LiveWorkPlay News JUNE 2010 (Archived)

IN THIS ISSUE…

VISIONING, POOL PARTY, ENGINES OF SUCCESS
COMMUNITY LIVING CONFERENCE REPORT
BOARD MEMBER FOLLOWS HEART, JOINS FORCE
LIVING THE DREAM: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
FRIDAY NIGHT FUN WRAPS UP FOR 2010
PEOPLE FIRST JOURNEY TO SELF-DISCOVERY
GOLF TOURNAMENT, WELCOME BACK FEAST
SHARING OUR STRENGTHS
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

VISIONING, PARTY, ENGINES OF SUCCESS

Before gearing down just a little bit for the summer, June is always one of the busiest months of the year at LiveWorkPlay with two important events. Register now for the combined Visioning Day and Pool Party BBQ on Sunday, June 13. The date was moved from Saturday to Sunday to accommodate a special appearance from the A-TEAM, who are joining us all the way from Port Perry with the support of Community Living Durham North.

The second special guest of the day is Audrey Cole, one of Canada’s most esteemed disability rights activists, with an incredible 50 years of experience with the Canadian Association for Community Living, and one of three mothers featured in the book Accidental Activists by Melanie Panitch.

Following presentations and discussions with Audrey and the A-TEAM, it will be off to the Harris household for the annual summer blast-off barbecue and pool party!

Next up is one of the most popular annual LiveWorkPlay celebrations on Thursday, June 24 when the Engines of Success Recognition Banquet roars down the track at the Hampton Inn Ottawa Conference Centre.

The evening will include TOMORA presentations and other awards for youth and adult members, plus highlight videos, and our famous photo memories with musical score. Engines of Success provides a unique opportunity to recognize key supporters, including families and volunteers, as well as partners in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Our guest speaker will be Kory Earle, President of People First of Ontario, as well as People First of Lanark County, for whom Kory recently accepted the James Montgomerie Community Award. Don’t delay register today and receive an earlybird discount!

COMMUNITY LIVING CONFERENCE REPORT

The LiveWorkPlay staff trio of Fran Childs, Julie Kingstone, and Keenan Wellar spent an eventful four days at the Community Living Ontario 57th Annual Conference and AGM. Highlights included presentations by Al Condeluci, Alvin Law, and Dick Sobsey, and the opening night previews of the Short Film Festival that included The Date, created by LiveWorkPlay members!

Condeluci’s full day pre-conference session sent a powerful message about social capital. His direct challenge is to stop focusing resources on “fixing” people with disabilities through segregation and congregation, and instead connect them to the community with real homes, jobs, and relationships. Motivational speaker Alvin Law expressed with passion his encouragement that people with disabilities not allow others to limit how they think of themselves or what they will become. Dick Sobsey pointed out painful and disturbing trends in the medical system that are attacking the value of people with disabilities and putting them in danger.

The LiveWorkPlay trio contributed to the conference with a presentation about social change, volunteerism, and social media marketing that drew a large audience and generated lots of positive buzz.

LiveWorkPlay also brought forward a resolution at the Annual General Meeting for the promotion of legal capacity and supported decision-making for people with intellectual disabilities. After many interesting questions and comments the resolution was adopted with the support of the vast majority of voting representatives from the federation’s 117 affiliate members. Special thanks to Noreene Adam and Theresa Somerton for moving and seconding approval of the resolution.

BOARD MEMBER FOLLOWS HEART

When you are a LiveWorkPlay board member you encourage other people to follow their dreams. And sometimes you take your own advice – like board member Dan Patton who decided that the age of 40 was about the right time for him to follow his dream of being an Ottawa Police officer! Dan was accepted to the academy and is almost finished his training! He looks great on a police motorcycle, click here to see for yourself!

LIVING THE DREAM: ONE YEAR CELEBRATION

Every young adult dreams about the day they will move to a home of their own. But unfortunately we know for people with intellectual disabilities it doesn’t always come true very quickly, and sometimes the place they end up living is a far cry from what they really want.

Over the past three years many LiveWorkPlay members have moved to homes in the community such as condominium apartments, and for Moira Fuenzalida and Linda Gray, May 7 was time to celebrate with friends to mark one year of apartment living!

LiveWorkPlay members who moved out in 2009-2010 will be celebrating the moment with the TOMORA presentations at Engines of Success 2010. They get applause, but thanks to sponsors Geoff & Bobbie McGowan RE/MAX Realty and Wellar Consulting, they also get a nice cheque to help launch them on their way!

FRIDAY NIGHT FUN WRAPS UP FOR 2010

LiveWorkPlay youth services include support to get out and enjoy Friday nights in Ottawa with peers, and to experience overnight travel in the summer.

Friday night outings have now wrapped up for the year, but what a year it was – travelling by bus here, there, and everywhere in the Ottawa community. In recent weeks this included the Tulip Festival and Fun Junction.

Many LiveWorkPlay youth members are getting ready for their big trip to New York City, which departs in the second week of July. They will spend three days planning many of the details of their trip before, and then take flight for three nights in the big apple!

PEOPLE FIRST JOURNEY TO SELF-DISCOVERY

People First Peterborough Chapter hosted the 2nd Annual Self Advocate Conference on May 13. The LiveWorkPlay delegation was comprised of youth members Emily Menard and Daniel Sexton, who were joined by adult members Caroline Matte and John Cholmondeley. CEO Keenan Wellar was along in a support role.

The event was all about networking, and the local hosts which included People First as well as Community Living Peterborough representatives did a great job making that happen. In fact, connections were also made before and after the conference, with informal networking dinners that developed new relationships and reinforced prior connections.

Conference topics for the day including techniques for setting and realizing personal goals, building social capital by connecting online, and sexuality. Although Emily, Daniel, Caroline and John spent most of the morning listening and observing, they quickly warmed up to their friendly surroundings, to the extent that by the afternoon they were ready to take some turns at the microphone! You can watch a short video of their contributions.

GOLF TOURNAMENT, WELCOME BACK FEAST

This year’s LiveWorkPlay golf tournament will be Tuesday, August 31 at ClubLink GreyHawk. Registration is now available for what has become our second most important annual fundraiser! Registration has been made easier this year for those who would like to sign up as an individual or a team of less than four. Work is already well underway developing sponsors and prizes!

Please mark your calendars for the first ever Welcome Back Family Feast on Thursday, September 2. This even replaces the former Orientation and Annual General Meeting with one merged event that includes a full sit-down meal!

“We want all of our members to take an active role in the organization,” says Board Chair Wendy Mitchell. “The December and March family feast events of 2009-2010 were extremely popular, so it only makes sense to keep the momentum going by starting the year off breaking bread together. We’ll work hard to make AGM information accessible to all.”

The Welcome Back Family Feast will also serve as an orientation, summarizing changes and looking ahead to challenges and opportunities in 2010-2011. Ideally all members and their family or other key supporters will be in attendance. Those unable to attend will be asked to arrange for a meeting at the LiveWorkPlay office to catch up on the important information they will have missed.

SHARING OUR STRENGTHS

Thanks to new recruitment, orientation, engagement and monitoring strategies implemented in the summer of 2009, LiveWorkPlay has experienced a 300 per cent increase in volunteers. Not only are the numbers up, but so is the level of personal engagement.

LiveWorkPlay will share this story as one of more than forty workshops that have been organized for this year’s United Way Ottawa Sharing Our Strengths community Conference on June 29 at Ashbury College.

The goal of the LiveWorkPlay workshop is to share the strategies, policies and practices that were followed, past and present learnings, and future goals. Changes and challenges in the voluntary sector will be discussed, with attention paid to the application of social marketing and social media for attracting and engaging a new generation of volunteers and members. The presentation will be given by Allison Moores and Keenan Wellar.

If you’ve been thinking LiveWorkPlay participation in workshops, conferences, and presentations is up this year, you’d be right! Whether it is observing to learn about new developments and best practices, contributing as panelists, or presenting as speakers, LiveWorkPlay is making an effort to be there. We can’t change the world without being a part of it!

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 42nd 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