Welcome to 2025! Please Enjoy The LiveWorkPlay News (TLN) Top Twelve of 2024!

Last year we prepared a special “12 Days of the Christmas Holidays” edition of The LiveWorkPlay News and shared it on social media. We were running a little behind this year, so we’re shared two stories a day from Boxing Day to New Year’s Eve. We also themed up similar posts into one item each on the countdown.

To start us off, two very popular posts about our semi-quarterly staff gatherings, which usually combine learning and discussions with a bit of team building. Our October 16 and December 17 shares about our team meetings had over 1000 views each on Facebook alone, and we’ve averaged that out and determined that this story comes in at #12 on our end of year countdown!

Coming in at #11 are three different posts celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). This includes celebrating Gabriel’s second work anniversary at Mr. Lucky’s (Rideau Carleton Casino – Future Hard Rock 2025), celebrating the first ever Public Service Neurodiversity Week, and Joëlle Perrier-Olsen and Joshua Gray teaming up to represent LiveWorkPlay at the Community Resource Café as part of “An evening of inclusive education at the Ottawa Catholic School Board.”

Coming in at #10 was our 29th anniverary and annual recognition event Make A Buzz Ottawa, from May 10, 2024. It was a magical evening including a spectacular standing ovation! Relive all the action with photos and live video.

Coming in at #9 on December 18, LiveWorkPlay hosted the Honourable Minister Michael Parsa from Ontario Community and Social Services with special guests from United Way East Ontario, Levy TD Place, and our federal public service employment partnership, to talk about successful employment outcomes for people with intellectual disabilities in the private and public sectors. Minister Parsa asked important questions, including some discussion of challenges to scaling up our employment supports model, and we communicated that the main barrier is the time and resources required to develop relationships with jobseekers and employers so we can bring them together for a match and an employment relationship that devleops into career advancement and long term success. We look forward to further conversations in the new year and we thank Minister Parsa and his team for finding time to speak with us on this visit to Ottawa.

Coming in at #8 the 12th Annual Employment Accessibility Resource Network (EARN) Conference was hosted online by United Way East Ontario on Thursday, November 21 with the topic of Cognitive Accessibility and Neurodiversity in the Workplace. Veronique Di Loreto is a former jobseeker succesfully supported in her employment journey by LiveWorkPlay) who shared firsthand experience and suggestions for employers to help create a more inclusive environment for persons with cognitive disabilities. Jen Broad is a Workplace Inclusion Specialist at LiveWorkPlay, who works primarily with private sector employers.

Coming in at #7 we celebrated National Volunteer Week in April, International Volunteer Day in December, and Internaional Volunteer Managers Day in November, and they were all very popular, averaging out to numeber seven on our countdown! Thank you volunteers!

Coming in at #6 it was an absolutely amazing week on and around International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3. We raised the human rights flag at city hall, we hostead panels, spoke at conferences, attended Government of Canada ceremonies, celebrated Carl’s new job, and more!!!

#5 was a ton of fun! Our Welcome Back Family BBQ on August 28 featured a live broadcast of The LiveWorkPlay News and the story with fabulous photos cracked the top five in the countdown!

Coming in at #4 our quarterly Fdderal Employment Strategy Group (FESG) meetings are incredibly popular, and we can’t pick one over others, so here are some links to learn more about what went on in March, September, and December! Special thanks to our FESG volunteer chair Mary Gusella for providing ongoing guidance as well as hosting the meetings.

Coming in at #3 is one of our oldest traditions, the Festive Family Gathering, combined with one of our newer traditions, a live broadcast of The LiveWorkPlay News (TLN). The photo album and TLN averaged out to number three on the countdown!

We’ve had a lot of employment stories in our top twelve but coming in at #2 we have five popular stories about LiveWorkPlay members enjoying their community, featuring Mickel, Tim, Frances & Martin, Steven, and Terri!

Happy New Year’s Eve and welcome to our final post of 2024 as we finish counting down our Top Twelve of the year! Coming in at #1 we have several different posts about the Ontario Disability Employment Network conference, with LiveWorkPlay receiving the first ever ODEN Disability Employment Service Award for Promising Practice and Innovation! You can learn more here. That’s the end of the 2024 top twelve countdown, we wish you all the best for 2025, and we look forward to making some exciting new memories!