What a year 2021 has been! This time of year always brings up opportunities for reflection and I am excited to reach out to all of you in our CVS community at this time. First of all, I wanted to send my heartfelt wishes to you and your families for the holiday season. It has been another hard year for many of us but I am so proud of all the individuals we serve, our staff and the families in the CVS community for what we have achieved.
On a personal note, I’m so very grateful to have been appointed the Executive Director of Community Ventures Society. I’ve now been in this role at CVS for 6 months and it has been a wonderful time of growth for me. It makes me so happy to be able to continue our mission at CVS and work towards providing an exceptional quality of service for the individuals we serve and their families. I am also so excited to be involved in spreading the message of community inclusion in the wider community so that it helps provide greater opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities at CVS as well as others in our community.
Over the past few months, we have been monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and adhering to the recommendations set out by the Provincial Health Authority (PHO). With the COVID-19 vaccination program now being widespread across the province, I’m grateful that CVS is now back to accessing the community on a regular basis. The individuals we serve are able to spend time out and about in the community, which is one of the cornerstones of our CVS programming. It is so nice to see that almost all the individuals we serve at CVS are back in program. It makes me so happy to see everyone when I visit the sites and it is starting to feel like we are slowly adapting to our “new normal”. We recognize that the new Omicron COVID-19 variant may be of concern to some and we are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to keep our community informed as the PHO provides any updates related to the services we provide.
Since I was appointed to Executive Director in June, we’ve also started a new home for a youth in Burnaby. In addition to in-person programming, we learned from the pandemic that we could enhance our offerings to the individuals we serve through online programs. As a result, individuals we serve have been accessing a variety of online programs from a partnership we developed with Spirit Club including fitness, cooking and wellness modules. This is the 2nd year CVS hosted online programming in the evening, including our most recent CVS Zoom Christmas Party on December 8th. We hope that in 2022, we will be able to safely get together in person more often especially at the holidays. One exciting change is that our Port Coquitlam location on Kingsway closed in November and we will be opening up a new Port Coquitlam based location in the new year. So, the past few months have been met with continued change but lots of hope for the future of CVS.
Like many other agencies in the community living sector, staffing has continued to be challenging throughout 2021. That being said, our HR team has worked tirelessly to hire qualified staff and we have been able to bring some new staff into the CVS team that are providing excellent service to the individuals we serve and their families. We continue to look for caregivers in our Shared Living and Children’s Respite teams as demand continues to climb for these caregiver positions. We hope that we will be able to secure more caregivers so we can continue to help these adults, children and families who so desperately need the support.
CVS continues to focus on finding employment opportunities for the individuals we serve. In addition to our employment, both of the social enterprises developed by the individuals we serve at CVS are thriving. DisDaBomb – our bath bomb business – moved into its new location at 2342 Clarke Street in August and has been experiencing record sales ever since. Our dog walking business, adVentures Dog Walking, is back up and running and the individuals who walk dogs in the community are really enjoying being out and about with the dogs once again. I am so excited to see the success of these businesses and look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring.
The past few months have also been a time for celebration and remembrance. Like all of Canada, CVS marked the first 1st National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th. We have adorned the front of our main building in Port Moody with Every Child Matters signs to signify our commitment and support of the indigenous communities across BC and Canada. As always, we honoured the fallen through our observance of Remembrance Day. In October, CVS invested a lot of time to promote Community Inclusion month across our local community. This included signage, advertising and a launch of a new exhibit at the Port Moody Station Museum entitled – Community Inclusion: Our Journey to Community. CVS partnered with the Port Moody Heritage Foundation, Inclusion BC and the BC Self Advocacy Group to deliver this exhibit and we are so proud that a few of the individuals we serve are featured in the exhibit. If you have time to visit the exhibit, it is well worth it and there is lots of time to do so as the exhibit is open now until Summer 2022.
In early 2022, we will start working on our new strategic plan and I look forward to reaching out to everyone in our community in the coming months for everyone\’s input. Our CVS leadership team is excited to start this process so we can continue to grow CVS and develop its mission to the individuals we serve, families, staff and to our community.
We also want to take this time to wish you all a wonderful time over the holidays and we look forward to serving you in 2022.
Sincerely yours,
Linda King
Posted: December 17, 2021 by cvsadmin
A Message from Linda King, Executive Director at CVS
What a year 2021 has been! This time of year always brings up opportunities for reflection and I am excited to reach out to all of you in our CVS community at this time. First of all, I wanted to send my heartfelt wishes to you and your families for the holiday season. It has been another hard year for many of us but I am so proud of all the individuals we serve, our staff and the families in the CVS community for what we have achieved.
On a personal note, I’m so very grateful to have been appointed the Executive Director of Community Ventures Society. I’ve now been in this role at CVS for 6 months and it has been a wonderful time of growth for me. It makes me so happy to be able to continue our mission at CVS and work towards providing an exceptional quality of service for the individuals we serve and their families. I am also so excited to be involved in spreading the message of community inclusion in the wider community so that it helps provide greater opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities at CVS as well as others in our community.
Over the past few months, we have been monitoring the COVID-19 situation closely and adhering to the recommendations set out by the Provincial Health Authority (PHO). With the COVID-19 vaccination program now being widespread across the province, I’m grateful that CVS is now back to accessing the community on a regular basis. The individuals we serve are able to spend time out and about in the community, which is one of the cornerstones of our CVS programming. It is so nice to see that almost all the individuals we serve at CVS are back in program. It makes me so happy to see everyone when I visit the sites and it is starting to feel like we are slowly adapting to our “new normal”. We recognize that the new Omicron COVID-19 variant may be of concern to some and we are monitoring the situation closely and will continue to keep our community informed as the PHO provides any updates related to the services we provide.
Since I was appointed to Executive Director in June, we’ve also started a new home for a youth in Burnaby. In addition to in-person programming, we learned from the pandemic that we could enhance our offerings to the individuals we serve through online programs. As a result, individuals we serve have been accessing a variety of online programs from a partnership we developed with Spirit Club including fitness, cooking and wellness modules. This is the 2nd year CVS hosted online programming in the evening, including our most recent CVS Zoom Christmas Party on December 8th. We hope that in 2022, we will be able to safely get together in person more often especially at the holidays. One exciting change is that our Port Coquitlam location on Kingsway closed in November and we will be opening up a new Port Coquitlam based location in the new year. So, the past few months have been met with continued change but lots of hope for the future of CVS.
Like many other agencies in the community living sector, staffing has continued to be challenging throughout 2021. That being said, our HR team has worked tirelessly to hire qualified staff and we have been able to bring some new staff into the CVS team that are providing excellent service to the individuals we serve and their families. We continue to look for caregivers in our Shared Living and Children’s Respite teams as demand continues to climb for these caregiver positions. We hope that we will be able to secure more caregivers so we can continue to help these adults, children and families who so desperately need the support.
CVS continues to focus on finding employment opportunities for the individuals we serve. In addition to our employment, both of the social enterprises developed by the individuals we serve at CVS are thriving. DisDaBomb – our bath bomb business – moved into its new location at 2342 Clarke Street in August and has been experiencing record sales ever since. Our dog walking business, adVentures Dog Walking, is back up and running and the individuals who walk dogs in the community are really enjoying being out and about with the dogs once again. I am so excited to see the success of these businesses and look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring.
The past few months have also been a time for celebration and remembrance. Like all of Canada, CVS marked the first 1st National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30th. We have adorned the front of our main building in Port Moody with Every Child Matters signs to signify our commitment and support of the indigenous communities across BC and Canada. As always, we honoured the fallen through our observance of Remembrance Day. In October, CVS invested a lot of time to promote Community Inclusion month across our local community. This included signage, advertising and a launch of a new exhibit at the Port Moody Station Museum entitled – Community Inclusion: Our Journey to Community. CVS partnered with the Port Moody Heritage Foundation, Inclusion BC and the BC Self Advocacy Group to deliver this exhibit and we are so proud that a few of the individuals we serve are featured in the exhibit. If you have time to visit the exhibit, it is well worth it and there is lots of time to do so as the exhibit is open now until Summer 2022.
In early 2022, we will start working on our new strategic plan and I look forward to reaching out to everyone in our community in the coming months for everyone\’s input. Our CVS leadership team is excited to start this process so we can continue to grow CVS and develop its mission to the individuals we serve, families, staff and to our community.
We also want to take this time to wish you all a wonderful time over the holidays and we look forward to serving you in 2022.
Sincerely yours,
Linda King
Posted: December 4, 2021 by cvsadmin
Something Fun & Free to do this Holiday Season
There are lots of fun activities to check out this Christmas – things have opened up more than last year and everyone is enjoying lights, Christmas activities and fun.
The Burnaby Village Museum has a lovely and free event for all to see and it\’s back open this year. Take some time between now & January 3rd to pop over to the Burnaby Village Museum and visit the beautiful grounds and activities.
For more information, including times, check out their website – https://www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca/EN/main/what-s-on/heritage-christmas.html.
Posted: December 4, 2021 by cvsadmin
Congrats to Kim Hodgens!
We wanted to extend our congrats to Kim Hodgens! Kim painted an incredible piece of art that is now being featured in the Port Moody Station Museum Inclusion exhibit. As well, Kim was contacted by The City of Port Moody and was featured in their Art in Council program on Tuesday November 23rd. This is a great accomplishment & we are so excited for her. See her beautiful piece of art that was featured below. To view this art in person, please come out to the Port Moody Station Museum to view the Inclusion: Our Journey to Community exhibit at 2734 Murray Street in Port Moody.
Posted: December 4, 2021 by cvsadmin
Thank you for a Wonderful Paint Night
On November 25th CVS hosted a paint party and we decorated some lovely Christmas ornaments. It was a well attended event & everyone had a great time. Thank you to Palette Posse Paint Parties for hosting this event & guiding us through the lesson.
Here are some photos of our beautiful finished products:
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
November is Indigenous Disability Awareness Month
Indigenous peoples of Canada experience a disability rate significantly higher than that of the general population. Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAM) brings awareness of these barriers and the issues that Indigenous peoples living with disabilities and their families face every day. More importantly though, in spite of these barriers, IDAM celebrates the achievements of Indigenous peoples living with disabilities and recognize the significant and valuable contributions they make to our communities socially, economically, and culturally every day.
Indigenous Disability Awareness Month (IDAM) was created by BCANDS in 2015, and 2021 is it’s 7th anniversary! Since then, IDAM is now annually declared and recognized by the Provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, the Assembly of First Nations, BC First Nations Summit, Métis Nation of BC, Council of Yukon First Nations, the Town of Inuvik, and hundreds of other organizations and communities across Canada. IDAM is the only Indigenous disability specific awareness initiative of its kind in the world. In 2017 the United Nations International Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommended to Canada to officially declare November as IDAM annually.
For more information, please click here and the Inclusion BC website.
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
Make a Difference in the Life of a Child this Christmas
We wanted to reach out to you to let you know that efforts have started to pull together resources for our 2021 Annual Christmas Campaign. Every year, the Children\’s Services department of CVS works hard to create a memorable Christmas for the children & families we serve in our Children\’s Respite program.
Christmas is a special time but it can also be a very hard time for many families. This holiday season, we hope you will consider donating to this important campaign to make this time of year a memorable one for the families in our program.
If you would like to donate to the 2021 Christmas Campaign, you can drop off a donation in person at our administrative office at #307-2502 St Johns Street in Port Moody to the attention of Joanne Weidinger. One of the easiest ways to send your donation to us is through our online donation form which can be easily accessed through our website. Simply click here and you will be able to make your donation to the 2021 Christmas Campaign.
We want to thank you in advance for supporting this important campaign. In past years, your support has made such a difference in the life of the children in our program and their families.
You\’ve put smiles on their faces and happiness in their hearts in the past – we are excited to do the same this year.
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
Save the Date for the CVS Christmas Party – Dec 8th at 630pm!
Hello everyone,
We are excited to host and invite you to another Virtual CVS Christmas Party this year. Zoom details will be emailed out closer to the time but please mark your calendars for this fun event!
We\’ll be rocking it out to all your favourite Christmas songs, playing games, opening Christmas presents & the dance off is back (with some Christmas spirit).
For the Christmas party, we\’ll be asking everyone to pull out their favourite Christmas pyjamas or best Ugly Christmas Sweater – show it with all your holiday spirit!
We can\’t wait to see everyone at the Christmas Party on December 8th!
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
Join Us on Thursday November 25th at 7pm to Paint Ornaments!
CVS is excited to be hosting a virtual Paint Night for our community on Thursday November 25th at 7pm. This time around we\’ll be painting something different – our very own Wooden Ornaments. We\’ll be doing 3 ornaments for the painting night – all shown in the picture above.
We\’re excited to bring back Palette Posse Paint Parties to lead us through this event.
Details:
Where: via Zoom (RSVP to Miriam & Zoom details will be sent out to you on Monday November 22nd, 2021)
When: Thursday November 25th, Zoom room will be open at 6:55pm & Painting will start at 7pm; have all the supplied materials ready to paint when you login
How much: $10 for Paint Night (includes all painting materials – brushes, paint, 3 wooden ornaments, Zoom painting session)
RSVP to Miriam Hoolahan by email by Monday November 15th, 2021. Payments should be made by etransfer to [email protected]. No password is required but please include \”Paint Night\” in the reference. Alternatively, please give $10 cash to Alison Goulding at the main Port Moody office.
Once we receive your RSVP & payment, we will contact you to arrange a time to drop off / collect the supplies before the event on November 25th. Zoom details will be emailed out on Monday November 22nd to all attendees.
We hope to see you at this special Paint Night. It\’s going to be a great night of fun for everyone!
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
CVS in the News – Inclusion Exhibit!
As we mentioned, the new Inclusion Exhibit is open at the Port Moody Station Museum. The Tri-City News popped by on opening day (Thursday October 28th) to interview Markus from the Museum, CVS Executive Director Linda King & Miriam Hoolahan – our Director of Communications.
To read the article and find more about the exhibit, click here.
Posted: November 6, 2021 by cvsadmin
Another Successful Halloween Party!
Thank you to all who came out to our Halloween Party last Friday, October 29th. It was a blast – the costumes, the dance off – it was a ton of fun!
Congrats to all the winners at the Halloween party –
Nikita – Thriller
Ghostbuster- Julia Clarke
Here are some pictures from the Halloween Party –
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