Bedrooms, Services and Support available now in Lake Country - Contact us at 250-469-9358
Langley availability anticipated in February 2012 - Contact us at 604-534-0705
info@connectcommunities.ca
Ruth Webster joined the CONNECT family 11 years ago. She had two beautiful children, Sheryl and Brian, whom she loved dearly.
Ruth was truly special. She had a very pleasant personality and enjoyed life to the fullest. She was always positive, always shared a smile and enjoyed listening to music. She sang along and often danced away to the tunes she loved. Never a dull moment with Ruth!
Early in September a group of CONNECT residents came up with an idea to host a party that would prove to be even more fun and relevant than they first imagined. They recruited a few CONNECT staff members to help with the planning although the lion's share of the work, ideas and effort was done by a group of 6 residents. “Give Thanks” became the theme for our first annual CONNECT Fall Dine and Dance Social. This theme guided the planning committee’s collaborative efforts and creative ideas to ensure not a detail was forgotten. On Friday, October 7th 2011 at the Winfield Memorial Hall, 150 members of the community including residents and former residents of CONNECT, their families and friends, staff and members of our Okangan community gathered to “Give Thanks”.
Gail Linge has certainly had an important and special impact on CONNECT Lake Country. Her paintings adorn many walls throughout the building where they are appreciated by all. She is a multidisciplinary artist, often combining poetry with painting and incorporating found objects into her work. Gail is often seen hard at work on her painting or sitting quietly in a corner composing her latest piece of poetry.
CONNECT Communities is a fascinating and exciting place. When my colleague, Mary Ellen Sanajko, and I first met Patti Flaherty, CONNECT's Executive Director and the leadership team, we knew they were amazing, special people with a huge vision and lots of ideas to improve the lives of people with brain injury.
In June 2012, CONNECT Communities will go through the final process to become a fully accredited organization through Accreditation Canada. Accreditation Canada is a not-for-profit, independent organization that provides health organizations with an external peer review to assess the quality of their services based on standards of excellence. Accreditation offers regular, consistent ways of examining and improving the quality of our services through on-site peer reviews and surveys by peer surveyors.
CONNECT Communities is committed to supporting efforts to improve the health and well being of our organization, the people we serve and our local neighborhood. Recently, CONNECT Langley partnered with the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program through the University of Victoria to host the Active Choices Coach Training Program, a 2-day workshop training physical activity coaches to support people in meeting their exercise goals.
CONNECT Lake Country recently held a music night. Several staff members showed off their musical talents by performing an hour of songs for residents and fellow staff members. Percussion instruments were provided for audience members who wanted to play along with the “band”. Each musician played a song in turn and the others joined in, becoming an impromptu backing band. Music styles ranged from quiet finger-picked folk to flat out rock and roll.
Take JP Forest and Michael Coss, two men who have experienced brain injury in very different ways. They met as housemates at CONNECT Langley and subsequently became friends. They have combined their respective talents and have come up with some pretty amazing ideas.
JP recently came into the Langley office with a DVD he had prepared for us. The following is an excerpt from a letter he wrote sharing a dream that the two men intend to make come true.
Review by Denise Cambiotti, Specialized Kinesiology Practitioner located in Coquitlam, BC. (604) 936-5463 info@denisecambiotti.com
This book published in 2011 by Expert Author Publishing in Canada comes five years after Michael Coss's car accident and resulting brain injury. In these five years, Michael has had a variety of unusual experiences due to this unfortunate incident.
