Skills Society Annual Report 2015

ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
MAKING IT HAPPEN
Supporting the citizenship of people with disabilities
Board Chair Report
Making It Happen
Welcome to the end of our
2014-2015 fiscal year. It
is my privilege to provide
highlights of Skills Society
Society’s activities in relation to our strategic plan.
Operational
Excellence
Following our last annual
meeting, we passed a resolution to rebrand Skills SoCindy Imppola
ciety, changing the name
trailer to “Supporting the
citizenship of people with disabilities.” Following this,
we have refreshed, rebranded, and launched the new
website, www.SkillsSociety.ca. If you have not done
so yet, please check it out.
port. This experience has prepared us to move forward
to actualizing our ideas. You may have seen a recent
announcement that Skills Society, Lift Interactive, and
Southern Alberta Community Living Association have
signed an agreement to work collaboratively to develop an app to report outcomes and action plans in ways
that are meaningful. This will ultimately improve the
quality of life for people receiving support. We are excited about this opportunity to be innovative.
Community
Thank you to the individuals we support, their families, employees and their families, the community,
and the City of Edmonton. Our Community Garden
volunteers, working in Edmonton’s “Little Italy,” realized their goal to build 30 raised garden boxes. Plans
are in place to continue building up the garden over
the summer, stay tuned!
Part of the excellence that Skills Society experiences happens within our space. Over the course of the
year, we renewed our lease here on 124th Street and
we are now renovating. Extensive work has been done
with the architectural firm, Manasc Isaac, of whom,
Skills Society received the Blue Sky Architecture
Award which provided in-kind funding for the design
of a Social Innovation Lab. This space will be used for
training, meetings and other collaborative activities.
Financial
The board has also been very involved in the policy review and development process over the past
year to ensure that the organization is aligned with
best practices.
Committee Updates
Learning and Growth
Although training is always ongoing, this year, there
was an increased emphasis placed on training related to leadership. Additional training has been focused on risk assessments, particularly in the area of
complex needs.
The continuous efforts made by Skills Society to be
innovative was recognized and honored in the fall.
Project Citizenship was nominated and awarded the
Best in Digital Philanthropy Innovation Award in the
2014 Digital Alberta Awards.
Over the last few years Skills Society has researched
and piloted methods for reporting outcomes and positive action plans for those individuals receiving sup-
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SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
As we have experienced previously, this past year we
moved forward within a state of continued budget
uncertainty from our provincial funders. Our present
contract was initially extended until June 30, 2015.
Recently this contract was amended and extended
to December 31, 2015 which makes budget planning
a challenge.
Fund Development Committee
In the fall, Skills Society welcomed a new addition
to the management team, Rachael Lawrence-Hohl,
our Manager of Fund Development. Rachel has been
researching information related to funding sources
and grant applications. We are happy to have this
new position in place to focus on fund development
projects and priorities that will move us forward and
towards our goal of increased financial sustainability.
Board Development and
Governance Committee
The Board Development and Governance Committee
reviewed and updated our board position descriptions
to reflect the changes we have made over the last five
years. As well, the committee has worked to prepare
board and executive director succession plans so as
to ensure as seamless as possible transitions when
changing roles or terms are ending.
Little Italy a Community Garden, a vibrant
collective planting flowers and food
Advocacy Committee
The provincial government has been active this year.
Falling oil prices, deficit budgets, and elections have
been in the news. In January, a member of the board
was present at the Alberta Public Forum. Key questions presented at the forum related to: non-profit
funding, security of employees, vulnerable Albertans
and their quality of life, and ensuring funding stability.
New Challenges
A new Persons with Developmental Disabilities
(PDD) Safety Standard came into effect April 1, 2015
— Compliance with Various Codes and Bylaws Standard 8. Although we applied for and received a
six month extension, service providers ultimately
must ensure:
a) that the residence has been inspected by an
executive officer under the Public Health Act,
b) that there is a confirmation of compliance
with the Safety Codes Act with respect to a
new or renovated residence or where there
has been a change in the use or intended use
of the residence,
c) that, with respect to a residence which is
housed in a pre-existing building, there is a
confirmation of a fire safety inspection of the
building, and
d) that zoning approval, if required, for the
building that houses the residence and the
residence itself has been granted.
In April 2015, the Alberta Council for Disability Services
prepared a revised report (from the original December
2014 report), PDD Safety Standards Regulation: Legislative Context and Impact on Albertans with Developmental Disabilities and Service Providers. It provided
information about the PDD Safety Standards, impacts,
and recommendations. While all are in agreement to
never compromise safety, the new regulations have
unintended consequences, specifically:
l Responsibility of safety is assigned to the
service provider. Where there is no legal
control over property, this is problematic.
l The current standard requires a set of multiple
inspections that overlap considerably in nature
without an evident increase in safety over that
produced by a single inspection.
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
3
Board Chair Report (continued)
l Whatever benefit in safety accrues is limited
only to those who have overnight support
without family-managed services. Apparent
benefits in safety appear to be limited to
those with overnight support without family
managed services. This leaves a large number
of people with PDD-funded services without
the supposed safety protection offered to
peers by the Regulation.
l If the CET standards-based accreditation is
sufficient for their safety, then why is more
required for the subset of those supported
overnight by accredited organizations?
Rachel Lawrence-Hohl and Joshua Gnutel accepting
a donation from the Royal Alexandra Hospital
Employees Charitable Donations Fund for
thermometers related to safe bathing practices
There have been extensive meetings involving service providers, representatives from municipal and
provincial governments or jurisdictions to determine
how to interpret the regulations and discuss the potential impacts on individuals and organizations. Of
great concern are the costs associated with implementing the standards and potential loss of housing.
Celebrating Board Members
June marks the end of term for valued board members Emily Brodeur, Wendy Marusin, April Johnson,
Maira Virani and Janice Bialasek. These individuals
have been selfless in their contributions to the board
and have been key in helping us create new policies
and advocating on critical issues. Skills Society extends a thank you for their service and engagement
with the organization. We wish them all the best in
their next endeavors — they will be missed.
We welcome new board member Lisa Prins, who works
with Community Service-Learning at the University of
Alberta and has been involved with Project Citizenship.
The board would like to thank Pat Conrad and her
leadership team for another year of service commitment, innovation, and excellence. It is Skills Society’s
unwavering efforts to pioneer, forge forward, and essentially “make it happen,” that enables Skills Society
to engage in growth and continue to provide support
and citizenship to the individuals we serve.
Great Allies in RBC and Urban Spirits Rotary Club helping
Skills Society in our community building work
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SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
Cindy Imppola
Board Chair, Skills Society
Executive Director’s Report
Change is a Process Built
on Action
Skills Society, like many
not for profit organizations, often seeks ways
to make ideas a reality.
“Making It Happen” requires ingredients such as
creativity, determination
and patience.
Last year, we began the
process
of
rebranding
Skills Society with the intent to bring continuity
Pat Conrad
to the initiatives and services that we are involved
in. We changed our name
to Skills Society, Supporting the citizenship of people
with disabilities. During that time, we also reviewed
our agency values which led to some more changes.
The following five values are action oriented and solidly behind our approach to the services we provide.
Supporting Engaged Citizenship
Citizenship is about belonging and contributing
and having access to important opportunities and
choices. As Mark Kingwell describes it, “Citizenship
is, in short, one of the profound categories that make
us who we are, one of the crucial ways humans go
about creating a life for themselves.” At Skills Society,
our work focuses squarely on taking action that enhances and celebrates positive citizenship outcomes
for individuals.
Through efforts like Project Citizenship, we have
committed ourselves to capturing stories about the
citizenship journey of people with developmental
disabilities. We feel that some advancement is being achieved with over 55 stories now documented
and shared through our website, Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, University of Alberta students and Make
Something Edmonton.
These examples bring a real time perspective to our
vision of people with disabilities as valued citizens. It
is our hope that by making these stories available,
some of the barriers standing in the way of citizens
with disabilities having opportunities and choices to
participate in their community will disappear.
On page 8 and 9 of this year’s annual report you’ll
see Engaging Communities for Change: Citizenship and
(Dis)ability. This is an info graphic that was created
to provide an overview of the activities of Project
Citizenship over the past four years.
Skills Society was successful in accessing funds for
The CommuniTea Infusion Van Project that will create
employment opportunities this summer for some of
the individuals with disabilities who are supported
by the agency.
Safeguarding Healthy Relationships
Social and material vulnerability are features of daily
life for people with disabilities. Skills Society works to
build positive and powerful relationships both inside
and outside the organization to strengthen personal
and political safety nets for the individuals we support and for the broader disability community.
To ensure that Skills Society is aligned with current
standards and best practices, agency policies and
procedures have undergone an extensive review and
overhaul over the past couple of years. The process
to distribute the March 2015 Revised Policies and
Procedures is in place. Although the bulk of the work
has been completed, there are additional changes
that will be communicated over the next year.
The Skills Society Health and Safety Manual is another huge project that was revised and completed
this year. We are in the process of sharing it with the
rest of the organization. It is an amazing resource to
support the health and safety of the individuals we
support and our staff.
We appreciated the opportunity to mentor a fourth
year University of Alberta Human Ecology student for
the winter semester. Her learning goals involved research and contributions related to the development
of both manuals.
The Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD)
Safety Standards have placed a real strain on our already over-taxed resources. Undergoing three separate
inspections: PDD Safety Standards, Minimum Housing
Health Standards (Alberta Health) and Fire or Alberta
Building Code Standards annually to all homes where
individuals receive overnight support is a mammoth
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
5
Executive Director’s Report (continued)
Diverse groups of citizens exploring notions of meaningful citizenship at the Stanley Milner Public Library
task. We are just beginning to experience the impact
of the City of Edmonton bylaws which are related
to the PDD Safety Standards. Municipalities have interpreted the Safety Standards differently which has
resulted in mass confusion throughout the province.
Recognizing the need to safeguard vulnerable citizens, accreditation standards have been in place for
decades and service providers go through a rigorous
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SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
review of their practices regularly. The City of Edmonton bylaws have taken safety to another level which
may result in unbearable costs to the point where
some individuals may lose their homes. We agree
that people need to be safe in their homes and are
working with service providers and other stakeholders in the Edmonton Region to bring forward our concerns related to the impact of these bylaws to the
lives of vulnerable citizens.
Seeking Creative Collaborations
We believe that social change comes from the
strength of groups recognizing their commonalities,
sharing resources, and working together. The disability community has often been overlooked in social change initiatives. We are committed to ensuring that we take our place among the talented and
inventive groups and individuals working for more
inclusive communities.
A recent event in April 2015 at the Stanley Milner Public Library in downtown Edmonton illustrates how we
effectively seek creative collaborations that are meaningful and inclusive. Approximately 40 engaged citizens
(citizens with disabilities, University of Alberta Community Service-Learning students, Skills Society community support workers, as well as community members
and leaders from the Edmonton Public Library) came
together for an afternoon of thought-provoking discussion and Lego® Serious Play® making of what inclusive
citizenship can look like in action. At the end of the
afternoon, community builder and city planner David
Rauch gave several attendees with disabilities the opportunity to share their story in the new recording studio in the library’s Maker Space, to include as part of In
Your Own Words (Rauch’s ongoing Oral History Project).
The second season of the Little Italy Community
Garden project has begun. Skills Society is very
proud of our stewardship role in transforming a
vacant city lot into a useful and vibrant community space. Numerous contributions of personal
labour, materials, and equipment from a host of
community folks have us looking forward to more
opportunities to develop the garden this summer.
Our relationship with the City of Edmonton has led
to an invitation to apply for a project grant that
would be focused on beautification of the McCauley neighbourhood and would offer employment
opportunities for people with disabilities. We are
at the first stages of consideration but interested
in exploring the invitation further.
Skills Society was honoured to be invited to participate at the Sound, Light and Motion Event at
the Winspear Centre in December 2014. We felt a
sense of pride that our project Making Our Mark
was prominently featured along with many examples of activities that are making Edmonton vibrant,
creative and strong.
Building and Sharing Knowledge
At Skills, we work hard to learn through our own actions, and through studying the work of others. We
are committed to trying new ideas and becoming bet-
SKILLS SOCIETY
Board of
Directors
2015-2016
Officers of the Board
Cindy Imppola
Chair
Patricia Bokenfohr
Vice Chair
Amy Abbott
Secretary
Rochelle Mitchell
Treasurer
Returning as Directors
Anne-Marie Kallal
(Past Secretary)
Connor Doran
Rhonda Vernerey Penno
Auralia Brooke
Dwight Hayes
Joshua Gnutel
The Slate of Directors
to be Ratified for
a First Term:
Lisa Prins
Rochelle Mitchell
continued on page 10
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
7
Engaging Communities for C
Nancy Spencer-Cavaliere1, B
1
Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation
Some stories enhance life and others degrade it s
Despite deinstitutionalization, people who
experience disability continue to live their lives
at the margins of our culture, with identities of
clienthood and not of citizenship.
Co-Creation of
Citizenship Stories
Project Citizenship is about creating
positive social change through the creation,
documentation and sharing of citizenship
stories. These stories highlight the many ways
people who experience disability contribute to
and meaningfully engage in community.
Jason’s Story – Captain Community
Documented in the form of a comic, Jason’s
story tells of his heroic efforts to protect his
community and prevent his neighbours from a
break and enter attempt.
Danielle’s Story – The Animal Advocate
Danielle’s story, captured through video,
shows her dedication and contributions
to the humane society.
Daniel’s Story – Drumming to
His Own Beat
Daniel’s meaningful engagement with a
community of drummers and his importance to
their well-being are highlighted in this video.
Skills So
support
disability,
with the
inc
Organizational Transform
Skills sought to improve the ways
support people who experience dis
They shared new ideas throug
Think Tanks
Staff took part in gatherings design
foster relevant creativity. Staff w
encouraged to think differently an
connect creative thinking to action
leads to better quality outcome
World Cafés
Staff participated in forums to infor
engage people who experience disab
their allies in an iterative process of
about current and future citizenship
Citizen Action Hall
Along with students, researchers and
who experience disability, staff explo
learned about the meaning of citize
Making Our Mark
Staff were part of an art collaboratio
they learned about the diverse persp
of the people they support.
This endeavor was supported by a Community Service-Learning Partnership Grant from the University of Alberta.
8
SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
r Change: Citizenship and (Dis)ability
e1, Bethan Kingsley1, Ben Weinlick2, & Debbie Reid2
tion, University of Alberta, 2Skills Society, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
it so we must be careful about the stories we tell – Burton Blatt
s Society, an organization that
ports people who experience
ity, initiated Project Citizenship
the intention of creating more
inclusive communities.
The goal of Project Citizenship is to co-create
a collection of citizenship stories of people who
experience disability to provide opportunities
for self-expression, to raise awareness and to
initiate social change.
ormation
Student Engagement
Community Engagement
ways they
e disability.
rough:
Students were engaged as co-collaborators
through community service-learning
opportunities.
Awareness and positive social change were
generated in the community through:
Experiential Journalism
Students worked with individuals to co-create
the telling of their stories.
esigned to
aff were
ly and to
action that
comes.
Citizen Action Hall
Students shared in a participatory
education environment in which they
co-learned about citizenship and ways
to collectively support and promote it.
inform and
disability and
s of sharing
ship stories.
s and people
explored and
citizenship.
Making Our Mark
Students participated in a collective art
project. They engaged in the exploration of
how play, pride and freedom intersect with
citizenship and disability.
Gala
An exhibit was held at the SNAP gallery
where stories of citizenship were showcased
and shared with the broader community.
Community Mural
The project logo was created by an artist who
experiences disability. It is showcased at the
Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts.
Making Our Mark – Works Art Festival
An art exhibition displayed themes of
pride, play and freedom through the lens of
citizenship and the experience of disability.
Website
The Project Citizenship website contains the
stories, learnings and much more.
Go to: projectcitizenship.com
ration where
perspectives
port.
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
9
Executive Director’s Report (continued)
ter problem solvers. We seek opportunities to promote
our work publicly in order to spark commentary and
critique, and to forge new partnerships.
Skills Society, Southern Alberta Community Living
Association (SACLA) and Lift Interactive are collaborating to develop an app that provides a more engaging and humanized experience related to providing
individualized services for people with disabilities.
We are excited about the prospects of using new
technology to improve the quality of life for people
with disabilities. The ability to report outcomes and
action plans in ways that are meaningful will make
this app a valuable tool.
We are in the process of using technology to assist
us operationally to be more effective and efficient.
Skills is moving into an electronic payroll system. To
prepare for this shift, Skills employees have been offered free computer training.
The architectural expertise from Manasc Isaac’s Blue
Sky Architecture Award has provided the opportunity
for Skills Society to design a Social Innovation Lab in
our new space on the second floor. In addition to being
a great group of people to work with, we also appreciate the contributions of Manasc Isaac and thank them
for this incredible gift. Skills Society looks forward to
the untapped potential that a newly created space like
this will offer to us and the community.
Embracing Complexity
The work of assisting people with disabilities to achieve
good lives is not an easy road. It requires creativity,
determination, and collective effort. At Skills we do not
shy away from taking on big challenges, to innovate
and try again. The work is complex — not only at the
individual level, but at the level of helping influence social policy that guides society in its obligations to address the needs and contributions of disabled citizens.
Skills Society provides supports to many individuals
who have complex needs. This year, we spent time reviewing how we support staff and individuals in best
practices related to complex needs. A decision to repurpose a Manager of Community Supports position
(Dawn Marie Greene) to a Manager of Complex Needs
Resources has already made a significant difference
to providing assistance to management and staff in
their supports to individuals with complex needs.
We have been able to replicate the Citizen Action
Lab with seven Lab Leaders now involved. This means
that we are starting to reach more people through
facilitating more experiences that help explore new
community connection possibilities and employment
opportunities. One of the reasons why we have the
action lab is to navigate through the complexity of
community inclusion of people with disabilities and
come up with innovative ways of supporting people
to have good lives.
Skills Society has embarked on many activities that
represent this year’s theme “Making It Happen.”
The forecast of any increase of government funding
for administration costs has not been favourable. We
hope that our decision to downsize to the second
floor office space will put the agency in a good position for the next six years. Renovations to the space
will help us accommodate the needs of the agency
and staff. We are enjoying the refreshing feeling that
new paint and carpet has brought to our work environment. The Social Innovation Lab design of the new
training and multi-use space (featured on the front
cover of the Annual Report) will be a great place to
learn and collaborate with community members.
It is important to celebrate the success of this past
year that provided government funding for a community agency staff wage increase that was sustainable and amended into our contract. I am optimistic
that the election in May 2015 of a new government
will bring change and hope for a better future.
Pat Conrad
Executive Director, Skills Society
Real lasting change doesn’t happen overnight.
It happens little by little,
Day by day.
One brick at a time
Making the strongest foundation for a stable future.
10
People waiting for change are missing the opportunity to see that change isn’t an event.
It’s a process built on action.
Krissy Vernsdale
SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
Fund Development Report
Building Lasting Relationships
In 2014 Skills Society made the decision to shift from
fundraising to fund development. This shift encouraged us to think differently about how we go about
raising money to support the many projects and initiatives that are fundamental to our work as a disability services provider. We began to embrace the
idea that fund development is all about building relationships with people and other organizations that
will support our work. Although this type of work has
the potential to reap many rewards, it typically takes
time, patience and perseverance, like most things in
life that are worth waiting for.
This year we worked on shifting our thinking from
fund raising to a fund development culture that supports our strategic plan. We invested in a consultant
to help us move forward in this planning process
which included creating new policies and procedures
as well as a case for support. Skills hired Rachel Lawrence-Hohl to a new position of Manager of Fund Development in September 2014. Now we look forward
to building upon the blocks that have already been
established. We understand that we need to be proactive and thoughtful in our relationship work and
we accept that things won’t happen overnight; that’s
okay because we believe that good things come to
those who wait. It makes sense for our organization
to invest time and energy in fund development work
because it will sustain our organization as we work
to fulfill our long term mission and vision.
Long-term Investments
The Skills Society Endowment Fund and Cable Family Skills Endowment Fund through the Edmonton
Community Foundation continues to grow, creating a
long term and sustainable income for Skills. Over the
last year we have earned approximately $15,000 in
investment income. It is exciting to see these funds
multiply and we know that this will have a lasting
impact on our organization.
Nurturing Partnerships, Old and New
Skills wishes to thank Dennis Cooper and colleagues
at Alberta Finance for collecting funds to create an
emergency fund for people who are supported by
Skills. We would also like to thank Bronwyn MacKinnon and colleagues at Edmonton Tax Services, Canada Revenue Agency for taking on the Christmas
stocking project yet another year.
In the spring of 2015, thanks to our partners TELUS
Community Foundation, Telus was able to make a
documentary about the CommuniTEA Infusion Project and the key stellar citizen with a disability, Emily who helps to coordinate the community building
events through the van.
CommuniTEA Infusion Project in action
We are also pleased to be working with the Reach
Employee Resource Group, a group of RBC employees coming together to be ambassadors for people living with disabilities within their organization
and in the community. We were first introduced to
the group when we were granted $8,000 towards
our CommuniTEA Infusion project in early May, 2014.
Since then, the group expressed interest in volunteering with our CommuniTEA Infusion project and
continued on page 12
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
11
Treasurer’s Report
A Year Worth
Celebrating
Fund Development Report
(continued)
The 2014/2015 fiscal year for Skills Society has
been another year of success. We have ended the
year with a surplus.
In terms of revenue, Skills has recorded just under $19.67 million in the current year which was
$1.76 million higher than the original budget. This
difference is primarily due to a staff wage increase
provided by our government funders. For the same
reason, total expenses for the year were $19.31 million, or $1.44 million higher than budget.
Skills has a surplus of $333,000 in the current
year, compared to a $72,000 surplus in 2014 and
a $159,000 deficit in 2013.
Looking ahead to the 2015/2016 year, Skills is anticipating a balanced operating budget. We will be
watching to see what the change in government
will mean to our funding levels. Due to downsizing
of our current space and moving all operations to
the second floor, Skills is undergoing office renovations. This change was necessitated by our need
to be more efficient with our leased space. The
board committed to allocate some of the funds
in the surplus back to the agency reserve fund
which covered off the deficit in 2013. In addition,
we are purchasing two large computer programs.
These changes to operations are significant and
will reduce our accumulated surplus.
Patricia Bokenfohr
Vice Chair and member of Finance Committee
A CommuniTEA Infusion event
a shed. This committed and energetic club purchased
the shed and put in the sweat equity necessary to
build it. Their commitment to projects and activities
that improves the lives of others is inspiring and we are
grateful for their support and involvement with Skills.
Recently, we attended the West Edmonton Business
Association’s Annual Golf Tournament as the Charity
of Choice. Skills Society appreciated the support and
the invitation to be involved in their annual fundraiser.
Thank you to all of the individuals, families and businesses who have contributed time, in-kind support,
and financial resources. This support is significant
and greatly appreciated. We acknowledge the contributions of the following:
l Capital Region Housing Corporation
l City of Edmonton — Edmonton Neighbourhood
Revitalization Grant
l Community Service Learning Department,
University of Alberta
l Intuit Canada
l Jasper Place High School
l Manasc Isaac Blue Sky Architecture Award
l Ogilvie LLP Barristers and Solicitors
lRBC
Fund Development Report continued from page 11
the Little Italy Community Garden. They would
like to grant us additional funds in exchange for
volunteer opportunities for members of the Reach
Group. On two different days in May, an enthusiastic and committed group of RBC employees
provided people power and skills in our Little Italy
Community Garden alongside Skills staff and people supported by Skills. We had so much fun with
this great group of people and we look forward to
their involvement with our organization.
Thanks to the generosity of the Urban Spirits Rotary club, the Little Italy Community Garden now has
12
SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
l Royal Alexandra Hospital Employees Charitable
Donations Fund
l TELUS Community Foundation
l Urban Spirits Rotary Club
l West Edmonton Business Association
Exciting partnerships and collaborations lie ahead
and the sky’s the limit. We look forward to strengthening relationships and partnerships with individuals and groups who share our vision and we hope
that you will join us on our exciting journey.
Rachel Lawrence-Hohl
Manager of Fund Development, Skills Society
Research and Social Innovation
Leading the Way in Social
Innovation
“A social innovation is an
idea that works for the
public good”
Social Innovation Generation, Toronto
During the past year, Skills reached many exciting
new milestones in the area of social innovation initiatives. Thanks to our new website and the creative
collaborations of people and organizations within and
outside the human services field, our work is getting
noticed regionally, nationally, and internationally. If
you take a look at the nine major social change initiatives on our website you’ll see that we don’t just
talk about social innovation, we live it.
At Skills Society, social innovation means that we are
building knowledge and designing new and better
ways to support the engaged citizenship of people
with disabilities. At the end of the day, we have to ensure that our innovations enable us to better help the
people we serve to have an improved quality of life. To
support relevant social innovation to emerge, we continue to build a culture where we think about what we
have done and push ourselves to consider new ideas
and practices. We have been using new tools through
our Citizen Action Labs to co-create fresh ideas and
plans so that people with disabilities can have access
to more engaged citizenship experiences.
Through our independent projects and those
with our community partners, Skills Society
aims to test new ideas and challenge old assumptions — pioneering better ways to value
and include people with disabilities within community. (Skills Society)
creative social lab and community research space
for Skills and the larger community. This is going to
be an amazing space for sparking new thinking and
community action. Skills Society will use the space
for internal workshops, training, and our Citizen Action Lab. In addition, the space and workshops will be
available to the public as well. We want this space to
be the talk of the town and be a place where businesses, community organizations, government, university classes and other groups can come to problem solve, and use the creative space for sparking
fresh strategic planning, team visioning, community
building, design thinking and navigate complex challenges facing people and organizations today. This
space will support us to bring many of our organizational values to life, such as seeking creative collaborations, building and sharing knowledge and embracing complexity. We launch the Action Lab in fall 2015.
We were honoured that Tim Draimin of Social Innovation Generation in Toronto wrote the following in
support of our lab:
Social Labs are emerging now in many ways as
the culmination and convergence of the last
thirty years of learning from systems change
theory, human centered design thinking, community building approaches, appreciative inquiry,
action research and the patterns that support
disciplined innovation. A social lab is a collaborative approach to navigating complex social
challenges that has a bias towards action and
building practical prototyped solutions with the
people that are affected by a challenge.
For social labs to be effective they need:
l The right stewardship, which Skills Society has
through their Citizen Action Lab approach,
Here are a few highlights of what we have accomplished over the last year.
l The space and tools that elicit fresh thinking,
Building our Action Lab Community
Research Space
l Access to the most promising practices
Despite having to move our offices into a smaller and
more affordable footprint in our existing building, we
have been able to design a more creative, collaborative and efficient training space. In 2013 Skills Society
was honoured and grateful to be awarded the Manasc Isaac Blue Sky Architecture Award to develop a
collaboration, creative problem solving and
building solutions as a collective, and
emerging in the national and international
community of social labs, which Ben
Weinlick and Skills Society have been proactive in developing.
The strength of social labs is that they honour
the wisdom, experience, knowledge and gifts of
all the participants and that helps to get to more
relevant outcomes.
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
13
Research and Social Innovation (continued)
www.projectcitizenship.com
for new stories that highlight
what engaged citizenship can
mean and look like for not just
people with disabilities but
everyone in community.
Humanized PersonCentered Planning
App
We are very excited to be pioneering new and more humanized ways to develop and
report on plans we co-create with people we support
and their families. After we
learned what worked and
didn’t work from a rough prototype we piloted last year,
we have partnered with an
enthusiastic collective to develop a web application that
humanizes the planning process. Skills Society, Lift Interactive, and Southern Alberta
Citizen Action Lab team creatively exploring new
Community Living Association
citizenship roles for someone they support
are collaborating to build this
game-changing social innovaThe Citizen Action Lab
tion
that
uses
new
technology
to improve the quality
The Citizen Action Lab is our creative approach to
of
life
of
people
receiving
supports
through human
sparking community connections, fostering the poservice organizations.
tential of employment opportunities through the
generation of small businesses, and encouraging the
emergence of citizenship experiences. The Citizen
Action Lab is a collaborative approach that takes
place in the Action Lab space. Our think tank approach that we explored over the last five years with
help and research from the University of Alberta has
now evolved into the Citizen Action Lab as we continue to learn what works, to think differently, and
support the emergence of citizenship roles. At present we have mentored seven lab stewards to lead
this approach and over the last four months we have
hosted many new Citizen Action Labs for the people
we support.
Project Citizenship
As our flagship initiative Project Citizenship has
spawned many of our current social innovations
through creating space for new collaborations. We
continue to document individual stories as well as
stories of large scale social change events. Check out
14
SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015
The app will work on tablets, smart phones, any
computer and also be a means to report in meaningful ways on outcomes and action plans developed
through use of the app.
Our Goals
1. We want to transform service planning from
what can be a bureaucratic, de-humanizing
and a less than engaging experience, into
a delightful, insightful and truly meaningful
collaboration.
2. We want to make it easier for people receiving
services — and their families — to be at the
helm when designing the service they deserve
and want.
3. We want to make it easier and more
meaningful to follow up on plans so there is
increased accountability that a person’s service
plan is acted upon and achieved.
Vivian Manasc helping us prototype the design for the Action Lab
4. We want the app to be a skill-enhancing tool for
human service workers whose role is central in
ensuring plans are high quality and centered on
what a person receiving service wants and needs.
Word has spread that what we are building is an important social innovation for Human Services and
we have received strong support from leaders within Government of Alberta Human Services Ministry
and our project has been featured in both the Metro
News and Edmonton Examiner. We plan on launching
the application around January 2016.
Bright Future Ahead
These are just a few of the ways we are leading Social Innovation initiatives at Skills Society and with the
greater community. Please check out more of our social
change projects at www.skillssociety.ca/projects/ and
follow us on Twitter @Skillssociety and on Facebook.
Ben Weinlick
Senior Leader of Research and Social Innovation
Skills Society
JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT
15
RBC Employees volunteering in the Little Italy Community Garden and helping us in our community building work
124 Street Business Park East
203, 10408 – 124 Street, Edmonton, AB T5N 1R5
780.496.9686 main 780.482.6395 fax
admin@skillssociety.ca
skillssociety.ca
@skillssociety
projectcitizenship.com
@project_citizen