Annual Meeting Reports on FOR Successes!
October 17, 2008
FOR’s recent annual meeting was a time to gather and reflect on 2008. Read a summary of our tremendous successes from the Executive Director and Chairperson…
Annual General Meeting 2008
Executive Director’s Report
At FOR, we talk a lot about the importance of hope, resiliency, courage and an attitude of gratitude. I think this year our families, staff and volunteers have all embraced these concepts. Our families, many of whom are in extreme pain have shown us that even in adverse situations that there is much to be hopeful for and that they can find the strength and resiliency to move forward while maintaining the dignity of gratefulness. Our families are an inspiration to us.
I am also very grateful for our staff team. We have worked very hard this year to meet the needs of our families while at the same time stretching ourselves to develop needed initiatives for youth, our families’ relatives and the Tamil community. The staff have pulled together and dug deep to find their own resiliency when the demands of the job and life are overwhelming. They do this because they believe in recovery – they hold the hope that their efforts will pay off and they have a vision for our program. The staff are passionate about their work and grateful for being a part of families recovery journeys.
As the Executive Director, I feel very fortunate to be in the company of such a great group of staff. Marian and Calista have done a fantastic job growing the Scarborough program. They have worked hard developing meaningful partnerships and reaching out to an underserviced area. Emily and Anchayan are always amazing me with their creative ideas about how to connect with young people! Emily, Krista, Paul, Marian, Calista and Mary Lou continue to run the best recovery groups for families that only could have been imagined a few years ago. And thanks to Krista, for her talent in developing and maintaining our very cool website.
It is Linda and Dennis that make it all possible for us. They keep us on track both managing the office and taking care of the money.
I thank the staff for being patient when the office space got crowded, computers didn’t work or when they had to put in extra hours for our big events such as our very successful international recovery conference.
FOR prides itself on maintaining a recovery vision not only for our families lives but also in the mental health system. We work both locally and internationally with many partners to implement the recovery vision. FOR belongs to organizations such as the Leadership Project in Toronto and internationally, the International Network towards Recovery and the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.
In the Toronto area, FOR has recently focussed on creating a system that meets the needs of young people and their families who are experiencing an early psychosis. We are involved in the Toronto Early Psychosis Network and its subcommittees which are committed to ensuring that every young person gets timely and appropriate care. We have great partners that we count on including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Community Resources Connections of Toronto.
Later this year, the agency will undergo a strategic planning process so we can clearly define our next steps in developing our Recovery Centre – a place that embraces recovery for the whole family.
Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to the Board of Directors and our chairperson, Rebekah Tsingos for their support and guidance. Each one of the directors contributes to the organization with their individual strengths and talents. I am especially grateful to Bob Simon and David Greenwood who are leaving the board for all their contributions.
Annual General Meeting 2008
Chairperson’s Report
Every year, the chairperson begins their report by stating what a tremendous year it has been for the Family Outreach and Response Program. I thought I would try to be different this year but the reality is that it has been another tremendous year for FOR.
The program has grown again and we welcome 3 new staff – Anchayan Shanmuglaingam, Emily Collette and Calista Rajakariar. These additions have allowed FOR to develop 2 new program initiatives. The first is the Talk to Youth Lately – TTYL. This is an ambitious departure from our work solely with families. TTYL is a partnership with 2 Scarborough high schools where we are working with young people to develop ways of educating other young people about serious mental health issues. The project has just begun and we look forward to hearing more about its developments as Emily and Anchayan progress in their work.
The TTYL project has been spearheaded by board member Bob Simon, myself and some other key community members who we are very thankful to. We are also incredibly grateful to BMO, RBC, the Baker Family Foundation and other private donors for their financial support. We welcome onto the board Sue LeMesurier who is a vice-principal at Campbell High School which is one of our partner schools. Sue will bring her incredible insights as a school administrator as well as a parent of someone who has been diagnosed with a serious mental health problem to our program.
Our other new focus this year has been to reach out and serve Tamil families. Scarborough has a very large Tamil community and their mental health needs are not being met. In partnership with Community Resources Connections of Toronto and the Rouge Valley Hospital System, our new staff person Calista has been able to start addressing the needs of the Tamil community. FOR continues to strive to work with families who traditionally have difficulty accessing services.
FOR continues to provide cutting edge recovery programming to our families. This year the staff fine-tuned its 10 week recovery curriculum for both the early psychosis families and our regular family group. This year we held a record number of twelve recovery series with over 100 families participating. We are continuing to find ways of providing innovative programming especially for those who have finished the series. This fall we are piloting four sessions on Understanding our Relatives’ Experience When They Appear Unmotivated.
This year under the leadership of one of our staff Krista MacKinnon, FOR has relaunched its website. We are excited by its interactive style and the new recovery content.
Our challenges for the next year will be our relocation to 901 King Street. This is part of the whole redevelopment of CAMH. The plan is that we will be in this location for the next four years before moving into our new permanent space at the Queen Street site. FOR is grateful to the continuing support of CAMH as we go through this change together.
Another challenge for us is to raise the additional funds that are required for both our core programming and our new initiatives. Our Ministry of Health and Long Term Care revenue has never been able to fund all our requirements and this has made our fundraising efforts crucial to our sustainability. We are developing partnerships with our Local Health Integration Networks as well as increasing our fundraising efforts.
FOR is working towards a new vision of family recovery. We are exploring ways in which we can have recovery programming that meets the needs of the whole family including the person recovery. The Board is developing strategies for a Family Recovery Centre – stay tuned!!
In closing, I would like to say a few special thank yous. To our departing Board Members, Bob Simon and David Greenwood, we have appreciated your dedication, your time and commitment to growing the FOR program. Both these board members have been instrumental to our fundraising efforts and to the oversight of our finances.
On behalf of the Board, I would also like to express our gratitude to the staff and family facilitators. The Board appreciates your passion and energy to supporting families. We also are grateful to the behind the scenes staff who keep FOR functioning. And of course, a big thank you to Karyn for keeping us all together.
One Response to “Annual Meeting Reports on FOR Successes!”
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I was really interested in the innovative work being done by your organisation on the recovery model.
I have just taken over a mental health accommodation project in Peterborough, UK and am changing/implementing the staff teams approach to one of the Recovery and WRAP principles. Interestingly enough I was applying this in a street homeless project I worked in 5 years ago, but at that point over here the approach did not have a name. Needless to say we were very successful.
Love the pictures and helpful info, will keep returning.
My kindest regards
Helen Mitchell Stynes