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We create networks, develop resources, cultivate innovation and promote thinking to foster the contribution of people who are isolated and marginalized.
 

 

L'Arche's Response to Haiti

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Those concerned about targeting your donations to most vulnerable in Haiti may consider a donation to L'Arche who have 2 communities and a school in Haiti.  L'Arche is a close partner of PLAN and PLAN Institute - we have learned so much from their work and their leader Jean Vanier.  As an added bonus any donations made to L'Arche Haiti will be matched dollar for dollar by our federal government.

News Update February 5, 2010:

Dear Friend of L’Arche:

I have a brief update to give you regarding L’Arche in Haiti. I begin with a few words written yesterday from Jonathan, one of the L’Arche assistants who is “on the ground” in Haiti . His words are a strong affirmation of the need for all of us to stay close to these people in Haiti whom we do not know personally, but who are our brothers and sisters in the beautiful and sometimes very suffering human journey that we are on together.   
 
You who are praying, giving, crying, supporting; you who have been thinking of us daily over these past weeks; you are our silent weapon, our reason for staying the course, our source of survival... You have a part to play in the story of humanity unfolding before our incredulous eyes. Friends—friends of L’Arche or friends who are L’Arche—more precious than sunscreen on the beach, you give us the strength that would fail us on these gray mornings. It is feeling supported and loved by so many people that make us smile during prayer. This is not trivial, only to be our moral support from one day to the next.”
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Campaign to Include Pre-1974 Woodlands Residents in Woodlands Settlement

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The Province of B.C. has negotiated a proposed settlement in a class action brought by former residents of Woodlands institution in New Westminster. While the settlement agreement approves compensation for approximately 1100 former residents, over 500 former residents will be excluded merely because they lived at Woodlands prior to 1974. Visit the BCACL website or the BCCPD website for more information.

The We Survived Woodlands Group has launched a campaign to urge the provincial government to include pre-1974 residents in the settlement. Read the letter here or see below.

Al Etmanski writes about his experience and perspective in this blog post.

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familyWORKs: Register Now for Employment Learning Tool

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As many of you already know, familyWORKs is about families helping families to find innovative ways to create or find employment for loved ones that have intellectual disabilities.  The good news is that BACI and familyWORKs have arranged for its members to be able to access the CBI Customized Employment Course online. This is a good way to learn about the best practices in creating employment for people with disabilities.

To register for the course go to Customized Employment Course. When you are on the CBI page look for the register link at the top left. Once there, please make the user name your first and last name. Use the invitation code familyworks001 then provide your email and you are good to go.

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Peter Block - Community: The Structure of Belonging

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Series: Seeking Community in Chaotic Times
Speakers: Peter Block, Paul Born
Location: via conference call
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010, 12:00pm, Eastern

Details: Join Paul Born as he interviews Peter Block live about his latest book on community and belonging. Find out why Peter wrote the book, why he feels community is needed now more than ever and how we might work differently to change our communities for the better. Paul will also engage Peter in questions about the imperatives of our time: What is going on around us? How do we make sense of this together?

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The Emerging Fourth Sector

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The Fourth Sector Network Concept Group, with support from the Aspen Institute and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, have produced this Executive Summary, describing The Emerging Fourth Sector.  This is very interesting reading and runs closely parallel to the new work in Canada around Social Finance that Al Etmanski and others are working on over at socialfinance.ca.

Here is a graphic that captures this emerging sector:

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Live Webcast of Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation - January 27 at 7PM EST

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This lecture is being hosted online at www.sig.uwaterloo.ca beginning Wednesday, January 27 at 7PM EST, to watch the live webcast of the Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation featuring Adam Kahane.

An internationally acclaimed social innovator, once praised by South Africa's Nelson Mandela, Adam Kahane will deliver this year’s Waterloo Lecture on Social Innovation and will present new ideas on how to achieve significant, durable social change for pressing and increasingly complex social problems. In the lecture, Kahane will draw on his extensive experience working with business, government, and civil society leaders from around the world to help them address their toughest challenges. The lecture, entitled "Power & Love", will explore the role that these seemingly opposing forces play in affecting positive social change.

Plan Institute family member, 2009 Forty Under 40

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Long time PLAN champion, consultant, employee and currently web master, Brian Smith was recently awarded the prestigious 40 under 40 award by Business in Vancouver. Brian is one of those rare individuals who combines traits not often manifested together: he is passionate in his pursuit of social and economic justice; nurturing; philosophical; creative and an impeccable listener. These are skills and attributes many wish for but Brian lives and breathes. A role model for those of us who have gotten to know him through PLAN and PLAN Institute and with this award even more in our community will come to appreciate him.

Congratulations Brian!

Have a look at the attached article or here's the BIV Listing of this year's Top Forty Under 40.

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A story that will resonate: What About George?

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We're delighted to discover in the mainstream media coverage of issues affecting people with disabilities and their families. This recent NY Times article portrays a story we have heard in many variations since PLAN and PLAN Institute were created.

Here's a excerpt which will likely resonate for many of our readers:

"In retrospect, the choice his parents made may seem like an obvious one, but it went against the prevailing wisdom of the day, and it also raised a difficult question for them: Who would support their son after they were gone?"

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News for BC Families: Support Worker Central

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Supportworkercentral.com, a BC-wide website where individuals or their families can create job profiles and connect with freelance support workers in their communities, will be launched pending confirmation from our criminal record search partner myBackCheck.com that their online criminal record search process is back in service.

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Resilience, Responsibility and Belonging

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Dr. Lloyd Sederer has provided another interesting article in the Huffington Post - Resilience and Responsibility -- A  Commentary by Dr. Lloyd Sederer.  Belonging and its relationship to resilience is a thread weaving through the new Belonging - Living Ties website that Al Etmanski is working on.

Here's an excerpt that captures the essence of the article, "The Michael Oher story is remarkable; it also offers important insights into the limits of institutional responses to our basic need for belonging. While we need government to support social safety nets, we also need families and communities to redeem their neighborhoods and the lives in peril on every corner."

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In the News: We Are Artists exhibit at the Kelowna Art Gallery

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CHBC News covered the opening event of the We Are Artist exhibit at the Kelowna Art Gallery. Here is the link to the video report: http://www.chbcnews.ca/v...

Cool Arts began in the spring of 2003, when interested individuals began brainstorming about a group that would provide Fine Arts opportunities for local adults with developmental disabilities. Cool Arts vision is... to create opportunities, to make art, to take classes and learn, to be in a supportive fine arts environment, to exhibit or perform, to be part of the larger arts community.

Over the past year, 13 of the Cool Artists came together to prepare their pieces for the We Are Artists exhibit at the Kelowna Art Gallery. They have done self portraits which are part of their installment (a three piece exhibit) as well as other individual pieces. They worked together to produce several murals.

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Big Ideas: New blood, new ideas shake up old notions of philanthropy

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The Vancouver Sun's Don Cayo recently published an article entitled: Big Ideas: New blood, new ideas shake up old notions of philanthropy, with the tagline: The world of philanthropy has been transformed by people with money, brains and courage.

"...All this is changing the non-profit mindset, says Al Etmanski, who has changed a great deal himself in the 20 years since he co-founded Vancouver's Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network.

He has gone from business skeptic to partner and admirer, and he devotes some of his time to such unlikely nonprofit pastimes as advocating tax reform.

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    bsmith

    On Tuesday, February 9 at 2:00 p.m at District 319 which is located at 319 Main Street. Explore will premiere its latest film Sam Sullivan: Life in a Wheel and hear from 15 leaders in the social sector in Vancouver, including Vickie and Al. They will be following the format of the Speed Lunches [3 minutes max per speaker]. Members of the international media are expected to be present.

    On Wednesday, February 10 at 2:00 p.m at District 319. Explore will screen the film again [17 minutes] and then members of the community of people with physical disabilities and the community of people with drug dependencies will have a discussion [perhaps debate] about a statement in the film ‘drug addiction is like a disability’.