Congratulating Emily Menard and Welch LLP and Dave Demers/Grant Webb and The WORKS Gourmet Burger Bistro

The 2017 edition of the annual Celebration of People awards hosted by Citizen Advocacy of Ottawa were filled with direct and indirect connections to our 22 year history. This included member Emily Menard receiving the Employee Award thanks to a nomination from colleagues Welch LLP, and Grant Webb accepting the Employer Award for The Works Barrhaven, The Works Orleans, The Works Kanata, and The Works Hunt Club with business partner Dave Demers.

LiveWorkPlay helped match Emily to her job at Welch, and The Works was one of the first restaurants and the first franchise to develop a comprehensive employment partnership!

LiveWorkPlay co-leader Keenan Wellar was honoured to represent the Ottawa Developmental Services Network (ODSN) to present the Volunteer Opportunities Award to the CHEO-OCTC Me to We Club.

Keenan was filling in for Minister of Sport and Disability Kent Hehr, who had to leave shortly after his speech, due to a busy schedule that includes many events in celebration of International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3.

During his acceptance speech Grant made sure to let the audience know about the Cash Mob celebration on December 3 at the Ogilvie Road Pita Pit location. Owner Andrew Scott was in attendance and is looking forward to seeing everyone at 1pm on Sunday! Manager of Employer Partnerships Jen Soucy and board member Mathew Shipley were busy representing the Employment Task Force, keeping an eye out for potential new partners! Congratulations to all the organizers and especially the many volunteers that made this evening possible.

Congratulations also to Raphael Amato, recognized with an Advocacy Award. Raphael may not be well known to the current day LiveWorkPlay membership, but as we were entering the millennium he was an essential contributor to the future success of LiveWorkPlay.

At the time he was the community leader at l’Arche Ottawa, and he successfully negotiated some challenging barriers to making it possible for LiveWorkPlay to receive annualized funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Without his support, it is unlikely that we could have grown our contribution to the Ottawa community to what it is today!