America Wild – IMAX Review
Seen on March 6

This film was a MacGillivray Freeman film, narrated by Robert Redford.  The film showed audiences many of America’s historic and beautiful National Parks.  The film had strong values of encouraging people to explore and regain the idea that the national Parks aren’t owned by “anyone”, but “everyone”.

In February we launched some focus groups to come together to discuss rights and what they meant for each person.  We gained some valuable insight from meeting with individuals from many of our programs; Home Share, Individual Support Network, Futures Club, and Paskin House.   This poster is the result of those meetings. Next up: an app that will be available on your computer, tablet or phone.

We’d like to thank Sharon Sinclair for helping to facilitate the meetings, and all those who participated in the focus groups….we couldn’t have done it without your valuable input!

Low-Floor Buses Mobility Aid Orientation

If you would like to learn how to board the low-floor bus with your wheelchair, walker or scooter, we can help. We will set up an appointment with you, and bring a bus to the accessible bus stop nearest to your home so that you can practice.

Call BC Transit Safety and Training at 250-385-2551 to arrange a session.

Click here for more information.

March 2016 

Community Update
Updated Canada Pension Plan Disability Guide

Dear Community Partner,

We have completed a full update of our publication The Social Security Tribunal: A Self-Help Guide for Canada Pension Plan Disability Appeals. It is available on our website at http://tinyurl.com/jylnh4o.

If you would like us to mail you this publication, please call Val at 604-875-0188 or email her at [email protected]

Best regards,
Jane Dyson, Executive Director
Val Stapleton, Membership and Outreach Coordinator

CLBC is pleased to announce the following new on-line resources:

home sharing standards course – CLBC’s Standards for Home Sharing course (http://www.communitylivingbc.ca/Home-Sharing-Standards-Course) has been developed in partnership with Open School BC and provides an overview of the standards, principles, and promising practices associated with this residential option. The course contains information that is required for home sharing providers who contract directly with CLBC and is available for anyone who would like to complete the course. If you have questions about this course, please contact Reta Derouin ([email protected]).

resource guide for service providers – The Shared Living Resource Guide: A Toolkit of Ideas to Support Good Lives in Community (http://www.communitylivingbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Shared-Living-Resource-Guide-A-Toolkit-of-Ideas-to-Support-Good-Lives-in-Community.pdf) is the result of a collaborative initiative between Community Living BC and the CEO Network of BC. The guide reflects 3 years of research, conversation, and collaboration between the many people involved with the delivery of shared living services within this province. The guide is an invaluable resource for agencies currently delivering shared living services and for those that are considering seeking to become qualified to deliver this service. For more information about this guide, please contact the CEO Network or Andrea Baker ([email protected]).

report on supported living roundtable – Exploring New Ways to Live in Community: a conversation about supported living for people with developmental disabilities in BC (http://www.communitylivingbc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Supported-Living-Dialogue-Report-FINAL-Oct-2015.pdf) offers thoughts about how supported living services are currently delivered and how this residential option could look in the future. The report summarizes the results of a survey and roundtable discussion that were initiated by a group of service providers and supported by Community Living BC in 2013. For more information about this report, please contact the CEO Network or Andrea Baker ([email protected]

The Safe Harbour Champions’ Award was created by AMSSA to acknowledge work being done by businesses, institutions, agencies, and municipalities to advance inclusion in workplaces and communities across B.C. and Canada.

Each year, the Champion’s Breakfast recognizes one organization for their outstanding diversity leadership from among the 1,000 participating Safe Harbour locations across B.C.

Please join representatives from business, not-for-profit and government as we congratulate this year’s champion for building welcoming and inclusive communities for all Canadians.

The 7th annual Safe Harbour Champion’s Breakfast is on March 10th, 2016, in Burnaby, B.C

We would like to recognize this year’s award nominees for their work to advance inclusion in the workplace and community:

• Kardel
• Back in Motion
• Victoria Police Department
• Collingwood Neighbourhood House
• Salmon Arm Savings & Credit Union
• South Okanagan Immigrant Community Services

You may have now heard that the BC government has announced the end of the annual bus pass program for those who collect the Persons with Disabilities benefit. 

Kardel encourages you to learn more about this impending change and the impact it will have on the lives of those with disabilities.  Below you will find more information. 

You may consider signing the petition that has been created by Inclusion BC to bring back the annual bus pass program and raise the rate of PWD. 

Here are the major points of the petition:

•             Bring back the $45 per year bus pass for people with disabilities.
•             Eliminate the new $52/month bus pass fee.
•             Let everyone receiving PWD benefits keep the $77/month increase.
•             Raise the PWD benefit rate to $1200 per month by October 1, 2016 to reflect the cost of living.

You can read the full petition by clicking  HERE. 

Victoria City Council is seeking volunteers to help make City infrastructure and facilities more accessible for everyone. Candidates should have “lived experience” with accessibility challenges and have a willingness to work collaboratively and offer ideas to remove barriers for persons with disabilities, and develop improved policies for future facilities and amenities in Victoria.

Application deadline is Friday, February 12. Interested candidates should submit an application to [email protected].

Each position is volunteer, ending November 2018.

Click here for details

Kardel’s new Strategic Plan Info Graphic shows our mission, vision, values, and strategic goals for the next three years.  We worked in partnership with Tanya Gadsby to design the new poster and pull together the feedback we worked through with Staci Barter at our Strategic Planning Meeting in November 2015.

Strategic Plan Visual 2015

Mysteries of the Unseen World:  All about microscopic things, like the bugs in your eyelashes, bacteria and viruses and dust mites.  The on that grossed me out the most were the bugs in everybody’s eyelashes

Pixels:  About video games; the video game characters came to life and they took over the world.  The gamers had a hard time controlling them but managed to save the world.

Cats & Dogs:  Jeff Goldblum was the main character and played the father of one son.  The cats and dogs were special agents to fight bad men.  The cats and dogs won the battle with the help of Jeff Goldblum.