordinator - Christina ChurchillFinance Coordinator - Tracy SpencerExecutive Assistant/Community Relations - Andrew PosenReception, Information & Referral - Jim Ducharme
Director of Access and Awareness - Paula SaundersPublic Awareness and Education Coordinator - Andrena Lockley-BrownPeer Resource & Advocacy Coordinator - Dan LajoieDirect Funding Coordinator - Lorene Collingwood
Director of Service - Daryl NancekivellOutreach & In-Home Respite Supervisor - Cindy GuyOutreach Supervisor - Lise HancockOutreach Supervisor - Sandy StaufferProgram Support - Leanne Schade Program Support - Heather Marsh
