MAKING IT HAPPEN - Skills Societyto make ideas a reality. “Making It Happen” re-quires...

Supporting the citizenship of people with disabilities

ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015

MAKING IT HAPPEN

2 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2015

Welcome to the end of our 2014-2015 fiscal year. It is my privilege to provide highlights of Skills Society Society’s activities in rela-tion to our strategic plan.

Operational ExcellenceFollowing our last annual meeting, we passed a reso-lution to rebrand Skills So-ciety, changing the name trailer to “Supporting the

citizenship of people with disabilities.” Following this, we have refreshed, rebranded, and launched the new website, www.SkillsSociety.ca. If you have not done so yet, please check it out.

Part of the excellence that Skills Society experienc-es happens within our space. Over the course of the year, we renewed our lease here on 124th Street and we are now renovating. Extensive work has been done with the architectural firm, Manasc Isaac, of whom, Skills Society received the Blue Sky Architecture Award which provided in-kind funding for the design of a Social Innovation Lab. This space will be used for training, meetings and other collaborative activities.

The board has also been very involved in the poli-cy review and development process over the past year to ensure that the organization is aligned with best practices.

Learning and GrowthAlthough training is always ongoing, this year, there was an increased emphasis placed on training re-lated to leadership. Additional training has been fo-cused on risk assessments, particularly in the area of complex needs.

The continuous efforts made by Skills Society to be innovative was recognized and honored in the fall. Project Citizenship was nominated and awarded the Best in Digital Philanthropy Innovation Award in the 2014 Digital Alberta Awards.

Over the last few years Skills Society has researched and piloted methods for reporting outcomes and pos-itive action plans for those individuals receiving sup-

port. This experience has prepared us to move forward to actualizing our ideas. You may have seen a recent announcement that Skills Society, Lift Interactive, and Southern Alberta Community Living Association have signed an agreement to work collaboratively to devel-op an app to report outcomes and action plans in ways that are meaningful. This will ultimately improve the quality of life for people receiving support. We are ex-cited about this opportunity to be innovative.

CommunityThank you to the individuals we support, their fam-ilies, employees and their families, the community, and the City of Edmonton. Our Community Garden volunteers, working in Edmonton’s “Little Italy,” real-ized their goal to build 30 raised garden boxes. Plans are in place to continue building up the garden over the summer, stay tuned!

FinancialAs we have experienced previously, this past year we moved forward within a state of continued budget uncertainty from our provincial funders. Our present contract was initially extended until June 30, 2015. Recently this contract was amended and extended to December 31, 2015 which makes budget planning a challenge.

Committee UpdatesFund Development Committee In the fall, Skills Society welcomed a new addition to the management team, Rachael Lawrence-Hohl, our Manager of Fund Development. Rachel has been researching information related to funding sources and grant applications. We are happy to have this new position in place to focus on fund development projects and priorities that will move us forward and towards our goal of increased financial sustainability.

Board Development and Governance Committee The Board Development and Governance Committee reviewed and updated our board position descriptions to reflect the changes we have made over the last five years. As well, the committee has worked to prepare board and executive director succession plans so as to ensure as seamless as possible transitions when changing roles or terms are ending.

Board Chair Report

MAKING IT HAPPEN

Cindy Imppola

JUNE 2015 SKILLS ANNUAL REPORT 3

Advocacy Committee The provincial government has been active this year. Falling oil prices, deficit budgets, and elections have been in the news. In January, a member of the board was present at the Alberta Public Forum. Key ques-tions presented at the forum related to: non-profit funding, security of employees, vulnerable Albertans and their quality of life, and ensuring funding stability.

New Challenges A new Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) Safety Standard came into effect April 1, 2015 — Compliance with Various Codes and Bylaws Stan-dard 8. Although we applied for and received a six month extension, service providers ultimately must ensure:

a) that the residence has been inspected by an executive officer under the Public Health Act,

b) that there is a confirmation of compliance with the Safety Codes Act with respect to a new or renovated residence or where there has been a change in the use or intended use of the residence,

c) that, with respect to a residence which is housed in a pre-existing building, there is a confirmation of a fire safety inspection of the building, and

d) that zoning approval, if required, for the building that houses the residence and the residence itself has been granted.

In April 2015, the Alberta Council for Disability Services prepared a revised report (from the original December 2014 report), PDD Safety Standards Regulation: Legis-lative Context and Impact on Albertans with Develop-mental Disabilities and Service Providers. It provided information about the PDD Safety Standards, impacts, and recommendations. While all are in agreement to never compromise safety, the new regulations have unintended consequences, specifically:

l Responsibility of safety is assigned to the service provider. Where there is no legal control over property, this is problematic.

l The current standard requires a set of multiple inspections that overlap considerably in nature without an evident increase in safety over that produced by a single inspection.

Little Italy a Community Garden, a vibrant collective planting flowers and food


Board Chair Report (continued)

l Whatever benefit in safety accrues is limited only to those who have overnight support without family-managed services. Apparent benefits in safety appear to be limited to those with overnight support without family managed services. This leaves a large number of people with PDD-funded services without the supposed safety protection offered to peers by the Regulation.

l If the CET standards-based accreditation is sufficient for their safety, then why is more required for the subset of those supported overnight by accredited organizations?

There have been extensive meetings involving ser-vice providers, representatives from municipal and provincial governments or jurisdictions to determine how to interpret the regulations and discuss the po-tential impacts on individuals and organizations. Of great concern are the costs associated with imple-menting the standards and potential loss of housing.

Celebrating Board MembersJune marks the end of term for valued board mem-bers Emily Brodeur, Wendy Marusin, April Johnson, Maira Virani and Janice Bialasek. These individuals have been selfless in their contributions to the board and have been key in helping us create new policies and advocating on critical issues. Skills Society ex-tends a thank you for their service and engagement with the organization. We wish them all the best in their next endeavors — they will be missed.

We welcome new board member Lisa Prins, who works with Community Service-Learning at the University of Alberta and has been involved with Project Citizenship.

The board would like to thank Pat Conrad and her leadership team for another year of service commit-ment, innovation, and excellence. It is Skills Society’s unwavering efforts to pioneer, forge forward, and es-sentially “make it happen,” that enables Skills Society to engage in growth and continue to provide support and citizenship to the individuals we serve.

Cindy ImppolaBoard Chair, Skills Society

Rachel Lawrence-Hohl and Joshua Gnutel accepting a donation from the Royal Alexandra Hospital

Employees Charitable Donations Fund for thermometers related to safe bathing practices

Great Allies in RBC and Urban Spirits Rotary Club helping Skills Society in our community building work


Skills Society, like many not for profit organiza-tions, often seeks ways to make ideas a reality. “Making It Happen” re-quires ingredients such as creativity, determination and patience.

Last year, we began the process of rebranding Skills Society with the in-tent to bring continuity to the initiatives and ser-vices that we are involved in. We changed our name

to Skills Society, Supporting the citizenship of people with disabilities. During that time, we also reviewed our agency values which led to some more changes. The following five values are action oriented and sol-idly behind our approach to the services we provide.

Supporting Engaged CitizenshipCitizenship is about belonging and contributing and having access to important opportunities and choices. As Mark Kingwell describes it, “Citizenship is, in short, one of the profound categories that make us who we are, one of the crucial ways humans go about creating a life for themselves.” At Skills Society, our work focuses squarely on taking action that en-hances and celebrates positive citizenship outcomes for individuals.

Through efforts like Project Citizenship, we have committed ourselves to capturing stories about the citizenship journey of people with developmental disabilities. We feel that some advancement is be-ing achieved with over 55 stories now documented and shared through our website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, University of Alberta students and Make Something Edmonton.

These examples bring a real time perspective to our vision of people with disabilities as valued citizens. It is our hope that by making these stories available, some of the barriers standing in the way of citizens with disabilities having opportunities and choices to participate in their community will disappear.

On page 8 and 9 of this year’s annual report you’ll see Engaging Communities for Change: Citizenship and (Dis)ability. This is an info graphic that was created to provide an overview of the activities of Project Citizenship over the past four years.

Skills Society was successful in accessing funds for The CommuniTea Infusion Van Project that will create employment opportunities this summer for some of the individuals with disabilities who are supported by the agency.

Safeguarding Healthy RelationshipsSocial and material vulnerability are features of daily life for people with disabilities. Skills Society works to build positive and powerful relationships both inside and outside the organization to strengthen personal and political safety nets for the individuals we sup-port and for the broader disability community.

To ensure that Skills Society is aligned with current standards and best practices, agency policies and procedures have undergone an extensive review and overhaul over the past couple of years. The process to distribute the March 2015 Revised Policies and Procedures is in place. Although the bulk of the work has been completed, there are additional changes that will be communicated over the next year.

The Skills Society Health and Safety Manual is an-other huge project that was revised and completed this year. We are in the process of sharing it with the rest of the organization. It is an amazing resource to support the health and safety of the individuals we support and our staff.

We appreciated the opportunity to mentor a fourth year University of Alberta Human Ecology student for the winter semester. Her learning goals involved re-search and contributions related to the development of both manuals.

The Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) Safety Standards have placed a real strain on our al-ready over-taxed resources. Undergoing three separate inspections: PDD Safety Standards, Minimum Housing Health Standards (Alberta Health) and Fire or Alberta Building Code Standards annually to all homes where individuals receive overnight support is a mammoth

Executive Director’s Report

CHANGE Is A ProCEss BuIlT oN ACTIoN

Pat Conrad


task. We are just beginning to experience the impact of the City of Edmonton bylaws which are related to the PDD Safety Standards. Municipalities have in-terpreted the Safety Standards differently which has resulted in mass confusion throughout the province.

Recognizing the need to safeguard vulnerable citi-zens, accreditation standards have been in place for decades and service providers go through a rigorous

review of their practices regularly. The City of Edmon-ton bylaws have taken safety to another level which may result in unbearable costs to the point where some individuals may lose their homes. We agree that people need to be safe in their homes and are working with service providers and other stakehold-ers in the Edmonton Region to bring forward our con-cerns related to the impact of these bylaws to the lives of vulnerable citizens.

Executive Director’s Report (continued)

Diverse groups of citizens exploring notions of meaningful citizenship at the Stanley Milner Public Library


sKIlls soCIETY BoArd of dIrECTors2015-2016

offICErs of THE BoArd

Cindy ImppolaChair

Patricia BokenfohrVice Chair

Amy AbbottSecretary

Rochelle MitchellTreasurer

rETurNING As dIrECTors

Anne-Marie Kallal(Past Secretary)

Connor Doran

Rhonda Vernerey Penno

Auralia Brooke

Dwight Hayes

Joshua Gnutel

THE slATE of dIrECTors To BE rATIfIEd for A fIrsT TErM:

Lisa Prins

Rochelle Mitchell

Seeking Creative CollaborationsWe believe that social change comes from the strength of groups recognizing their commonalities, sharing resources, and working together. The dis-ability community has often been overlooked in so-cial change initiatives. We are committed to ensur-ing that we take our place among the talented and inventive groups and individuals working for more inclusive communities.

A recent event in April 2015 at the Stanley Milner Pub-lic Library in downtown Edmonton illustrates how we effectively seek creative collaborations that are mean-ingful and inclusive. Approximately 40 engaged citizens (citizens with disabilities, University of Alberta Commu-nity Service-Learning students, Skills Society commu-nity support workers, as well as community members and leaders from the Edmonton Public Library) came together for an afternoon of thought-provoking discus-sion and Lego® Serious Play® making of what inclusive citizenship can look like in action. At the end of the afternoon, community builder and city planner David Rauch gave several attendees with disabilities the op-portunity to share their story in the new recording stu-dio in the library’s Maker Space, to include as part of In Your Own Words (Rauch’s ongoing Oral History Project).

The second season of the Little Italy Community Garden project has begun. Skills Society is very proud of our stewardship role in transforming a vacant city lot into a useful and vibrant commu-nity space. Numerous contributions of personal labour, materials, and equipment from a host of community folks have us looking forward to more opportunities to develop the garden this summer. Our relationship with the City of Edmonton has led to an invitation to apply for a project grant that would be focused on beautification of the McCau-ley neighbourhood and would offer employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We are at the first stages of consideration but interested in exploring the invitation further.

Skills Society was honoured to be invited to par-ticipate at the Sound, Light and Motion Event at the Winspear Centre in December 2014. We felt a sense of pride that our project Making Our Mark was prominently featured along with many exam-ples of activities that are making Edmonton vibrant, creative and strong.

Building and Sharing KnowledgeAt Skills, we work hard to learn through our own ac-tions, and through studying the work of others. We are committed to trying new ideas and becoming bet-

continued on page 10

Engaging Communities for Change: Citizenship and (Dis)abilityNancy Spencer-Cavaliere1, Bethan Kingsley1, Ben Weinlick2, & Debbie Reid2

1Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, 2Skills Society, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Some stories enhance life and others degrade it so we must be careful about the stories we tell – Burton Blatt

Despite deinstitutionalization, people who experience disability continue to live their lives at the margins of our culture, with identities of

clienthood and not of citizenship.

Skills Society, an organization that supports people who experience

disability, initiated Project Citizenship with the intention of creating more

inclusive communities.

Project Citizenship is about creating positive social change through the creation, documentation and sharing of citizenship

stories. These stories highlight the many ways people who experience disability contribute to

and meaningfully engage in community.

Jason’s Story – Captain CommunityDocumented in the form of a comic, Jason’s story tells of his heroic efforts to protect his

community and prevent his neighbours from a break and enter attempt.

Danielle’s Story – The Animal AdvocateDanielle’s story, captured through video, shows her dedication and contributions

to the humane society.

Daniel’s Story – Drumming to His Own Beat

Daniel’s meaningful engagement with a community of drummers and his importance to

their well-being are highlighted in this video.

Skills sought to improve the ways they support people who experience disability.

They shared new ideas through:

Think TanksStaff took part in gatherings designed to

foster relevant creativity. Staff were encouraged to think differently and to

connect creative thinking to action that leads to better quality outcomes.

World CafésStaff participated in forums to inform and

engage people who experience disability and their allies in an iterative process of sharing about current and future citizenship stories.

Citizen Action HallAlong with students, researchers and people who experience disability, staff explored and

learned about the meaning of citizenship.

Making Our MarkStaff were part of an art collaboration where they learned about the diverse perspectives

of the people they support.

Co-Creation of Citizenship Stories

Organizational Transformation


This endeavor was supported by a Community Service-Learning Partnership Grant from the University of Alberta.

Engaging Communities for Change: Citizenship and (Dis)abilityNancy Spencer-Cavaliere1, Bethan Kingsley1, Ben Weinlick2, & Debbie Reid2

1Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta, 2Skills Society, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Some stories enhance life and others degrade it so we must be careful about the stories we tell – Burton Blatt

Skills Society, an organization that supports people who experience

disability, initiated Project Citizenship with the intention of creating more

inclusive communities.

The goal of Project Citizenship is to co-create a collection of citizenship stories of people who

experience disability to provide opportunities for self-expression, to raise awareness and to

initiate social change.

Skills sought to improve the ways they support people who experience disability.

They shared new ideas through:

Think TanksStaff took part in gatherings designed to

foster relevant creativity. Staff were encouraged to think differently and to

connect creative thinking to action that leads to better quality outcomes.

World CafésStaff participated in forums to inform and

engage people who experience disability and their allies in an iterative process of sharing about current and future citizenship stories.

Citizen Action HallAlong with students, researchers and people who experience disability, staff explored and

learned about the meaning of citizenship.

Making Our MarkStaff were part of an art collaboration where they learned about the diverse perspectives

of the people they support.

Students were engaged as co-collaborators through community service-learning

opportunities.

Experiential JournalismStudents worked with individuals to co-create

the telling of their stories.

Citizen Action HallStudents shared in a participatory

education environment in which they co-learned about citizenship and ways to collectively support and promote it.

Making Our MarkStudents participated in a collective art

project. They engaged in the exploration of how play, pride and freedom intersect with

citizenship and disability.

Awareness and positive social change were generated in the community through:

GalaAn exhibit was held at the SNAP gallery

where stories of citizenship were showcased and shared with the broader community.

Community MuralThe project logo was created by an artist who experiences disability. It is showcased at the

Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts.

Making Our Mark – Works Art FestivalAn art exhibition displayed themes of

pride, play and freedom through the lens of citizenship and the experience of disability.

WebsiteThe Project Citizenship website contains the

stories, learnings and much more. Go to: projectcitizenship.com

Student EngagementOrganizational Transformation Community Engagement



ter problem solvers. We seek opportunities to promote our work publicly in order to spark commentary and critique, and to forge new partnerships.

Skills Society, Southern Alberta Community Living Association (SACLA) and Lift Interactive are collabo-rating to develop an app that provides a more engag-ing and humanized experience related to providing individualized services for people with disabilities. We are excited about the prospects of using new technology to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. The ability to report outcomes and action plans in ways that are meaningful will make this app a valuable tool.

We are in the process of using technology to assist us operationally to be more effective and efficient. Skills is moving into an electronic payroll system. To prepare for this shift, Skills employees have been of-fered free computer training.

The architectural expertise from Manasc Isaac’s Blue Sky Architecture Award has provided the opportunity for Skills Society to design a Social Innovation Lab in our new space on the second floor. In addition to being a great group of people to work with, we also appreci-ate the contributions of Manasc Isaac and thank them for this incredible gift. Skills Society looks forward to the untapped potential that a newly created space like this will offer to us and the community.

Embracing ComplexityThe work of assisting people with disabilities to achieve good lives is not an easy road. It requires creativity, determination, and collective effort. At Skills we do not shy away from taking on big challenges, to innovate and try again. The work is complex — not only at the individual level, but at the level of helping influence so-cial policy that guides society in its obligations to ad-dress the needs and contributions of disabled citizens.

Skills Society provides supports to many individuals who have complex needs. This year, we spent time re-viewing how we support staff and individuals in best

practices related to complex needs. A decision to re-purpose a Manager of Community Supports position (Dawn Marie Greene) to a Manager of Complex Needs Resources has already made a significant difference to providing assistance to management and staff in their supports to individuals with complex needs.

We have been able to replicate the Citizen Action Lab with seven Lab Leaders now involved. This means that we are starting to reach more people through facilitating more experiences that help explore new community connection possibilities and employment opportunities. One of the reasons why we have the action lab is to navigate through the complexity of community inclusion of people with disabilities and come up with innovative ways of supporting people to have good lives.

Skills Society has embarked on many activities that represent this year’s theme “Making It Happen.”

The forecast of any increase of government funding for administration costs has not been favourable. We hope that our decision to downsize to the second floor office space will put the agency in a good posi-tion for the next six years. Renovations to the space will help us accommodate the needs of the agency and staff. We are enjoying the refreshing feeling that new paint and carpet has brought to our work envi-ronment. The Social Innovation Lab design of the new training and multi-use space (featured on the front cover of the Annual Report) will be a great place to learn and collaborate with community members.

It is important to celebrate the success of this past year that provided government funding for a commu-nity agency staff wage increase that was sustain-able and amended into our contract. I am optimistic that the election in May 2015 of a new government will bring change and hope for a better future.

Pat ConradExecutive Director, Skills Society

Executive Director’s Report (continued)

Real lasting change doesn’t happen overnight. It happens little by little,

Day by day.

One brick at a time Making the strongest foundation for a stable future.

People waiting for change are missing the opportunity to see that change isn’t an event. It’s a process built on action.

Krissy Vernsdale


Fund Development Report

BuIldING lAsTING rElATIoNsHIPsIn 2014 Skills Society made the decision to shift from fundraising to fund development. This shift encour-aged us to think differently about how we go about raising money to support the many projects and ini-tiatives that are fundamental to our work as a dis-ability services provider. We began to embrace the idea that fund development is all about building re-lationships with people and other organizations that will support our work. Although this type of work has the potential to reap many rewards, it typically takes time, patience and perseverance, like most things in life that are worth waiting for.

This year we worked on shifting our thinking from fund raising to a fund development culture that sup-ports our strategic plan. We invested in a consultant to help us move forward in this planning process

which included creating new policies and procedures as well as a case for support. Skills hired Rachel Law-rence-Hohl to a new position of Manager of Fund De-velopment in September 2014. Now we look forward to building upon the blocks that have already been established. We understand that we need to be pro-active and thoughtful in our relationship work and we accept that things won’t happen overnight; that’s okay because we believe that good things come to those who wait. It makes sense for our organization to invest time and energy in fund development work because it will sustain our organization as we work to fulfill our long term mission and vision.

Long-term InvestmentsThe Skills Society Endowment Fund and Cable Fam-ily Skills Endowment Fund through the Edmonton Community Foundation continues to grow, creating a long term and sustainable income for Skills. Over the last year we have earned approximately $15,000 in investment income. It is exciting to see these funds multiply and we know that this will have a lasting impact on our organization.

Nurturing Partnerships, Old and NewSkills wishes to thank Dennis Cooper and colleagues at Alberta Finance for collecting funds to create an emergency fund for people who are supported by Skills. We would also like to thank Bronwyn MacKin-non and colleagues at Edmonton Tax Services, Can-ada Revenue Agency for taking on the Christmas stocking project yet another year.

In the spring of 2015, thanks to our partners TELUS Community Foundation, Telus was able to make a documentary about the CommuniTEA Infusion Proj-ect and the key stellar citizen with a disability, Em-ily who helps to coordinate the community building events through the van.

We are also pleased to be working with the Reach Employee Resource Group, a group of RBC employ-ees coming together to be ambassadors for peo-ple living with disabilities within their organization and in the community. We were first introduced to the group when we were granted $8,000 towards our CommuniTEA Infusion project in early May, 2014. Since then, the group expressed interest in volun-teering with our CommuniTEA Infusion project and

CommuniTEA Infusion Project in actioncontinued on page 12


Fund Development Report (continued)

The 2014/2015 fiscal year for Skills Society has been another year of success. We have ended the year with a surplus.

In terms of revenue, Skills has recorded just un-der $19.67 million in the current year which was $1.76 million higher than the original budget. This difference is primarily due to a staff wage increase provided by our government funders. For the same reason, total expenses for the year were $19.31 mil-lion, or $1.44 million higher than budget.

Skills has a surplus of $333,000 in the current year, compared to a $72,000 surplus in 2014 and a $159,000 deficit in 2013.

Looking ahead to the 2015/2016 year, Skills is an-ticipating a balanced operating budget. We will be watching to see what the change in government will mean to our funding levels. Due to downsizing of our current space and moving all operations to the second floor, Skills is undergoing office renova-tions. This change was necessitated by our need to be more efficient with our leased space. The board committed to allocate some of the funds in the surplus back to the agency reserve fund which covered off the deficit in 2013. In addition, we are purchasing two large computer programs. These changes to operations are significant and will reduce our accumulated surplus.

Patricia BokenfohrVice Chair and member of Finance Committee

the Little Italy Community Garden. They would like to grant us additional funds in exchange for volunteer opportunities for members of the Reach Group. On two different days in May, an enthu-siastic and committed group of RBC employees provided people power and skills in our Little Italy Community Garden alongside Skills staff and peo-ple supported by Skills. We had so much fun with this great group of people and we look forward to their involvement with our organization.

Thanks to the generosity of the Urban Spirits Rota-ry club, the Little Italy Community Garden now has

a shed. This committed and energetic club purchased the shed and put in the sweat equity necessary to build it. Their commitment to projects and activities that improves the lives of others is inspiring and we are grateful for their support and involvement with Skills.

Recently, we attended the West Edmonton Business Association’s Annual Golf Tournament as the Charity of Choice. Skills Society appreciated the support and the invitation to be involved in their annual fundraiser.

Thank you to all of the individuals, families and busi-nesses who have contributed time, in-kind support, and financial resources. This support is significant and greatly appreciated. We acknowledge the contri-butions of the following:

l Capital Region Housing Corporation

l City of Edmonton — Edmonton Neighbourhood Revitalization Grant

l Community Service Learning Department, University of Alberta

l Intuit Canada

l Jasper Place High School

l Manasc Isaac Blue Sky Architecture Award

l Ogilvie LLP Barristers and Solicitors

l RBC

l Royal Alexandra Hospital Employees Charitable Donations Fund

l TELUS Community Foundation

l Urban Spirits Rotary Club

l West Edmonton Business Association

Exciting partnerships and collaborations lie ahead and the sky’s the limit. We look forward to strength-ening relationships and partnerships with individu-als and groups who share our vision and we hope that you will join us on our exciting journey.

Rachel Lawrence-HohlManager of Fund Development, Skills Society

Treasurer’s Report

A YEAr WorTH CElEBrATING

Fund Development Report continued from page 11

A CommuniTEA Infusion event


Research and Social Innovation

lEAdING THE WAY IN soCIAl INNovATIoN

“A social innovation is an idea that works for the public good”

Social Innovation Generation, Toronto

During the past year, Skills reached many exciting new milestones in the area of social innovation ini-tiatives. Thanks to our new website and the creative collaborations of people and organizations within and outside the human services field, our work is getting noticed regionally, nationally, and internationally. If you take a look at the nine major social change ini-tiatives on our website you’ll see that we don’t just talk about social innovation, we live it.

At Skills Society, social innovation means that we are building knowledge and designing new and better ways to support the engaged citizenship of people with disabilities. At the end of the day, we have to en-sure that our innovations enable us to better help the people we serve to have an improved quality of life. To support relevant social innovation to emerge, we con-tinue to build a culture where we think about what we have done and push ourselves to consider new ideas and practices. We have been using new tools through our Citizen Action Labs to co-create fresh ideas and plans so that people with disabilities can have access to more engaged citizenship experiences.

Through our independent projects and those with our community partners, Skills Society aims to test new ideas and challenge old as-sumptions — pioneering better ways to value and include people with disabilities within com-munity. (Skills Society)

Here are a few highlights of what we have accom-plished over the last year.

Building our Action Lab Community Research SpaceDespite having to move our offices into a smaller and more affordable footprint in our existing building, we have been able to design a more creative, collabora-tive and efficient training space. In 2013 Skills Society was honoured and grateful to be awarded the Mana-sc Isaac Blue Sky Architecture Award to develop a

creative social lab and community research space for Skills and the larger community. This is going to be an amazing space for sparking new thinking and community action. Skills Society will use the space for internal workshops, training, and our Citizen Ac-tion Lab. In addition, the space and workshops will be available to the public as well. We want this space to be the talk of the town and be a place where busi-nesses, community organizations, government, uni-versity classes and other groups can come to prob-lem solve, and use the creative space for sparking fresh strategic planning, team visioning, community building, design thinking and navigate complex chal-lenges facing people and organizations today. This space will support us to bring many of our organiza-tional values to life, such as seeking creative collabo-rations, building and sharing knowledge and embrac-ing complexity. We launch the Action Lab in fall 2015.

We were honoured that Tim Draimin of Social Inno-vation Generation in Toronto wrote the following in support of our lab:

Social Labs are emerging now in many ways as the culmination and convergence of the last thirty years of learning from systems change theory, human centered design thinking, com-munity building approaches, appreciative inquiry, action research and the patterns that support disciplined innovation. A social lab is a collab-orative approach to navigating complex social challenges that has a bias towards action and building practical prototyped solutions with the people that are affected by a challenge.

For social labs to be effective they need:l The right stewardship, which Skills Society has

through their Citizen Action Lab approach,l The space and tools that elicit fresh thinking,

collaboration, creative problem solving and building solutions as a collective, and

l Access to the most promising practices emerging in the national and international community of social labs, which Ben Weinlick and Skills Society have been pro-active in developing.

The strength of social labs is that they honour the wisdom, experience, knowledge and gifts of all the participants and that helps to get to more relevant outcomes.


The Citizen Action LabThe Citizen Action Lab is our creative approach to sparking community connections, fostering the po-tential of employment opportunities through the generation of small businesses, and encouraging the emergence of citizenship experiences. The Citizen Action Lab is a collaborative approach that takes place in the Action Lab space. Our think tank ap-proach that we explored over the last five years with help and research from the University of Alberta has now evolved into the Citizen Action Lab as we con-tinue to learn what works, to think differently, and support the emergence of citizenship roles. At pres-ent we have mentored seven lab stewards to lead this approach and over the last four months we have hosted many new Citizen Action Labs for the people we support.

Project Citizenship As our flagship initiative Project Citizenship has spawned many of our current social innovations through creating space for new collaborations. We continue to document individual stories as well as stories of large scale social change events. Check out

www.projectcitizenship.com for new stories that highlight what engaged citizenship can mean and look like for not just people with disabilities but everyone in community.

Humanized Person-Centered Planning AppWe are very excited to be pi-oneering new and more hu-manized ways to develop and report on plans we co-cre-ate with people we support and their families. After we learned what worked and didn’t work from a rough pro-totype we piloted last year, we have partnered with an enthusiastic collective to de-velop a web application that humanizes the planning pro-cess. Skills Society, Lift Inter-active, and Southern Alberta Community Living Association are collaborating to build this game-changing social innova-

tion that uses new technology to improve the quality of life of people receiving supports through human service organizations.

The app will work on tablets, smart phones, any computer and also be a means to report in mean-ingful ways on outcomes and action plans developed through use of the app.

Our Goals1. We want to transform service planning from

what can be a bureaucratic, de-humanizing and a less than engaging experience, into a delightful, insightful and truly meaningful collaboration.

2. We want to make it easier for people receiving services — and their families — to be at the helm when designing the service they deserve and want.

3. We want to make it easier and more meaningful to follow up on plans so there is increased accountability that a person’s service plan is acted upon and achieved.

Research and Social Innovation (continued)

Citizen Action Lab team creatively exploring new citizenship roles for someone they support


4. We want the app to be a skill-enhancing tool for human service workers whose role is central in ensuring plans are high quality and centered on what a person receiving service wants and needs.

Word has spread that what we are building is an im-portant social innovation for Human Services and we have received strong support from leaders with-in Government of Alberta Human Services Ministry and our project has been featured in both the Metro News and Edmonton Examiner. We plan on launching the application around January 2016.

Bright Future AheadThese are just a few of the ways we are leading So-cial Innovation initiatives at Skills Society and with the greater community. Please check out more of our social change projects at www.skillssociety.ca/projects/ and follow us on Twitter @Skillssociety and on Facebook.

Ben WeinlickSenior Leader of Research and Social Innovation

Skills Society

Vivian Manasc helping us prototype the design for the Action Lab

124 Street Business Park East 203, 10408 – 124 Street, Edmonton, AB T5N 1R5

780.496.9686 main 780.482.6395 fax [email protected]

skillssociety.ca @skillssociety

projectcitizenship.com @project_citizen

RBC Employees volunteering in the Little Italy Community Garden and helping us in our community building work

MAKING IT HAPPEN - Skills Societyto make ideas a reality. “Making It Happen” re-quires...

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