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Check out what’s been going on in our world!
Every year on December 3rd people all around the world celebrate the UN International Day of Persons with DisAbilities (IDPD). It aims to increase public awareness, understanding, and acceptance of people with disAbilities, and celebrate the achievements and contributions of people with disAbilities. This year’s theme is Inclusion Matters: access and empowerment for people of all abilities.
We at Astonished! are joining in celebrating this day! Over the past couple of weeks we have had two events to commemorate this special day: an awareness day with popcorn sales, and our first annual Walk and Roll. We have been so fortunate to have the help from a group of Kinesiology students who are in Dr. Brenda Rossow Kimball’s KIN 342 class “Developmental Disability and Well Being.” Part of their class requirements were to partner with an organization to raise awareness of IDPD and of the partner organization. This group, Kaili Gilroy, Chelsea Jones, Kaylee Giesbrecht, and Anne Tomyn, set up a booth in the Riddell Centre at the University of Regina and offered popcorn along with information about IDPD and Astonished! While they were set up in the Riddell Centre, they also accepted donations which they contributed to their Walk and Roll team. In total, this group raised $465 for the Walk and Roll fundraiser and also raised awareness of IDPD and Astonished! Thank you!
Astonished! is also celebrating IDPD by having a party at the Owl on December 3rd from 2:30 until 4:00. If you are interested, please come and share in a toast to IDPD!
Photo: Anne Tomyn, Kaylee Giesbrecht, Kaili Gilroy, and Chelsea Jones
Students in Dr. Brenda Rossow Kimball’s Kinesiology 342 (Developmental Disability and Well Being), at the University of Regina, have the opportunity to put their learning into practice. Student groups partner with community groups to recognize the International Day of Persons With DisAbilities. Seven students: Kyla Bassingthwaite, Hollie Freund, Morgan Holmen, Corrie Van Burgsteden, Veronica Jack, Olga Koberts, and Tasha Gray partnered with Astonished! to create and deliver our first ever Walk and Roll event. We were all able to ‘take part in a sports and leisure opportunity’ which is one of the rights identified in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisAbilities.
It was a steep learning curve for all of us; but with the help of eight fabulous fundraising teams, great staff support, generous donors, and sponsorship from the Queen City Kinsmen Association and The Owl we had a great day on November 29, 2015 and raised 5% ($10,000) of our annual budget. Thank you to everyone who made this event a success. Please check out the photos from our event………
Photo: Between a Walk and a Hard Place team members – Hollie Freund, Morgan Holmen, Corrie Van Burgsteden, and Kyla Bassingthwaite.
Our bi-monthly newsletter is a great way to get all of the news in one place. We hope you enjoy reading the November News. The newsletter is free and can be sent directly to your inbox. To subscribe please click here.
Photo: Kelsey Culbert, Rebekah Lindenbach, Kennen Dorgan, Dr. Vianne Timmons, Pascal Erickson, Kaitlyn Hoar. June 2015, signing of MOU with the University of Regina
The international conference, Claiming Full Citizenship, October 15-17, 2015 in Vancouver, BC, focused on self determination, personalization, and individualized funding. Rhea Boysen (A! Interim Manager) and I (Brenda MacLauchlan, A! Communications Coordinator and Parent) represented Astonished! at the conference and presented one of the sessions.
How do you summarize the experience of an international conference with 550 participants from regions as diverse as South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Finland, the United States of America, and Canada? Rhea and I (Brenda) are each writing blog posts about this conference that will give you some ‘snap shots’ of our experience.
The stated learning objectives were:
Snap shot 1-The conference took place in a large, busy, downtown hotel in Vancouver. I was rather overwhelmed by the crowds. Within fifteen minutes of arriving at the conference I was engaged in a conversation with June Arthy and Bronwyn Moloney from Queenland Australia. They came to the conference to tell people their story about people labelled ‘Too Challenging’ or ‘Too Complex’ regaining their place in community. June (I guessed she was in her sixth decade) told me she had lived almost all of her life in an institution for people with intellectual disAbilities. She was delighted to tell me, with the support of a local not-for profit, she has been living in her own home for the last decade. I was inspired and no longer overwhelmed.
Snap shot 2 –The big attraction for me in attending this conference was to learn more about how Individualized Funding is managed in other places. Individualized Funding refers to direct funding to people with disAbilities so they can purchase services according to their needs. As a parent and as a member of Astonished! I have known firsthand the challenges of Individualized Funding in Saskatchewan. I hope we might learn from others like: Manitoba’s In the Company of Friends, a single window to access services, rather than being separated into service categories by diagnosis as we are in Saskatchewan; and Ontario’s Families for a Secure Future and the Ontario Independent Facilitation Network ,independent facilitators that assist individuals with the Individualized Funding process.
Snap shot 3 – This was the first ever international conference that brought together people living with disAbilities and people living with dementia, and families, professional support people, and academics from both of these communities. At first I wondered about the wisdom of putting together disAbility and dementia but I found it broadened the focus and helped us to be more aware of service gaps and attitudinal challenges.
Astonished! Inc has a full time position for a Program Coordinator, effective January 4, 2016
The Astonished! Program Coordinator is responsible for the development, promotion, coordination, implementation and evaluation of programs for Core Members and for the recruitment and management of program staff, placements students, and volunteers. The Program Coordinator works with and reports to the Executive Director.
Salary range $53,000 – $60,050
Applications must be received by November 30, 2015
Please click here to see a complete job description and application details.
Ella McIntyre was our first employee and has been the Astonished! Program Coordinator for three plus years. It is with sadness we announce that Ella will be moving to the west coast in February 2016. It has been wonderful to have Ella help us grow the Astonished! base, and expand and deepen individual and community relationships, while increasing the confidence and capacities of Astonished! We would not be where we are without the gifts she has offered us over the past three years. THANK YOU ELLA!
Ruth Blaser, Past Chair of Astonished! wrote this about Ella: Ella has a knack for creating cool relationships and innovative programming with and for A! Core Members and Student Researchers with lots of pop culture thrown in. Ella always brings her own unique creative flair to any task, be it designing literacy curriculum, introducing technology to A! Student Researchers, doing the graphic design for individual’s PATHs, or collaborating on innovative events like the A! Dance Project.
In her resignation letter to the Board Ella wrote: This job has been one in a million and I could not have asked for a better and more rewarding experience. The caring and support from the Astonished community is incredible, unparalleled, and an honour to have been a part of. I will always celebrate my time with Astonished and will keep in touch and continue to follow the amazing and meaningful work that is being done. THANK YOU
Ella will be with us until January 15, 2016. Then, Ella and her husband, Ben Matheson, and their dog Bea will be moving to New Westminister, BC. Ben is taking his chiropractic skills to a medical clinic in Surrey, BC. He is also taking his bar tending skills which will be missed at many A! fundraising events.
Ella we wish you a world of adventure, a community of friends, and meaningful work. Remember wherever you go, our love goes with you.
We work in inclusive community to address barriers facing young adults with complex physical disAbilities (core members) by creating opportunities for teaching and learning, social, recreational and cultural engagement, and for employment and housing.
The Big Sky Centre for Learning and Being Astonished Inc.
University of Regina
3737 Wascana Parkway
Regina, SK S4S 0A2
Phone:
Bonnie Cummings-Vickaryous, Executive Director, 306-737-9560
E-mail:
BCV@beingastonished.com