The
Canadian Helen Keller Centre, Inc. Newsletter
Summer 2003, Volume 5
Hello
everyone! We hope you have been enjoying our good summer
weather. We
were extremely busy at CHKC until the end of June
(with JuneFest), but we have since had a short and much
deserved summer lull. Now we are preparing for the Deafblind
International World Conference in Mississauga, August 5 to 10th.
News
The search is
on for someone to fill the role of Executive Director for CHKC.
This challenging position became open in July when Sharon
Downie-Clarke announced that she would not be returning at the
end of her one year maternity leave. Nancy Mactavish and
Joyce Thompson are unable to continue as the temporary
Executive Directors, due to family responsibilities. It is
hoped that the ‘Hiring Committee’ will soon be successful in
finding a qualified person for the position.
Programmes
It has been an
amazing year where much was accomplished. We especially want
to thank Nancy Mactavish and Joyce Thompson for their valued
assistance with programme development. CHKC now offers 16
different programmes which are individualized to meet the
goals of each participant. The uniqueness of CHKC is
something that should be recognized everywhere. Through
meetings with each of the participants, we explore their
current situation, past experiences and goals to enable the
team of staff and participants, to design the courses that
meet the person’s needs. The newest programmes are: The
Cooking Club and Using Intervenor Services. It is hoped that
other courses will follow in the fall - with leisure time
activities becoming a valuable addition to the list of
programmes.
A full
description of the current programmes can be found on the web
site
Services for Adults with Acquired
Deaf-Blindness
There is a
growing movement to develop awareness of the lack of
Intervenor Services and to advocate for the RIGHTS of all
persons with deaf-blindness to an appropriate level of
Intervenor Services to meet their access needs to information
and participation in society.
The amount of
Intervenor Services across Canada, for persons with
acquired deaf-blindness, is very minimal. Ontario
provides more services than any of the other provinces and
still they are not comprehensive enough. Most are not
served. Some individuals are receiving as little as two hours
of Intervenor Service a month while the most fortunate are the
sixteen tenants of Rotary Cheshire Homes, who have access to
3.5 hours of one-on-one Intervenor Service every day of the
week and access to information from a staff person who is the
On-Duty in the office 24 hours per day. By way of comparison,
most children and adults who were born deafblind
receive
Intervenor Services 24 hours per day. Granted, this
group usually has many more needs for personal care than the
acquired population, but the inequities are still astounding
and unjust. The Deafblind Services departments at CNIB Ontario
Division are in jeopardy of having services cut 40-50%, or
being shut down entirely. The
funding CNIB receives from the
province for Intervenor Services only covers a small portion
of the actual cost of providing the minimal services now
available to persons with acquired deaf-blindness. CNIB has
stated that, as of October 1st, they cannot
continue to subsidize these services. It is the
responsibility of Provincial Governments to support persons
with disabilities. A disability is a disability and there
should no discrimination based on how or when in life the
disability is acquired.
CHKC is
currently supporting persons with acquired deaf-blindness to
apply for ‘individualized funding’ for Intervenor Services.
The applicants hope that they too will gain access to
information and the community through Intervenor Services
funded by the Province of Ontario, Ministry of Community
Family and Children’s Services, (MCFCS).
With the
elections looming on the horizon we are encouraging all to
advocate for more support from the Provincial Ministry of
Community, Family and Children’s Services, (MCFCS), for
Intervenor Services for persons with acquired
deaf-blindness.
There has been
a tremendous increase in funding for those born deafblind and
served by W Ross Macdonald School, Brantford, while there has
been no growth in Intervenor Services for those with acquired
deaf-blindness over the past eleven plus years! This
is
unacceptable.
JuneFest - 2003
·
June 18th proved to be, as
predicted, a wonderful summer event. All the
organizations and services associated with deaf-blindness
attended and
hosted booths to promote awareness and share
information about their services. Even volunteers from
the community who were not connected with any of our
organizations were amazing in their time commitments and
generosity.
Donations were received from:
· Schneiders
-
hamburers & hot dogs arranged by Alex Kondracki
· Licks
- nature patties
· The
Nutty Chocolatier
- popcorn & snow cones by Ken Koury
· Enbridge
Gas
Distribution Event Team - bbq chefs and children’s activity tent
- face painting & button making
· Shidan
Murphy and James Crittenden,
magicians
· Maple
Leaf Sports
- bbq serving team
· Norm
McCabe Trio
and vocalist - simply wonderful
· Viola
Ward
- clown
· Joan
Mactavish
- sales of BRAVO! Miss Brown
· Dole
and Brisk, CIM Ltd.-
Event Teams
· Rotary
Cheshire Homes
- hair streaking and bottled water
· Loblaws
- Empress Walk
· Canadian
Tire
- Centre Point
· George
Weston Bakeries
- buns
· Xbox
· Geo.
Brown College
- magnet sale, an independent project
· All
the donors of prizes for the raffle draw
· Ferda
Suleiman
- volunteer Raffle co-ordinator
· the
50+ volunteers
who supported the events & community booths in the malls to
promote awareness in the weeks before June 18th
· ticket
sellers and buyers - Norma Barrett the champ who sold the most
tickets,
· the
attendees who made the event a resounding success
Thank you, each
and every one of you, for your support of our first JuneFest.
Garage Sale
Thanks to
Gillian Thomson who organized the garage sale held on a damp
Saturday morning, and to the volunteers who supported her that
day. Thanks also to the donors who contributed their treasures
for the sale. Over $500 was raised. And thanks to every one of
you for giving your time and much needed support to the Canadian
Helen Keller Centre.
The Garden Club
of Toronto
The Canadian
Helen Keller Centre is very fortunate to have continuing support
of the Garden Club of Toronto. We are currently working with a
committee of the Club to investigate how to improve the
landscaping of the property. With the CNIB Fragrant Garden
being revamped it is hoped CHKC will benefit from some of their
up-rooted perennials and bushes.
Deafblind International World Conference August 5
- 10, 2003
This is the
first world conference on deaf-blindness to be held in Canada.
The Canadian Deafblind and Rubella Association will host
delegates from 48 countries of the world at the Delta Meadowvale
Resort & Conference Centre. To date there are
over 450
delegates registered. CHKC will have a booth and be
participating in the workshops. Joyce Thompson and Megan
McHugh are presenting a paper on ‘Intervenor Services in Canada
for the Acquired Population’. Joyce is also presenting
a paper on
‘Seniors who have become deaf-blind through aging: our Most
Neglected Population’.
Thanks to the
support of MCFCS, after a push from the Hon. David Young, MPP
Willowdale - Municipal Affairs, the request from Ontarians with
deaf-blindness for access to DbI 2003, has been approved. This
is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Our special
thanks to the following sponsors and donors:
·
Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled
Persons for giving us the opportunity to participate in the
Tombola event at the Great Valentine Gala.
·
Toronto-Don Valley Rotary Club
·
Amar Bannerjee and his climb of Mount Kilimanjaro
·
The participants who joined the Walk-a-thon and
their sponsors
We sincerely
appreciate the continuing support for our training programs from
the Ontario Trillium Foundation, (OTF). Thank you on behalf of
our participants to the OTF for supporting the training options
available at CHKC which offer participants opportunities to gain
skills for independent living and improved quality of life.
The Ontario
Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ministry of Tourism,
Culture and Recreation, receives annually $100 million of
government funding generated through Ontario’s charity Casino
initiatives. It allocates grants to eligible charitable
and not-for-profit organization in the arts, culture, sports,
recreation, environment and social
service sectors.
Please check our
up-dated web site for the latest news and donor recognition.
Call or e-mail
the centre if you are deaf-blind and wish to upgrade or gain
independent
living and
technical skills.
If you wish to
comment or contribute to the next issue of ‘Bridging Hands’
Newsletter
or have questions
please phone, fax or e-mail us, we would love to hear your
comments.
Donations to the
Canadian Helen Keller Centre are gratefully appreciated and are
tax deductible. You will be issued a charitable tax receipt.
Telephone, voice
or TTY – (416) 225-8989
Fax - (416)
225-4871
E-mail -
deafblindinfo@onramp.ca
or
cdhelenkeller@on.aibn.com
Website
–
www.chkc.org
210 Empress Avenue
Toronto,
Ontario M2N 3T9
Sponsorship opportunities exist –
Your company name & logo could go here!
