Helping to ensure that all live in a state of dignity, share in all elements of living in the community and have the opportunity to participate effectively.
What We Do
We support people in Ontario's largest county, which has a population of approximately 100,000 people. Of these, 60,000 live along Highway 17 corridor while the remainder live throughout our rural areas. We are two and a half hours Northwest of Ottawa where many regional services are located. Often referred to as "the near North", the County finds itself coping with being considered near enough to the major center of Ottawa but faced with great distances to access the many services found there.
The Pembroke Association provides supports and services through the efforts of staff and volunteers and is a resource to 180 people, mostly adults, and their families.
Community Respite Supports provide relief for primary care givers and the people they support. Respite provides an excellent opportunity for individuals to increase their participation in the community, to develop supportive community relationships, to develop skills and abilities and to gain greater independence.
Community Living Supports (or residential supports) are provided within two main settings:
1. Individual living supports are provided to help people live as independently as possible in their own home or apartment; and
2. Associate living supports are provided to individuals through host family situations or companionship arrangements.
Community Participation Supports provide supports to assist people acquire gainful employment; assist people to participate in the community and to develop skills in accessing the community through volunteerism, leisure and recreation activities, and participation in social groups and events; offers in-home supports and other out-reach services to help people acquire the skills and assistance they need to be active and successful in their neighbourhood and community; and maintains a life skills programs for a small specific group of adults.
Summer Supports provide funding and support for children and adults to participate in inclusive community activities and camps and other vacation activities of their choosing.
Resource Material And Public Education And Relations
The Association maintains a library of newsletters, magazines, journals, books and video pertaining to community living and disabilities. We produce the InTouch, our own newsletter and are on the World Wide Web. We work closely with other agencies, industry and business in our community and with the Ontario and Canadian Associations for Community Living and their members.
How We Contribute to Our Community
Association for Community Living support people with disabilities and communities to learn together, value each other and promote respect, tolerance and well-being.
We participate in the social movement that has supported people with disabilities and their families to aspire to citizenship. We are one of many organizations who come together under the umbrella of the Ontario and Canadian Associations to work in collaboration within their communities, the province and the country.
Each organization is locally based and accountable. While there are many similarities, there are features that distinguish our organizations and communities from each other. The Pembroke Association, like the other organizations, is committed to working in partnerships to attain goals.
We believe our greatest accomplishments have been the closure of the majority of our sheltered programs replaced by individualized supports working in the community to help people contribute. This evolution is being played out across the county as community living agencies move from being recognized as organizations that contribute to the community by taking care of people with disabilities to organizations that help people with disabilities contribute to the community.
As the Ontario Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services implements major redevelopment of Developmental Services and other public sectors in changing economies, we have been expected to become more cost effective and accountable. Governments are moving towards "performance based funding" and funding that has a definite beginning and end. Most of the people we help will require life long supports and we are challenged to develop goal oriented and outcome based programs.
Individualized services, supports and funding trends mean that agencies must develop new skill sets and like the private sector, "retool" existing programs.
Our developmental service system is in crisis as the capacity of families to provide care and support to a family member with a disability is impeded by the increasing needs and diminished capabilities of an aging population. Dramatic social and economic changes have occurred to family life over the last 50 years and families now face numerous barriers as they struggle to remain 24-hour-a-day caregivers.
The rapid pace of change in the past decade has left people unsure of the future and afraid of what it will bring. One of our key challenges is to assure individuals and families, that while change may be a reality, we have not forgotten their lives and the important things in them.
Who We Work With
We play an integral role in assisting individuals and families in accessing resources, assistance and opportunities available in the community.
We work collaboratively at both the individual and agency level. Over the years we have developed collaborative procedures with other agencies to assist in our efforts, including:
1. Child Care, Boards of Education and Post Secondary Education
We have Youth Workers in the High Schools and we are working on a job skills course with the local community college.
2. District Health Councils, Hospitals, Health Care Providers, Health Units, Community Care Access Centers, Mental Health Agencies and Long Term Care Facilities
We have been active in consultations on policy and service development about people with dual diagnosis, and we have procedures for individuals established at the local hospital emergency room. We are currently developing a procedure with long-term care care providers for the disadvantaged.
3. Ontario Disabilities Support Plan and Employment Support
We work in concert with our local employment office and all of our supported employment is provided in co-operation with community employment services.
4. Local and Regional Government Offices of MCCS, Ontario Works and Jobs Ontario
We have been active in service restructuring which has involved partnerships with other developmental services and the government to develop procedures for easier access to services.
5. Municipalities, County and other forms of local government
We have worked with local municipality governments to establish inclusive summer programs and we have helped them develop the expertise and confidence to take over these services themselves. We are partners in two community activity centers, we are active in fund raising and we have a representative on our local para-transport organization.
6. Police, Fire, Victim Witnesses, Courts, Community Corrections and Attorney General Personnel and Agencies
We worked with these agencies and services to establish an abuse protocol and procedures for individuals.
7. United Way, Service Clubs, Churches
We receive funding for summer supports and we help individuals access these community resources on an individual basis.
8. Public and Private Service Providers
We work with a number of other public and private agencies who provide care to people with disabilities.
9. Community Development Corporations, Business, Industries and Financial Institutions
We have the active representation of local business and industries through board and committee membership. KI Pembroke, a local and international company, sponsors annual fund raising drives and has assisted us in raising tens of thousands of dollars through collaborative projects.
10. Francophone, Native and other Cultural Groups
We have established a French services procedure with advice from the local francophone association and we have a representative on their Board of Directors.