LiveWorkPlay News MAY 2010 (Archived)

IN THIS ISSUE…

ENGINES OF SUCCESS: “THE BEST EVER”
VISIONING DAY AND POOL PARTY REPORT
REGISTER: GOLF TOURNAMENT AUGUST 31
GOOBYE ALINE!
YOUTH MEMBERS PREPARE FOR THE BIG APPLE
SHARING OUR STRENGTHS
WE ARE MOVING
REMEMBERING BARBARA BECKETT
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

ENGINES OF SUCCESS: “THE BEST EVER”

Oh, what a night! 250 packed into the Hampton Inn Ottawa Conference Centre on June 24th for a special evening to celebrate people with intellectual disabilities, families, employers, volunteers, and partners who support an inclusive Ottawa community.

Guest speaker Kory Earle (pictured right with Wendy Mitchell), president of People First of Ontario, received a standing ovation for his speech about rights, touching on issues of education, housing, jobs, and relationships. The audience was clearly moved by his ability to relate the civil rights movement to his own life experiences.

New for this year, the supports LiveWorkPlay provides to our youth and adult members was explained through video presentations that preceded recognition ceremonies for each group. The videos were so well received that they were combined into one video that is now being used on the LiveWorkPlay website to help explain the organization’s work.

There were 6 bursaries given to LiveWorkPlay members who have moved out in the past year (known as The On My Own Recognition Awards or TOMORA). These bursaries of $200 are co-sponsored by Wellar Consulting (President Barry Wellar) and Geoff & Bobbie McGowan RE/MAX Real Estate. Congratulations to Rachel Wexler, Michael Hinchcliff, Carl Sanderson, Chris Jones, Cara McGowan, and Heather Wynn!

There were an additional 8 scheduled awards. Emily Menard and Daniel Sexton received Youth Ambassador Awards, while Cooper Gage and Jenny Dobson were honoured with Adult Ambassador Awards. Moira Fuenzalida and Tim Siebrasse received Good Life Awards, while Wendy Mitchell and Sally Burks were recognized as Legacy Award recipients. You can watch the awards ceremony video for the story behind each award.

There was one unscheduled award at Engines of Success 2010. Board members, staff members, and family members conspired with Richard Plummer of the United Way to surprise Keenan Wellar with a Community Builder Award. Keenan was so stunned by the moment that he was truly at a loss for words – but only for a few moments! You can watch the entire presentation online, and also read a story in the Ottawa Citizen.

The interaction between attendees at this year’s Engines of Success was powerful and moving. You can get a feel for the moment with a special video clip available only through this blog!

VISIONING DAY AND POOL PARTY REPORT

Visioning Day was more like Motivation Day this year. The LiveWorkPlay community has a pretty good idea of where it wants to go: full citizenship rights and opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. To help us with ideas of how to get there, LiveWorkPlay proudly brought together a powerful one-two punch with the A-TEAM and Audrey Cole, and all of it made possible with the support of The Law Foundation of Ontario.

The A-TEAM is a group of self-advocates organized with the support of Community Living Durham North. They talk about rights and responsibilities, drawing on their own experiences and the work they have done in supporting others. This includes generating awareness about the right to making life decisions, which was a perfect fit with Audrey Cole.

Audrey is a true civil rights legend in Community Living circles in Canada and around the world. Her presentation included a brief history of developments that resulted in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Audrey made very convincing arguments about the dangers of guardianship as contrasted to supported decision making, which maintains the dignity of the individual while at the same time providing the help that they need.

In the afternoon the pool party and barbecue at the Harris household in Stittsville was once again blessed with gorgeous sunny weather. The A-TEAM came along and joined in the fun. Daniel Harris once again dominated the cannonball contest despite some game competition from Daniel Sexton, Royce Rinnie, and others. Special thanks to volunteer Chris Moffat for hitting the grill well before the crowd arrived, how nice to just walk in and start eating!

Some of the exciting moments of the day were caught on video, please enjoy them!

REGISTER: GOLF TOURNAMENT AUGUST 31

It’s time to get your team together for a favourite LiveWorkPlay tradition, the annual golf tournament at Clublink Greyhawk! Spearheaded once again by Jack Murphy, a goal for this year is to increase event sponsorships. But none of that will matter if we don’t have golfers, so please don’t delay, register today!

The registration is very simple this year, $150 per person and no fussing around! You will receive 18 holes of golf, power cart, and a delicious banquet dinner with a chance to win one of many fabulous prizes. August 31 will come up quickly, so please get your team together and sign up as soon as you can.

GOODBYE ALINE

It was a tearful goodbye as Aline Hagenlocher left LiveWorkPlay headquarters for good in the last week of June. She is planning a bit of a Canada-wide tour before returning home to Germany and the University of Esslingen. Aline completed a very successful placement at LiveWorkPlay, quickly overcoming her inexperience with speaking English and making a meaningful contribution.

YOUTH MEMBERS PREPARE FOR THE BIG APPLE 2010

For the first time ever LiveWorkPlay youth members will travel to New York City for their summer trip! This is the first time youth members have been with LiveWorkPlay to the USA, and also the first time they will by flying, thanks to a terrific group discount from Porter Air.

The group will travel in the second week of July. In the first week they are preparing for the trip by making choices about activities, like deciding together on a Broadway play! In the early voting it looks like In The Heights and Billy Elliot are going to be fighting it out for top choice.

The group of 13 members and 3 staff will be saying at the HI Hostel NYC, located right between Riverside and Central Park. Check out the LiveWorkPlay facebook page to keep up to date on this trip. There is also a event page where you can send your bon voyage wishes!

SHARING OUR STRENGTHS

For 2009-2010 LiveWorkPlay made a serious commitment to get out in the community to learn and share with others more than ever before, and clearly this was achieved in a big way, whether it was hosting public education around safety or the RDSP, or attending and participating in conferences.

It is not just staff members that do this important work. Felice Miranda (pictured with a gift received at Engines of Success) is a volunteer with the United Way Speakers Bureau, and she spoke to hundreds of people last year alone!

The month of June was a busy one for learning and sharing. While Fran Childs and Julie Kingstone were in New York City for the world’s biggest conference on volunteerism, Keenan Wellar and Allison Moores were at the United Way Ottawa Sharing Our Strengths Conference, listening and presenting.

“We had a wonderful response,” says Allison. “It was a small room at Ashbury College that was filled to capacity with interested people from other local agencies asking very insightful questions about topics from volunteer recruitment to social media marketing.”

On June 30 Keenan was a speaker at the Ottawa edition of World Social Media Day, thanks to an invite from Six Degrees Innovations. Keenan reviewed key messages that he has been sharing with the non-profit community about engagement with social media, and some of the dangers of ignoring the benefits of social media marketing.

Rest assured that this trend was more than a one-year experiment. LiveWorkPlay will continue to increase its efforts to bring a message of inclusion and engagement to the Ottawa community and beyond, while at the same time seeking improvement through partnerships and the best practices of others.

WE ARE MOVING

After 13 years of operating out of old school buildings, LiveWorkPlay is moving on to something new, in terms of both the physical space and the concept behind it. Stay tuned for details!

“LiveWorkPlay is not out to fix people with intellectual disabilities. We are here to help them build their personal and professional networks, make plans, and realize their goals. But we do want to fix some of the problems in our community. For example, there is about 75% unemployment for people with intellectual disabilities, and we have to do better than that. LiveWorkPlay is helping to spearhead these types of changes by not only drawing attention to the issues, but helping to find solutions.”

The move will take place sometime in September. Stay tuned for more information about an official launch!

REMEMBERING BARBARA BECKETT

We mourn the passing of Barbara Beckett, who passed away on Friday, July 2, after a battle with cancer. Barb is best known in the LiveWorkPlay community as the mom of LiveWorkPlay member Chris Jones. Barb often attended our New Year’s Eve celebrations along with her mother and brother. Barb also loved the outdoors, a passion that she shared with her husband Arnold Roos. Among the many sports she enjoyed she was a serious hiker and cross country skier.

In this photo Barb is excitedly helping Chris move in to the LiveWorkPlay On Our Own Together Too transition to independent living apartment in 2008. Chris was able to move out on his own in 2010 prior to his mother’s passing.

Barb was one of the most modest individuals on the planet, so what is less known to many is that she was the Ottawa Assistant Director of the Canadian Institute for Health Research with responsibility for national partnerships. Prior to that she was Deputy Director responsible for liaison with the Institute of Infection and Immunity and the Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health. In an earlier life, she was a cell biology researcher.

There will be a celebration of Barb’s life held on July 17 (Saturday from 2-5) at The Palisades Retirement Residence, 480 Metcalfe Street.

YOUR SUPPORT APPRECIATED

If you would like to make a donation to LiveWorkPlay, please click here to donate online or use our new PDF donation form, which now has options for credit card and pre-authorized withdrawals. You may also specify how you would like your donation to be used.

We hope you have enjoyed this 43rd edition of the LiveWorkPlay Blog. If you have received an email about this blog in error and/or you would prefer not to receive future LiveWorkPlay blog messages, simply click here and follow the simple instructions. Click here for the web page that can be used by newcomers who would like to receive LiveWorkPlay Blog email notifications. You can also subscribe using Networked Blogs. Please invite your friends, colleagues, and family members to subscribe. Send story ideas to Keenan Wellar