issue 1 march 2017 - home - also
TRANSCRIPT
Issue 1
March 2017
In this issue
1. From the HR Director
2. A.L.S.O. Teams Up with
Friends in Motion for a
Golf Tournament
3. Windsor Jeep Club
Announces Jeep Jam
Poker Run Date
4. Management Team
Changes
5. Health & Safety
committee starts planning
2017 wellness events
6. Survey on Mental Health
distributed to program
sites
7. 2017 Satisfaction Surveys
are being distributed
8. Consumer Profile
9. Jewellery Wanted
10. Contact Us
HR Director Announces Open Hiring
The HR Committee along with A.L.S.O.
Human Resources Director Leo
Muzzati announced in February that
with a staff shortage A.L.S.O. will be
encouraging people to apply for
attendant care positions with us. We
are seeing an increased strain on our
system for quality care attendants.
“The attendant care workers have
been under a lot of added stress”
reported Leo Muzzatti. We are seeing
more people returning from hospital
to home and with our current aging
consumers we have seen a high need
in our community for service.”
“It is not news that there is a trained
staff shortage as other community
partners are feeling the effects of the
shortage, this is consistent with what
is happening across the province”, says
Muzzatti. The HR Committee is looking
for innovative ways to ensure that
A.L.S.O. meets the demands in our
community.
A.L.S.O. is reaching out to our current
staff and supporters to let people
know that we are currently seeking
skilled attendants that may not have a
PSW certificate. “We will consider
candidates with the ability to learn
new tasks, have some caregiver
experience, the desire to work and
access to a vehicle” He adds.
Many of the staff within the
organization stay for their attendant
careers because of the benefits and
opportunities that A.L.S.O. has to offer
including:
• Flexible Hours
• Equal Opportunity Employer
• Unionized Environment with
competitive wage packages
• Opportunity to work close to home
• Educational Opportunities
• On-going training opportunities
• One of the largest employers in
Windsor/Essex
• Respected since 1938
• Respected and progressive
employer
• Shared premium benefits package
available to part-time employees
after qualifying period
• Ability to work in a compassionate,
caring and empathetic environment
For employment opportunities visit
our website at www.alsogroup.org
and apply today!
A.L.S.O. Teams Up with Friends in Motion for a Golf Tournament
On June 5th A.L.S.O. will be hosting a
Golf Tournament with Friends in
Motion, a medical rehab assistance
program. Laura Kay, Joslin Allen, Leo
Muzzati and Ryan Jershy will be
assisting with the planning of the
tournament. “We attended the event
with two A.L.S.O. foursomes last year,
and thought the event was great!” said
Laura Kay. “When the event organizers
asked us to team up and help make
the event even better, we could only
say absolutely”.
The event is well run but had difficulty
getting more golfers and sponsors.
The committee members will be
working diligently to reach out to our
partners in the community to obtain
more support for the tournament.
The event is scheduled to take place at
the beautiful Kingsville Golf & Country
Club in Kingsville. The rolling
landscape and treed fairways flow
naturally throughout the three nine-
hole courses- each offering its
own set of challenges for every level of
golfer.
The course is home to more than 200
species of birds and other wildlife, as
well as natural historic elements
unique to Essex County.
A.L.S.O. staff, consumers, families, and
supporters are encouraged to contact
Laura Kay about volunteering or
golfing in this great tournament.
Proceeds will benefit both Friends in
Motion and the General Fund for
A.L.S.O. program and services. These
funds are often used to help support
existing programming like the day club
programs, devices, and respite
services.
People interested in knowing more
about our fundraising initiatives can
call Laura Kay at 519-969-8188 Ext.
249 or by email at
Friends in Motion is a medical rehab
assistance program dedicated to
providing tangible help that will make
a real difference in the lives of
financially disadvantaged children
and adults of Windsor and Essex
County.
Friends in Motion began in 2008 with
a single vision and desire by a team-
minded group of individuals who
were a part of the staff of Motion
Specialties. They wanted to make a
difference in the lives of financially
disadvantaged children and adults in
the community in which they lived
and worked. Through first-hand
experiences, this group came to
realize that there were many people
who were falling through the cracks
and in need of basic home health care
and medical equipment. By enlisting
the assistance of medical
professionals, accounting
professionals, and home health care
vendors, a team was formed with the
express purpose of raising funds to
provide assistance.
Currently, the foundation relies on
the generosity of public and
corporate donors, and the fundraising
events held annually. Visit Motion
Specialties in Windsor to find out
about upcoming Friends in Motion
events.
Please note that this funding is
available to residents of
Windsor/Essex County Only.
For more information, to apply for
funding, or to donate, contact
519.252.2011
Windsor Jeep Club Announces Jeep Jam Poker Run Date
Planning is well under way for the 4th
annual Windsor Jeep Jam Poker Run
which is organized by the Windsor Jeep
Club and Laura Kay.
This year Ali Clarke our board president
will be entering her Jeep Wrangler in
this fun filled day. The concept is
similar to a motorcycle poker run but
instead of motorcycles the participant
drive in Jeep branded vehicles. The
drivers and passenger drive to 5 stops
to pick up poker cards in hopes of
winning the best poker hand.
The event will be taking place on
Sunday, June 11th starting at On the
Green / On the Beach in Tecumseh.
For more information why not attend
the preregistration night (advertised
right) or contact Laura Kay at
[email protected] or 519-969-
8188 ext. 249.
Some of you have already met Darin
Reybroek. He has been with A.L.S.O.
for over a year working in various
capacities. He has assisted with
transitioning some of our consumers
with ABI to home from hospital and
worked to set up service plans in the
community including training
attendants to work with consumers on
their plans. Recently he has been
assisting Joslin Allen over at
Westgate. This week he is moving over
to Outreach District 3 to take over for
Tracey Crow in the supervision of that
program. As you are aware our
services are gradually switching to
support consumers and their families in
our Neighbourhoods of Care. There has
been a lot of movement over the last
two years and our staff have responded
Management Team Changes
with cooperation and with determined
commitment to the consumers we
serve. Change will continue and
eventually Outreach District 3 and 4 will
be integrated into Neighbourhoods of
Care as our funding and logistics
allow. Darin is a part time manager
who floats to programs as he is
needed. For the foreseeable future he
will be working with the staff and
consumers out of the Wyandotte Street
Office. Tracey Crow will continue to
manage the Heimathof Neighbourhood
of care. She will, however, be taking on
a new project continuing to develop
our Quality Improvement Plan and
moving us toward Accreditation.
Laura Kay will be taking on new
responsibilities as well.
She will be responsible for all of our
fundraising, working with the Social
Recreation Committee, managing
volunteers and coordinating our
promotion, advertising, and social
media. You will be hearing more from
Laura in the near future and as always
we strongly encourage everyone to get
involved in the support and promotion
of our great organization. A.L.S.O. has
grown substantially. We have doubled
in size since 2011 and now employ
about 350 people and support over
1000 consumers every year. You are all
part of the A.L.S.O. family and you are
all a part of our success. Please
welcome Darin, Tracey and Laura to
their new responsibilities at A.L.S.O.
At the Health & Safety Meeting last
month the group used extra time to
work on wellness initiatives and had
break out groups to work on initiatives
that would benefit A.L.S.O. staff. The
three groups are Health Fair Planning,
Community Initiatives and BBQ &
Baseball Tournament Sub-Committee.
The reps from each program site were
excited to discuss these initiatives.
The Health Fair Planning group
recognized that planning a Health Fair
could be a lot of work, but the pay
off’s would be beneficial and A.L.S.O.
would want to learn new and exciting
concepts. They are hoping to bring in
services agencies and specialty
speakers to discuss up and coming
trends in Health Care.
The Community Partners group are
active already with their initiative and
community partnership with Weight
Watchers. 16 staff members are
currently following Weight Watchers
at work program with A.L.S.O. and are
just wrapping up week 4 of the 22
week program. This group is also
looking at putting a team in again for
the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay
For Life.
The third group are looking to plan an
exciting and fun filled day for A.L.S.O.
employees and their families to host a
BBQ and Baseball Tournament. There
is some talk of having camping
available at this new event. Stay tuned
for more exciting happenings with
these three groups of the Wellness
Committee.
Wellness Initiatives & Survey on Mental Health distributed
The Wellness subcommittee also
created a partnership with Guarding
Minds at Work to distribute a
Workplace Guide to Psychological
Health & Safety Survey. This survey
was distributed to A.L.S.O. sites
through email. Once the survey data is
compiled we will have the information
in a future newsletter.
For additional information on Health &
Safety and Wellness please contact
your program supervisor or contact
one of the Chairs of the Health &
Safety Committee Barb Dwyer or Kim
Rappe.
A.L.S.O. staff and consumers are invited to assist us with our annual survey.
WE NEED YOU TO HELP US DO A BETTER JOB!
LET US KNOW, TODAY! Your opinion counts! Deadline is March 31st.
Follow these links to fill in survey now:
STAFF LINK https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GK7CL8Z
CONSUMER LINK https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3WDRSHS
Do you want a paper version of the survey?
Do you want assistance filling in the survey?
Questions or Concerns contact: Emilie confidentially at 519-969-8188 x253
2017 Satisfaction Survey
Quality Improvement Plan
In 2016 ALSO started the process to work on a Quality Improvement
Plan (QIP). A team of staff and board members met to determine
what areas of ALSO should be focused on for the QUP. It was
determined that the plan had to start with the ALSO’s Strategic Plan.
The Strategical Plan that is available online at:
http://www.alsogroup.org/about-us/strategic-plan-2016-2018/ was
the first step in the process. The group analyzed the data from the
2016 Staff and Consumer surveys to determine what was important to
the people of ALSO and the results was 21 quality improvement
objectives across the organization.
Staff had indicated that they wanted to be more involved with the
organization and have more opportunities to be engaged. One of the
improvements that was also a trend heard across the organization
was time management, and several QIP items will help reduce staff
time spent on clerical roles. Not a surprise, staff and consumers both
recognized that one QIP piece would be around retention of staff,
especially in the probationary period of employment.
Awareness of ALSO in the community was also identified as an
important role that ALSO should consider in the QIP. This particular
piece of the QIP is expected to help in other ways as well. With a
greater community knowledge of what our organization does in the
community we will build stronger relationships with outside
stakeholders and also increase internal relationships. We will be
trying to accomplish increasing our public relations strategy by
increasing public awareness with a marketing plan that will include
media partners, fundraising initiatives and an opportunity for others
to partner with ALSO.
The consumer and staff satisfaction surveys along with some internal
audits have allowed the QIP Committee to create some baseline
statistics that will help us to insure that we are able to act on our plan.
With the current plan we will be able to study our progress and see
how we are doing on our QIP objectives.
As we manage to implement changes based on feedback from our
internal stakeholders we will be able to accomplish a lot and share our
successes with our staff and consumers. We are very thankful for the
input that we receive from our staff and consumers in the surveys and
hope to see more feedback with the 2017 surveys in hopes of adding
more quality improvement areas in 2017/18.
More information will follow regularly as we implement and move
forward with the QIP. Keep informed with ALSO’s newsletter. If you
have questions about the QIP or want to give your feedback please
contact Laura Kay at 519-969-8188 Ext. 249.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE
Ryan Jershy, Chairperson
Tina Beneteau
Lynn Calder
Laura Kay
Alison Prieur
Angela Yakonich
Tracey Crow
JP Marentette
If you haven’t already met JP, you might just be the only one in Windsor. JP also
known in some places as “John” or “Johnny” has been visiting area establishments
from the west end and back to the east end of Windsor for many years. He is often
seen driving down Lauzon Parkway or Tecumseh Road to get to his various
volunteer jobs and activities on his scooter.
Born and raised in the east end of Windsor, JP grew up with his family who farmed
the land that is now known as the Meadowbrook Condo’s. His family helped him to
be independent and encouraged him to work at a young age. He was diagnosed
with Cerebral Palsy at birth and went to school with others that had disabilities.
He always wished that he could have gone to ‘regular school’, had a wife, and kids like many other people do. Despite
challenges JP has remained positive and is a vibrant member of our community. He is proud that he spent many years
working on the farm lands driving the tractor. He later worked as a janitor for Good Will and still keeps busy as a
volunteer for St. Vincent de Paul and various other organizations that need his help.
Not much stops this man of 74 years. He has traveled throughout Canada from Alberta to Quebec on well-earned
vacations over the years. Since his retirement, he has enjoyed vacations in the south and getting away from the snow
which is JP’s biggest pet peeve. When asked what “would you do with a million dollars?” he said “I would pay my bills
and go on a nice warm vacation”. One of his favourite past times is playing Bingo, and we sure hope that he wins the
jackpot soon.
JP truly is a prime example of how someone with a disability can live independently in the community. He contributes his
success to A.L.S.O. for making it possible to live in his apartment and have the freedom to do what he wants when he
wants to. He says that the best thing about A.L.S.O. is the staff, and he wishes that more people would know exactly how
much it means to him to have a great team support him. He added “if it wasn’t for A.L.S.O. there is no doubt in my mind I
would be in a nursing home today”. JP would like to remind people to support A.L.S.O. by donating or volunteering for
programs and services that help people just like him in our community.
Jewellery Wanted
Consumer Profile
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CONTACT:
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519-969-8188 Ext 249
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