Family Support Program Reaches Out
This spring, Family Support workers [link to Family Supports program under services] organized and facilitated a daylong meeting for Family Support Workers from the South East region of Ontario.
We held the meeting at the Lindsay Inn. Many different agencies were represented at the meeting, from as far away as Community Living Kingston and Community Living North Frontenac.
The morning featured guest speakers Patty Tucker and Erin Campbell from the Kawartha Haliburton Children's Aid Society. Patty and Erin spoke about the 12 Ways Canada program.
Norma Curtis, from the Community Living Kawartha Lakes Early Childhood Training and Development program, told us about some of the training initiatives that she has been able to share with other local agencies.
After lunch, the Illusion's theatre group did a great job of entertaining us. Their show was followed by an update from Community Living Kingston and Community Living Prince Edward regarding the annual Ontario Family Support Worker's conference. The September 18 and 19th, 2008 conference will be held at the Isaiah Tubbs Resort in Prince Edward County.
Our day wrapped up with the group scheduling the next meeting date and time. Since the agencies represented are so spread out geographically, we decided that we would meet in Trenton [because it is a half-way point for us all]. On the agenda for our next meeting: To further organize the upcoming conference.
Thank you to Julie Jones for submitting this news item.
Time to share your poetic side
Ideal-way.ca is hosting a poetry contest for persons with intellectual disabilities who live in Ontario. Poems can be written about any subject and must be submitted by May 30, 2008. There is no cost to enter the Ideal Poetry Contest but many exciting prizes await the winners.
Ideal Way was founded by Robert Pio Hajjar, who was born with Down Syndrome. Rob believes that persons with Down Syndrome, Autism and other disabilities can write poetry just like anybody else.
For details about the contest, visit the Ideal Way website and click on, Ideal Poetry Contest. In this section you can find the contest rules, regulations and officials entry form - as well as information about the contest and prizes.
You can also read more about Ideal Way and the contest in these magazines: Canadian News Wire and Canadian Business.
Thank you to Bruce Rutherford for sharing information about this contest with us.
Thank you to CharityVillage
A big "thank you" to CharityVillage for their ongoing promotion of our health and wellness column, Take Care. Take Care is written by Kristin Duare McKinnon and is published monthly on the Community Living Kawartha Lakes website.
CharityVillage is Canada's supersite for the nonprofit sector, featuring over 3,000 pages of news, training, jobs, information and resources for executives, staffers, donors and volunteers. To see the most recent Take Care column uploaded on CharityVillage, click here.
Kristin's Take Care columns also appear in Kawartha Lakes This Week and are linked regularly to the Fried Social Worker website … you could say word is getting around!
Access to Respite Now Online
Finding information about respite available in the City of Kawartha Lakes - and across Ontario - has just been made easier. Organizations across the province have collaborated to create respiteservices.com - an online directory of agencies and workers offering respite care services in Ontario.
Respite care is a family support service that provides temporary relief from the physical and emotional demands of caring for a family member who has a disability. Respite creates greater opportunities for all family members to live actively and participate in community activities and allows parents/guardians time for themselves.
The new service
The new service is meant to complement respite services already offered across the province - such as the Family Connections Caregiver Registry operated by Community Living Kawartha Lakes. Through respiteservices.com, families can register to access information about respite workers, and workers can apply to be added to the registry. Community Living Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland Family Respite Services and Point in Time (Haliburton) screen workers before their names can appear on the website.
The guiding principles of respiteservices.com are to:
- Develop a comprehensive respite system.
- Develop and maintain a coherent access process for families of children and adults requiring respite options
- Facilitate respite options for the individual that matches their identified needs.
- Work closely to advocate for appropriate service options to meet the needs identified.
In the four counties
In the four counties (City of Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough, Northumberland and Haliburton), the Respite Advisory Team was established in 1999 to recognize and respond to the respite needs in the area. The team consists of seven member agencies that provide respite supports within the counties.
The Respite Advisory Team acts in an advisory capacity to respiteservices.com. The Team developed the information about four county services on the website.
Information available on the website includes:
- Respite options
- How to access respite
- The CHAP program
- Family registration
- Community respite partners
- Funding
- Coming events
- Resources
- Search
- Contact Us
To access information for the four counties area, go to respiteservices.com and, under Select Your Local Area, choose "Haliburton / Kawartha / Peterborough / Northumberland." For a quick overview of subsections, see the menu on the left side (of the page that comes up once you have chosen your geographical area) or click on 'site map.'
Thank you Doris George for providing information about this service.
