Traci's Journal - Feb 18, 2009
Hello everyone,
Meeting with the Minister of HRSDC
On January 22, we were invited to meet with the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. Rick Goodfellow, IL Canada’s National Chairperson, Mike Martin, Director of Operations and I, visited with the Minister and some of her staff in her office.
The Minister was extremely jovial because she was able to stop using her dark glasses. Normally, when you see pictures of her she is wearing dark glasses. I remember her telling us that her driver’s license was reinstated at our UN Day event in December. Diane Finley has Graves Disease – it is a thyroid disorder and the cause is still unknown.
Together we discussed the new Registered Disability Savings Plan Program (RDSP), which she described as “generous” and we agreed. We briefly chatted about the ratification of the UN Convention and it sounds like the Government is heading in that direction. The Minister appeared to be very upbeat and excited about her disability portfolio and naturally we always remind politicians that the Independent Living Network would love the opportunity and resources to expand our services and network in under-served areas in Canada.
Overall the meeting went very well and it was nice to engage in a dialogue with her.
Last year we were fortunate to receive generous funding for our healthy eating project – “Food for Thought”. With funding provided by the Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Contribution Program – Centre for Health Promotion, Public Health Agency of Canada, we have been creating new accessible tools on healthy eating based on Canada’s (new) Food Guide and piloting various program models in 8 locations. We also exploring how food can also be used a vehicle to connect people, encourage physical activity and reduce isolation.
Research is an important part of this initiative as it grounds our understanding of issues related to persons with disabilities and food, and allows us to connect with the community through Participatory Action Research. Through our research we are identifying barriers and solutions related to healthy eating. We have been tracking a select group of individuals with disabilities over the past year to gather feedback on their participation in the pilot activities. At the beginning of the project the 8 pilot sites conducted focus groups in order to establish a baseline of information regarding eating and persons with disabilities. We were also seeking information on isolation and the possibility of connecting eating to isolation.
We are currently gathering information from the pilot participants to seek information on what has changed (if anything) on healthy eating and using food as a vehicle to reduce isolation. If you are interested, you can read the initial research report.
The program funders offered us an opportunity to expand the impact of work from January to March 2009. IL Canada is now providing support and financial resources to enable all of the non-pilot IL Centres to provide healthy eating/lifestyle workshops for persons with disabilities across Canada. This will allow us to educate hundreds more on healthy eating, the new food guide and health promotion.
Other activities in this impact expansion include the development and distribution of promo/educational tools to the participants and others. We just ordered two products that I think are not only informative but really useful as well.
One is a white board with marker for a wall and it contains cooking tips for persons with disabilities, has space for developing recipes and contains information on how to access Canada’s Food Guide and IL Canada resources.
The other promo item is a very large magnet (8 ½ x 13) that can be used on a fridge or wall. It is a perpetual calendar with tips to healthy eating on a budget, magnetic words that can be cut out and used on the calendar for reminders and again information on how to access Canada’s Food Guide and other resources. Some examples of the words for the calendar are:
*library books due
*book transportation
*attendant services
*pay bills
*visit IL Centre
*grocery shopping
*farmer’s market open
*plan meals for week
*volunteer day
Both are special orders because we need larger products with larger print. As soon as the products are ready IL Canada will ship them out to IL Centres for distribution.
We are now developing a proposal for the next phase of the initiative. If anyone has questions about the project please contact the Project Manager, Christine Malone. Call 613-563-2581 x 13 or email
The national Board of Directors will be meeting in Calgary in May and our main goal is to develop a new strategic plan for IL Canada. Mike Martin, IL Canada’s Director of Operations will be leading the planning. He is currently working with a board committee to consult with them on the development of the strategic plan.
The board is also really interested in developing a plan to become a green office. When we are together face-to-face we are going to review the 2004 - 5 year plan - Case for Support. Many of the activities were completed and some we still need to accomplish. We will integrate these activities in our new strategic plan. After the face-to-face meeting we will send out a draft for the network of IL Centres for comments and suggestions. The final plan will be presented to the network at the fall annual general meeting and we will move forward together in sync and with a vision.
Resume Builder – We have a new accessible resume builder tool on our VILRC that will help individuals to write, format and print their own resumes. You can find it at http://www.vilrc.ca/web/guest/resumes Hopefully, this is a tool that you or the people you support can use. Please let us know if you experience any difficulties with it.
Upcoming Events – As mentioned above we have a national Board meeting in Calgary in May and our Annual General Meeting will take place the third weekend of October in Toronto (if we get enough accessible rooms). I am currently seeking funding for an Executive Directors’ Forum in June. We are requesting funding for a train-the-trainer event in the fall to build the skills and capacity of IL Centre staff to conduct community workshops for stakeholders (other disability related organizations, group homes, supported living units, recreation providers, health agencies, and other service providers) on healthy eating, healthy lifestyles and general health promotion for persons with disabilities. As usual, we will also host our Ottawa UN Day event.
Meeting with the Minister of HRSDC
On January 22, we were invited to meet with the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. Rick Goodfellow, IL Canada’s National Chairperson, Mike Martin, Director of Operations and I, visited with the Minister and some of her staff in her office.
The Minister was extremely jovial because she was able to stop using her dark glasses. Normally, when you see pictures of her she is wearing dark glasses. I remember her telling us that her driver’s license was reinstated at our UN Day event in December. Diane Finley has Graves Disease – it is a thyroid disorder and the cause is still unknown.
Together we discussed the new Registered Disability Savings Plan Program (RDSP), which she described as “generous” and we agreed. We briefly chatted about the ratification of the UN Convention and it sounds like the Government is heading in that direction. The Minister appeared to be very upbeat and excited about her disability portfolio and naturally we always remind politicians that the Independent Living Network would love the opportunity and resources to expand our services and network in under-served areas in Canada.
Overall the meeting went very well and it was nice to engage in a dialogue with her.
Public Health Agency of Canada
Last year we were fortunate to receive generous funding for our healthy eating project – “Food for Thought”. With funding provided by the Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Contribution Program – Centre for Health Promotion, Public Health Agency of Canada, we have been creating new accessible tools on healthy eating based on Canada’s (new) Food Guide and piloting various program models in 8 locations. We also exploring how food can also be used a vehicle to connect people, encourage physical activity and reduce isolation.
Research is an important part of this initiative as it grounds our understanding of issues related to persons with disabilities and food, and allows us to connect with the community through Participatory Action Research. Through our research we are identifying barriers and solutions related to healthy eating. We have been tracking a select group of individuals with disabilities over the past year to gather feedback on their participation in the pilot activities. At the beginning of the project the 8 pilot sites conducted focus groups in order to establish a baseline of information regarding eating and persons with disabilities. We were also seeking information on isolation and the possibility of connecting eating to isolation.
We are currently gathering information from the pilot participants to seek information on what has changed (if anything) on healthy eating and using food as a vehicle to reduce isolation. If you are interested, you can read the initial research report.
The program funders offered us an opportunity to expand the impact of work from January to March 2009. IL Canada is now providing support and financial resources to enable all of the non-pilot IL Centres to provide healthy eating/lifestyle workshops for persons with disabilities across Canada. This will allow us to educate hundreds more on healthy eating, the new food guide and health promotion.
Other activities in this impact expansion include the development and distribution of promo/educational tools to the participants and others. We just ordered two products that I think are not only informative but really useful as well.
One is a white board with marker for a wall and it contains cooking tips for persons with disabilities, has space for developing recipes and contains information on how to access Canada’s Food Guide and IL Canada resources.
The other promo item is a very large magnet (8 ½ x 13) that can be used on a fridge or wall. It is a perpetual calendar with tips to healthy eating on a budget, magnetic words that can be cut out and used on the calendar for reminders and again information on how to access Canada’s Food Guide and other resources. Some examples of the words for the calendar are:
*library books due
*book transportation
*attendant services
*pay bills
*visit IL Centre
*grocery shopping
*farmer’s market open
*plan meals for week
*volunteer day
Both are special orders because we need larger products with larger print. As soon as the products are ready IL Canada will ship them out to IL Centres for distribution.
We are now developing a proposal for the next phase of the initiative. If anyone has questions about the project please contact the Project Manager, Christine Malone. Call 613-563-2581 x 13 or email
A New National Strategic Plan
The national Board of Directors will be meeting in Calgary in May and our main goal is to develop a new strategic plan for IL Canada. Mike Martin, IL Canada’s Director of Operations will be leading the planning. He is currently working with a board committee to consult with them on the development of the strategic plan.
The board is also really interested in developing a plan to become a green office. When we are together face-to-face we are going to review the 2004 - 5 year plan - Case for Support. Many of the activities were completed and some we still need to accomplish. We will integrate these activities in our new strategic plan. After the face-to-face meeting we will send out a draft for the network of IL Centres for comments and suggestions. The final plan will be presented to the network at the fall annual general meeting and we will move forward together in sync and with a vision.
Resume Builder – We have a new accessible resume builder tool on our VILRC that will help individuals to write, format and print their own resumes. You can find it at http://www.vilrc.ca/web/guest/resumes Hopefully, this is a tool that you or the people you support can use. Please let us know if you experience any difficulties with it.
Upcoming Events – As mentioned above we have a national Board meeting in Calgary in May and our Annual General Meeting will take place the third weekend of October in Toronto (if we get enough accessible rooms). I am currently seeking funding for an Executive Directors’ Forum in June. We are requesting funding for a train-the-trainer event in the fall to build the skills and capacity of IL Centre staff to conduct community workshops for stakeholders (other disability related organizations, group homes, supported living units, recreation providers, health agencies, and other service providers) on healthy eating, healthy lifestyles and general health promotion for persons with disabilities. As usual, we will also host our Ottawa UN Day event.
