The trip up the mountain earned one St. Albert agency a trip to the podium for a provincial award last week.
Lo-Se-Ca was one of two co-winners of the Community Disability Service Sector Leadership Award handed out by the Edmonton Region Community Board of Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) last week.
“The awards are used to recognize the actions of individuals, organizations and businesses – that go that extra mile – to promote community inclusion,” explained Dave Orey, communications co-ordinator for the regional board.
PDD is the provincial board that works to help Albertans to be involved in their communities and live independently and they recently recognized four people and a family, in addition to Lo-Se-Ca, during the Wednesday ceremony. This was the fourth time that the annual awards have been handed out.
The St. Albert agency offers residential and day supports to adults with developmental disabilities. It was praised for its recent Rafiki Project, a group excursion unlike any that it had ever hosted before. The adventure of a lifetime saw 13 of its employees and clients travel to Tanzania and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Upon their return to ground level, they focused their efforts on Bangwe House, a shelter for orphaned children and youth with mental disabilities. The Lo-Se-Ca crew spent several days there assisting as volunteers with several construction projects at the site, including building a farm and a chicken house.
“I’m really proud of that project,” offered Marie Renaud, the executive director of the organization. “It doesn’t matter if we get an award or not. All of the people who went there… we’re really proud. We don’t need an award to tell us it was good because we know it was.”
The award recognizes an organization or individual who has introduced innovation or best practice strategies that have improved the delivery of services for adults with developmental disabilities. This year it recognized both as Vickie Mancini (Spring Lake) was the co-winner.
Renaud added that Mancini works with Lo-Se-Ca, providing home support to one of its clients.
They were all recognized for their efforts in promoting community inclusion and improving the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. There were five categories of the awards: self-advocacy, individual leadership, community citizenship, community disability service sector leadership and family leadership.
The other award winners included:
• Robert Lupul (Edmonton) for the Self-Advocacy Award;
• Marjorie Thompson (Edmonton) for the Individual Leadership Award;
• Donna Palfrey (Edmonton) for the Community Citizenship Award; and
• the McRorie Family (Edmonton) for the Family Leadership Award.
Jan Allard of St. Albert also won the Individual Leadership Award two years ago for her tireless work through the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village.
These winners, along with the winners from the other five PDD regions, will automatically be submitted as nominees for the PDD Provincial Community Leadership Awards. Those will be handed out later in the year.
