CRSPCC Meeting Wednesday January 10, 2018 Location: Prospect Human Services MINUTES In Attendance: Erin Waite (Chair), Norma Wisbling, Helen de Klerk, Alexi Davis, Elaine Yost, Larry Fedun, Debbie Johnston, Pam Grotkowski, Nilima Sonpal-Valias, Andrea Hesse, Kevin Menin, Ed Quiring, Mylaine Tsaprailis, Aurea Centeno, Aaron Semkuley, Dianne Jackson, Pam McGladdery, Jayne Myatt, Garth Reesor, John Eng, Denise Young, J.S Ryu, Bruce Skorobohach (Secretary) 1.0 Welcome and Introductions – Council Chair, Erin Waite called the meeting to order at 9:37am and welcomed everyone. Introductions were made. 2.0 Changes or Additions to the Agenda: The agenda was accepted with the addition Item 6.4 – Prospect Update. Approval of Minutes from November 8, 2017 Meeting: MOTION by Aaron Semkuley and SECONDED by Helen de Klerk, that the Minutes of the November 8, 2017 Council meeting be approved as circulated. CARRIED. 3.0 Developing a Common Agenda – see attached report. 4.0 Government Policy Updates: 4.1 Contract Update: To discuss Contracts, a Special Meeting will be held at Prospect on Wednesday February 14, 2018 starting at 9:30am. This meeting will be specifically of value for those organizations that signed one-year agreements, but will include a discussion of interest to all agencies with PDD contracts. Allan Govender and Alex Hillyard will be invited to attend. Action: Members asked to provide any agenda items to Erin. Action: Erin will then forward a notice and the agenda. 4.2 Bill 17 – Labour Code – new employment standards in place – impact? - The Deputy Ministers of Children's Services and Community and Social Services have met with the DM of Labour to discuss impacts to service providers of Bill 17 – the Fair and Family-friendly Workplaces Act. ACDS as well as ALIGN, individual organizations and many regional Service Provider Councils have been identifying impacts. Andrea Hesse has also been meeting with other umbrella organizations to ensure ACDS is giving consistent messaging. Some of this may be able to be addressed through regulations such as exemptions or increased options related to overtime and some are funding issues. There appears to be understanding by senior officials of the impacts, however, please pass on any information you are collecting regionally as ACDS will be continuing to bring this forward. Since employer information (i.e. Tool kits, webinars, fact sheets) have been slow to be made available from Alberta Labour and some conflicting information has been provided in information sessions and/or phone inquiries there has been some challenges with quantifying impacts in an expedient way. Action: Andrea requested that
any regional information being collected is shared with ACDS to ensure consistent messaging and expedite information gathering. 5.0 Storybank Project Update - Erin Waite – see attached, “Storybank Guidelines”. An additional three stories have been submitted. 6.0 Committee and Other Updates: 6.1 Supportive Living Accommodation Standards Review – no updates at this time. 6.2 ADWA – Denise Young – see report on Page 3 6.3 ACDS – Andrea Hesse - ACDS has been reviewing their structures, committees and staffing as part of operational planning to support the new Strategic Framework as well as feedback from the AGM and Leadership Event in October. The following changes are currently planned to increase opportunities for membership engagement and increase capacity to advance strategic priorities: • Scheduling Members Meetings in each region 1-2 times annually as a mechanism for direct engagement with our membership on issues of relevance for public and systems advocacy as well as strengthen and increase the credibility of our "collective voice". • Establishment of a Provincial Government Relations Committee with representation from regional Service Provider Councils to coordinate government relations activities, priorities and messaging between ACDS and regional councils. • Replacement of the Provincial Workforce Council with a Provincial Human Resource Coordinating Committee with regional representation. The Committee will consult and coordinate activity on human resource/workforce initiatives and establish working committees as needed. Andrea introduced Nilima Sonpal-Valias as the ACDS Director of Strategic Initiatives and Stakeholder Engagement. Neil Delorme has been hired as an Energy Efficiency Coordinator in a temporary role until March 2019 6.4 Prospect Update – Alexi Davis - After nine years of leading Prospect, CEO Melanie Mitra left the organization at the end of November 2017. Prospect is currently searching for a new CEO. In the interim, the duties and responsibilities of the CEO will be handled by an executive team including Alexi and others. 6.5 SODA – vTV (Vulcan Television) - Kevin Menin – introduced the specialized SODA (Speaking Out for the Disabled Actively) vTV channel. The channel has a number of videos that SODA has produced as well as the annual dinner theater that Wheat Country and SODA put on for the community. Kevin asked if any other organizations would like to put some of their content on this channel. If you have any questions please contact Kevin at kmenin@wcsns.ca. See report on Page 4. 7.0 Adjournment MOTION to adjourn at 11:30am: Elaine Yost SECONDED: John Eng - CARRIED
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ADWA REPORT January 2018 – Current/Recent Happenings at ADWA
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ADWA's certification pilot has begun! We have asked all those ADWA members who have expressed an interest in being part of the pilot over the last few years to talk to their supervisor about supporting their certification process and then go to the Members Only section of our website and complete the online Certification Application Form. Supervisor/Empl oyer support is a key piece of our process with the supervisor reference checklist being an important piece of evidence that the candidate meets our core competency standards as a community disability worker. The supervisor also helps the candidate interpret the standards and relate them to their daily activities as a disability worker . In this way, supervisors support reflective practice and may identify areas for improvement and resources to help them improve. These aspects of supervisor involvement in the certification process represent best practices for the supervisor role and should be activities that they already engage in. There is still room in the pilot for a few more disability workers, please encourage your staff to take advantage of the opportunity to get certified at no additional cost beyond their ADWA membership ($120/yr paid yearly or as $10/mo) during the pilot by completing an online Certification Application.
• We have long felt that we could do a better and more personalized job of doing member support than what is available through our phone line and email, E-Bulletins, website, Community of Practice, Facebook and Twitter feeds. Many of ADWA's members are clustered at about 20 organizations across Alberta. We are in the process of developing an "ADWA Champions" program that would rely on volunteer members at key agencies. They would receive support by our ADWA staff with facts and updates so that they can keep ADWA members and others informed through notes in agency newsletters or staff meetings. They would answer common questions and could also troubleshoot any access problems by reporting them to ADWA staff. Once we get the details of this plan worked out, we will be contacting service provider councils and agencies to find out who is interested in having a champion or, alternatively , updates for their staff newsletter.
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Creation of a specialized SODA (Speaking Out for the Disabled Actively) channel, promoting self advocacy and disability awareness for the on-line television network Vulcan Television (vTV) SODA- vTV Channel What is vTV? http://www.vulcantv.ca vTV- (Vulcan Television) is the only rural community broadcast television production society in the world. Their primary purpose is to provide the members of a community with an opportunity to participate in television production. We are planning the launch of the SODA Channel, offering an invaluable opportunity to the community and to SODA; the chance to produce and edit their own content for Vulcan’s on-line television station vTV. The county residents have used vTV to build a community culture that fosters local commerce, which opens the door to world markets, services the need for better communication, provides a foundation for best-in-class online education, and presents local news, culture and entertainment for all. The creation of vTV has greatly impacted the way we communicate throughout the county and the creation of a SODA channel can take advantage of the momentum of so many businesses and organizations that have expressed interest in being a part of this. Get Involved: Members of SODA have brought forward the idea of the channel as they felt it was a way to demonstrate their strengths to the community. It not only allows them to connect to the town but to give back to it- a main mission of Wheat County Special Needs. It is not only about acceptance of individuals but about the empowerment of their stature in society. Through simple videos, whether professionally produced and edited or filmed on iPhones, both the members and consumers will have the ability to remind the community of the innate equality of all. The contributions made by this group to the culture of our communities is about teaching tolerance and understanding. Depression and loneliness is prevalent among persons with disabilities and making a positive network is our main priority. Allowing the ability to share, or learn from others is an invaluable opportunity that we are trying to provide. Quality of production is not the focus, creating a network for safe and motivational communication is. How to use the platform: Presently all videos are requested to be submitted to gail@vulcantv.ca for approval. Once approved they will be uploaded to the SODA Channel. It’s that simple. There is NO cost to upload, and NO cost for members to use this service. Our future goal is to create a vTV app that can be used on all devices making it easier to upload and share videos to the SODA channel. We at VBIT believe that the vTV SODA channel has the ability to have a positive impact beyond an individual community or municipality.
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