Do you want to learn more about setting up a representation agreement and adult guardianship? The Family Support Institute of BC has pulled together an excellent webinar on this topic with Ken Kramer and Sarah Watson.

You can view the entire one and a half hour webinar that is chalk-full of information by clicking here.

We are confident you will find this information useful!

The Baltimore Sun released an excellent article highlighting some of the positive developments occurring in the world of employment for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The article primarily focuses on the U.S. market and how employment opportunities are improving to help more adults with autism find jobs. Additionally, there are a number of initiatives going on now that are helping individuals with developmental disabilities obtain minimum wage or more. Similar efforts are occurring in Canada and enforcement of paying minimum wage is something that is important for treating people fairly. The U.S. Department of Labor has created rules aimed at disrupting the school-to-segregated workshop pipeline by pressuring states to ensure students with disabilities are leaving schools ready to work and to provide targeted employment.

Despite some concerns from some parents and employers, the outcome so far has been relatively positive. Advocates say the community is seeing a radical shift. Employers are becoming more aware of the potential of people on the spectrum, technology is advancing, and the workers themselves are demanding equal pay and opportunities. A lot of it is down to making changes in the way tasks are divided up, which largely comes down to thinking out of the box.

Community Ventures Society (CVS) works with the individuals we serve to help them gain employment in the community and in the development of social enterprises. Additionally, we work with local employers to help them create a working environment that will be a win-win for the business and the individual. At CVS, we recognize the importance of employment to community inclusion and are committed to encouraging employment with our members.

The Federal Budget was announced at the end of February, and it was outlined that $20 million will be provided over five years to new initiatives aimed at helping families affected by autism spectrum disorder.

Additionally, British Columbia will soon be home to the headquarters of a new national autism support network meant to address significant gaps in our knowledge surrounding autism spectrum disorder.

More than half of the $20 million funding — $10.9 million — will go toward the creation of the Autism-Intellectual-Developmental Disabilities National Resource and Exchange Network (AIDE). AIDE will be led by the Pacific Autism Family Network (PAFN), which operates out of Richmond, B.C., and the Miriam Foundation, out of Montréal. The aim of AIDE is to be a place where families can access information.

According to Autism Speaks Canada, the disorder is the fastest growing and most commonly diagnosed neurological disorder in the country. Since autism is a spectrum disorder, it presents differently in different people, which can make it difficult to nail down accurate information. An estimated one in 68 children in Canada are affected.

In addition to the creation of AIDE, the 2018 budget also said $9.1 million will be provided to the Public Health Agency of Canada to help reduce stigma around autism spectrum disorder and create new innovative programs that support those living with it.

CVS fully supports the efforts by the Federal government to help families with children that are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and to help educate the public around autism spectrum disorder. Education is power and will help families but also reduce the stigma around autism spectrum disorder.

On March 4th, the Victoria-based Times Colonist published an article highlighting the plight of Anna Tobias, a mom who waited six months for her son, George, to be diagnosed with mild to moderate autism spectrum disorder and then another year for him to be assigned a support worker while he’s in daycare. Her story, unfortunately is not a rare one – especially for individuals who are diagnosed with mild to moderate forms of autism spectrum disorder.

George, now 4 1/2, theoretically has 24 hours a week of one-to-one support, but a lack of child-care staff and rules on when he can access that support means that he is sometimes left struggling.

The provincial and federal governments recently announced major investments in child care in B.C., including money to improve programs for children with special needs. Tobias is sharing her story to shed light on some of the shortcomings of the current system.

The B.C. government currently gives families of children under six up to $22,000 a year to pay for autism-related therapies, including a one-to-one support worker while the child is at daycare. However, wait lists make this challenging and can hinder development at such a critical stage of a child\’s development.

There are many barriers including finding the right staff as well as a system that is often inflexible to parents working shift work. To be eligible for the funding, Island Health requires parents to be at work or in school during the hours when the child is in daycare. Parents who work nine to five wouldn\’t have an issue but those that work shifts and weekends, have issues in getting support when they need it.

The federal government is giving B.C. $153 million over three years to help reduce child-care fees for parents, create 1,370 new infant and toddler spaces, and provide bursaries and grants to recruit new early childhood educators. Katrine Conroy, B.C.’s minister of children and family development, has said that some of those funds will be used to enhance programs for children with special needs. The province has earmarked $1 billion over three years to lower fees, provide child-care subsidies for low- and middle-income families and create 22,000 child-care spaces.

Tobias\’ story demonstrates that all of the new initiatives by the B.C. government are important and appreciated, however, the system also needs a structural overhaul to really assist families across the province who don\’t necessarily fit a nine to five schedule. Tobias also hopes that child-care providers will be given funding to increase wages for early childhood educators and behaviour interventionists. Without that, it is hard to maintain and attract good people to work as support workers.

To check out the full article, visit the article in the Times Colonist.

Please join me in congratulating Dawn Walsh in her new position as the Enterprise Coordinator for CVS. The Enterprise Coordinator is responsible for the development and growth of CVS (Social) Enterprises.  Key components of the Enterprise Coordinator position are to lead CVS Enterprises: Lawn Crew, DisDaBomb Luxury Bath Enterprises, and other enterprises that are supported by CVS. The Enterprise Coordinator supports the people we serve as real employees, who have job descriptions, expectations of productivity, performance coaching and room for advancement – and most importantly, money in their pocket.

Dawn has worked for CVS for over 10 years and is currently working towards her Classroom & Community Support Diploma at Douglas College. In her role as Enterprise Coordinator, Dawn will continue to be based out of the Port Coquitlam office.

We found this video produced by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council to be an excellent one that sends an important message to us all.

Watch the video and learn some interesting statistics & information about the Price of Exclusion – 

At CVS, we believe in inclusion – for everyone in our community – whatever your faith, gender, sexual orientation, or abilities. We work hard every day to make our community more inclusive and hope you can do the same.

Enjoy the video!

In February, the BC government outlined Community Living BC\’s Mandate. When the NDP government was appointed in 2017, they made three key commitments to British Columbians that all ministries and Crown agencies are expected to work together to help the government achieve.

Since Community Living BC (CLBC) is a provincial crown agency, they will work to assist the BC government in achieving the following three commitments –

1. Making life more affordable, to help manage the daily cost of living
   for British Columbians.
2. Delivering services that people count on, building on programs that are working well, and making improvements where needed, to ensure British Columbians get quality and timely customer service from public sector organizations across the province.
3. Building a strong, sustainable, innovative economy that works for everyone.

Honourable Shane Simpson, the Minister of Social Development & Poverty Reduction highlighted the following priorities for CLBC to help in achieving the three commitments above –

1. Meet regularly with families, advocates, service providers and their representatives to continuously improve collaboration, understand service delivery issues and identify solutions that support a responsive, sustainable network of disability-related services that supplement other supports to assist adults with developmental disabilities to live quality lives and be full participants in their communities.
2. Engage home share providers and their representative groups to identify support
   needs and return to the Minister with recommendations for improvement by
   June 29, 2018.
3. Improve supports to CLBC eligible youth who are experiencing transitions by:
   • implementing a more effective CLBC planning approach to improve the experiences of youth and their families transitioning to CLBC services; and
   • participating in the Services to Adults with Developmental Disabilities (STADD) initiative.
4. Improve supports to older adults who are experiencing transitions by:
   • implementing a more effective planning approach to improve the experiences of older adults; and
   • working with the Ministry of Health to complete the remaining activities flowing from the three-year, joint CLBC-Ministry of Health Plan on Aging.
5. Increase the participation rate of CLBC eligible individuals in employment by:
   • developing a new service that supports individuals with all abilities to find employment that fits with an individual’s goals as well as meeting their other support needs;
   • utilizing performance measures and business case results to increase the effectiveness of CLBC employment service delivery model; and
   • engaging with the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction (SDPR) to leverage Employment Program of British Columbia programming and maximize efficiency and effectiveness of employment programming for CLBC clients.
6. Work with the Ministry of Health and Health Authorities to identify interests, issues and an action plan to address added care funding which will lead to:
   • a consistent, standardized and joint approach to high intensity care needs and goals for care for CLBC clients with complex functional and medical issues,
   • providing appropriate services and supports for CLBC clients with complex functional and medical issues, and 3) consistent alignment with Ministry of Health policies.

Community Ventures Society supports this Mandate and will work with CLBC to deliver on the priorities outlined above.