Change in most things is inevitable and often required in order to keep things current.
That was the case with the Yorkton branch of the Saskatchewan Abilities Council this week.
Monday the Council held a media roundtable to explain changes to the Day Program, changes made to provide the people the program supports with more choices, new opportunities and greater control.
Moving to a focus on community has meant taking a good look at branch services and programs and reflecting on how they fit with the evolving expectations of clients, parents and the community at large.
The changes take a much more client-driven approach to programming, which, of course, makes sense since they are the ones who are receiving benefits through the aforementioned programs.
“The decision to change was based on the needs and desires of individuals we were supporting, the changing expectations within society, and the desire to move from the charity model of service to the citizenship model of service,” detailed material circulated at the roundtable. “We were seeing increasing referral rates to our community-based programs such as the Transitioning Youth to Employment Program while decreasing referral rates to the Day Program. While we had been offering a wide array of community-based activities through our Day Program for a number of years, we were not supporting individuals to ingrain them into everyday community life. We would take a group of people from our facility, do something in the community then come back to our facility. Our ability to facilitate one-on-one supports was limited. We had to change if we wanted to remain relevant to the people we support and the community we serve.”
“The people who we support are the experts,” he said simply. “They’re experts at knowing what’s best for them.”
The new approach is to find what the strengths and goals of an individual client are, and then work with community organizations and businesses to create a situation where they can achieve their goals, offered John Denysek, regional director at the Yorkton branch.
“Everyone has a unique gift,” he said, adding they want to create individual programs to allow them to contribute those gifts to the broader community.
Transitioning Training Centre clients to community-based employment and volunteer opportunities is a major step forward in the shift that is happening at the Yorkton branch, but it is just the beginning. Denysek hopes to see the branch evolve into a community centre, where community volunteers interact with clients in facility-based programs and where community groups gather for meetings and events.
Certainly evolving programming to create an inclusive atmosphere where Abilities Council clients have supports when needed, but also are supported in terms of involvement within the community through recreation, volunteerism and job placements is the right way to go.
The evolution of programming is certainly a positive step for not just Centre clients, but the broader community into which they are transitioning in new and exciting ways.
