|
LiveWorkPlay
For People With Intellectual Disabilities
Making A Buzz In The Ottawa Area Since 1995
"SUCCESS THROUGH COMMUNITY"
|
The LiveWorkPlay Quiz
Is this your first encounter with the LiveWorkPlay organization? Or have you been involved for many years? In either case, the quiz below might prove an interesting opportunity to find out more! Give it a try.
Statement: The goal for all LiveWorkPlay participants is to obtain paid employment.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
Although competitive employment is frequently one of the primary goals of LiveWorkPlay participants, this is not the case for everyone, and it is a personal choice. There are many people who make important contributions to society without involvement in paid work, and like any other citizen, people with intellectual disabilities who are not competitively employed can be included and productive members of their community.
Many LiveWorkPlay participants choose to engage in part-time competitive employment, while at the same time involving themselves in a variety of activities such as furthering their learning, giving back to their community as volunteers, and recreational activities. How their time is distributed through these activities is of their own choosing.
Our society places tremendous value on paid work, but the employment sectors available to people with intellectual disabilities, such as the service sector, often require a pace that is not feasible for certain individuals. All people want to be net contributors to their community, and to help ensure that this is possible for all LiveWorkPlay participants, a number of meaningful volunteer and micro-business opportunities have been established, both within the organization's structure, as well as in association with community partners.
LWP was a service provider to the Ontario Disability Support Program (Employment Supports Division) from 2000-2006 and had one of the strongest reputations in that capacity of any agency in the Ottawa community. The ODSP-ES went through a number of changes in 2006 that were in disagreement with the LiveWorkPlay approach, so LWP withdrew from the program and continues to provide employment supports to SMILE participants through an in-house process.
Statement: LiveWorkPlay is headquartered in an office building at 153 Chapel Street.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
LiveWorkPlay is a founding member of a community known as Heartwood House: au coeur de la vie, a unique collaborative environment of non-profit organizations located at 153 Chapel Street. Heartwood House is a registered Canadian charity.
Although LiveWorkPlay has its own lease for certain spaces within the building, we share space, projects, programs, and resources with the other dozen members on a daily basis. For example, together with clients from other organizations, LiveWorkPlay participants are part of the volunteer team that delivers services for the OC Transpo Lost & Found program, which operates from the Heartwood House lobby. To learn more about Heartwood House: au coeur de la vie please visit www.heartwoodhouse.ca.
Statement: LiveWorkPlay was founded and is led by concerned parents.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
The organization was founded by two individuals, Julie Kingstone and Keenan Wellar, who developed LiveWorkPlay as a voluntary organization for three years while pursuing professional careers in other fields. They were so struck by the need for services for people with mild intellectual disabilities that in 1997, with the urging of the many parents, teachers, and other concerned persons they had encountered in the field, changed careers and dedicated themselves to building LiveWorkPlay.
Parents were, and still are, critical players in the growth of the organization. They are consulted as a matter of routine and their input is encouraged and welcomed on a daily basis.
Parents have also made important contributions to fundraising initiatives. This is best reflected through the success of the annual auction event, which would not be possible without the contributions of parents who not only recruit items and invite guests, but often spend a great deal of their own money purchasing items.
The relationship between a person with a intellectual disability and their parents is often as critical as it is paradoxical. The continuous support of parents is required because the individual is not fully independent, and yet, that same support could in itself promote dependence. LiveWorkPlay builds effective partnerships with families to support individuals with intellectual disabilities to develop the skills and experience needed to make more of their own decisions and live with greater independence. The result can be positive and life-changing for all concerned.
Statement: LiveWorkPlay provides part-time programs only.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
The SMILE system of supports operates 5 days per week, 12 months of the year. Not everyone attends the program every day, because schedules are individualized for each participant.
The ACES summer learning program operates 5 days per week for a minimum of one month in July-August. All participants attend Monday through Friday.
In addition to ACES and SMILE, the Journeys program operates 3 hours per week on Friday nights from September to June.
Statement: LiveWorkPlay is not involved in housing.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
LiveWorkPlay has been working on housing since 2001, and has conducted two very successful and innovative projects under the On Our Own Together banner. To find out more, visit the housing website. The LiveWorkPlay community has great ambitions in housing. Stay tuned!
Statement: LiveWorkPlay is an alternative for those who do not want to be involved with Service Coordination.
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
LiveWorkPlay and Service Coordination are two very different organizations with very different purposes.
Service Coordination is a non-profit organization funded by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS). Service Coordination provides information, support, and guidance to children and adults who are diagnosed with a intellectual disability or pervasive intellectual disorders (Autism spectrum).
Upon contacting Service Coordination for the first time, you will reach the Service Access Department, providing information about services for persons with intellectual disabilities in Ottawa. In order to access many of the programs in the Ottawa community, a referral must come directly from a Service Coordination Case Worker.
Participants in the LiveWorkPlay SMILE program, which is partially funded by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services, must be registered with Service Coordination and must meet the following Service Coordination criteria:
Criterion A:
The person is at a subaverage general intellectual functioning level.
Criterion B:
The person has significant limitations in adaptive functioning in at least 2 of the following skill areas: communication, self-care, home living, social/interpersonal skills, use of community resources, self-direction, functional academic skills, work, leisure and health and safety.
Criterion C:
The onset must occur before the age of 18 years.
This information taken from www.scsottawa.on.ca
LWP programs such as Journeys and ACES do not receive any funding support from MCSS. They exist thanks only to fundraising efforts and support from many individuals and partners. As such, Service Coordination does not have any formal involvement with those programs, and in many ways that is unfortunate.
Journeys and ACES are ground-breaking programs that tackle many problems before they become more serious in the years of isolation that usually occur after high school. There is a fundamental flaw in a system that waits until age 21 to address problems that develop mainly in adolescence.
Statement: The LiveWorkPlay governance structure is based on a traditional board model
True or False?
Answer: False ← click and hold here for the answer
Most boards reflect the manner in which an organization has developed and the type of service they provide, and LiveWorkPlay is no exception.
LWP has two cofounders who are also part of the staff team that delivers direct services to clients on a daily basis. As the founders of the organization they were also board members for many years, but as the board structure continued to develop, changes were proposed in 2003 with the idea of developing a board that would be primarily tasked with ends rather than means.
This transition has been formalized through the adoption of a process known as Policy Governance. Responsibility for day to day operations rests with the Executive Staff (CEO Keenan Wellar and President Julie Kingstone) who operate within the policy guidlines established by the board through the policy governance process. The Executive Staff participate as non-voting contributors at meetings of the board.
The Board of Directors is charged with looking forward, gathering information to inform strategic decisions, and adopting and revising policies that will direct future growth.
Along with this shift in purpose, there has also been a shift in board membership. In the early days it was thought important to have a representative board. This is a traditional type of structure where the organization mandates specific types of representatives to sit at the board table. In the case of LiveWorkPlay, this could mean program participants, parents, and volunteers.
The serious problem with representative boards is that they emphasize differing interests rather than cooperative work in service of a shared mission. It also assumes that a single individual will accurately represent the views of an entire constituency, but rarely do organizations have a process in place to make sure that this is the case. More seriously, such boards often ensure conflict of interest issues (for example, by placing parents in the position of making decisions that directly impact their own family, possibly at the expense of another family).
The LiveWorkPlay membership voted in 2004 to change the bylaws so that relatives of program participants and relatives of staff members were no longer eligible for election as board members. This is not a model that can work in any circumstance, but in the case of LiveWorkPlay, the community is very strong and the lines of communication are open and functioning extraordinarily well thanks to both formal and informal processes. In fact, with the adoption of the policy governance model, there are now additional opportunities for input, as the board of directors now has responsibility for organizing their own opportunities to receive direct feedback from LWP stakeholders. This process began at Visioning Day 2005.
Continue learning more about the organization:
|
Or switch to:
|
153 Chapel Street, Suite 300 | Ottawa, Ontario | K1N 1H5 | 613-235-9550
info@liveworkplay.ca | www.liveworkplay.ca
Charitable Registration 89622 2775 RR 0001
|
|
|