TABLE OF CONTENT
- Chairman's Remarks
- Executive Director's Report
- Grants Approved In 1997
- Continuing Projects 1997
- Grant Summary 1997
ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORTS
1997 Annual Report
CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS
"New Approaches" appropriately describes 1997 at The Counselling Foundation of Canada.
In 1997, we welcomed two new Directors to the Board; Gordon Wolfe, Executive Director of Jewish Family and Child Services of Metropolitan Toronto, and Bruce G. Lawson, the first of the grandchildren of Frank G. Lawson, Founder of the Foundation, to join the Board of the Foundation. Gordon brings a wealth of experience in effective programming and services for families, as well as, not for profit program development and management. Bruce’s broadly based volunteer commitments combined with his business, marketing and promotions experience will be an asset in the future work of the Foundation.
In 1997, The Counselling Foundation of Canada granted just over $2.6 million in project and program funding - the largest annual investment in our history - to support innovation, enhancements and new approaches in our two primary areas of focus; Career Counselling and Practice, and, Healthy Child Development.
CAREER COUNSELLING AND PRACTICE
The Counselling Foundation of Canada continued to support the professionalization of and public education on career counselling. Our long standing role in the evolution of NATCON (National Consultation on Career Development) as the largest international bilingual conference on career and vocational issues remains the cornerstone of our work in this area. This investment was complimented with significant new approaches to the professionalization of career counsellors and counselling practice. Now in it’s second year of developmental funding, CONTACTPOINT, provided career development practitioners with access to professional development opportunities, practical resource tools and professional discourse on emerging issues "online". CONTACTPOINT has proven to be an effective resource for career and employment counsellors, career development practitioners and international academics working within the school, college, university, community based and private sector. With the financial support of the Foundation, A Career Practitioner Certificate is now available by distance learning through Connestoga College, Waterloo University, University of Guelph and Sir Wilfred Laurier University. Access to the curriculum by practitioners in the field wishing to further develop and enhance their career counselling skills has been facilitated by a bursary fund administered by the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres.
Innovation in program delivery and client service was attained through the successful piloting of a Career Assessment Program (CAP) by the YWCA of Metropolitan Toronto and a unique recruitment and training opportunity developed by The Canadian Plastics Training Centre in Toronto. Through these, and many similar programs, individuals were provided assistance with their efforts and support for their determination to attain their full potential. Our focus on specific programs which assist and support young people continued through the efforts of YouthLink, Central Toronto Youth Services and CultureLink.
The work and efforts of Streetlight to assist young people to recognize alternative opportunities to their life and work on the streets deserves specific mention. We became aware of the work of Streetlight and its team of committed volunteers just over a year ago. Through hard work and determination, this agency has created a model of service delivery to meet the needs of a very hard to serve population. Their commitment to sharing their experience and encouraging other communities to develop similar approaches is ensuring young people in many communities will benefit from efforts in Toronto.
HEALTHY CHILD DEVELOPMENT
A commitment to prevention drives our efforts to maximize the benefit of our granting decisions in this relatively new area of interest for the Foundation. Recognizing that, children in neighborhoods where social supports such as daycare and resource centres are accessible are far less frequently victims of social ills than those living in areas where few community supports exist, our investment in the establishment and expansion of services to a large residential coop housing facility in downtown Toronto continued. Under the leadership of the Gerrard Family Resource Centre, initial efforts to establish a physical presence a year ago have progressed to include; on-site health consultations, family social events, a youth group, a satellite drop-in facility in partnership with a local school, and, parenting workshops. The parenting workshops were made possible through a Foundation grant to the Parenting Intervention Project of the Hospital for Sick Children. This project was designed to engage a number of existing Foundation supported projects in the piloting and evaluation of an early intervention model developed by The Hospital for Sick Children.
The success of mentoring programs supported by the Foundation in addressing employability issues amongst young people led us to investigate the transferability of the mentoring approach to families. The Ottawa Family Service Association is piloting a Family Mentoring Program previously developed and implemented in American cities. The Family to Family Ties program will provide forty Ottawa families with a mentoring experience for one year. Monitoring and evaluation will determine future transferability to additional urban and rural communities.
We believe many individuals will directly benefit from the "new approaches" these programs and services represent. The agencies, organizations and individuals responsible for the successful implementation of these new approaches are also poised to benefit from the collaborative innovation they represent. We look forward to continuing to encourage and facilitate partnership projects which share expertise and develop the capacity of all partners. We are confident that by engaging many in the solution, the challenges our communities face may become fewer.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Donald G. Lawson
Chair
