Issues & Trends from the Executive Director
In December 2013 Community Living Victoria will celebrate its 58th year. Although there have been many challenges and opportunities in the past year, we remain committed to providing an array of services to children, youth and adults with developmental disabilities. We are proud that we have stood with many families, helping them seek the assistance they need. We work hard to ensure that services we provide are responsive to the diverse needs of the people we support.
As the people we support are age, we are challenged by increased needs and accessibility issues that have made some of our homes no longer suitable. In January the individuals supported at the Maplewood home moved to their new accessible rancher on Tyndall Avenue. This was a key goal arising from our strategic plan. We are pleased to have recently finalized the sale of the Maplewood home.
We continue to grow. As another key initiative coming from our strategic plan, we wanted to develop services for youth and attract younger families. We have exceeded this goal and in fact, youth are now the largest group that we support through the Teen Community Connections and Autism Services.
Many families in WestShore have said that they would welcome our services in their community. We are pleased to have opened a new office in there in September. Proceeds from the Vipond Royal Colwood Golf Classic, held in June, provided us with this tremendous opportunity.
Throughout the fall and winter of 2012 negotiations continued on reaching a new Collective Agreement for our unionized staff. After a few targeted province wide strikes, an agreement was reached and a 2 year Collective Agreement was ratified in the spring of 2013 providing a modest 3 % wage lift, as well as some changes to the language of the contract.
The success of our work is the result of our exceptional employees. The recently negotiated Collective Agreement recognized both the tight fiscal environment we find ourselves in and the ongoing need for the sector to attract and retain skilled employees. Although operating under the Cooperative Gains mandate, the understanding of employers and boards of directors across the province was that the BC Government had agreed to provide some additional funding to cover this modest wage increase and other increased costs in the new Collective Agreement.
We heard a shift in the messaging in the summer and now understand that the BC Government will not provide any additional funding in response to the increased wages in the newly ratified Collective Agreement but rather, agencies need to find further efficiencies to fund these increases. In September, we were told that there would be a further 1% reduction in administration costs, retroactive to April 1, 2013 and that the negotiated average hourly rate will also not be paid for despite having agreed upon funding agreements.
In addition to managing the wage increase, we are faced with increasing business related costs, and increased costs for health and welfare benefits. We are currently in the midst of a province-wide advocacy strategy to deal with this issue along with many other social service agencies.
Our sector has worked together with our funders over the last few years to find savings through efficiencies and innovations. While this was very challenging, service providers recognized the need to operate in a highly cost effective and sustainable manner. Those savings enabled our funders to provide services to new individuals and families that were in need of support. At the end of the school year there were 820 youth graduating from high school on Vancouver Island all of whom will be eligible for CLBC funding. This puts considerable pressure on CLBC and on CLV to be as efficient as possible. With increasing unfunded costs, agencies feel that they have little room for further efficiencies.
We continue to have a positive relationship with CLBC regionally and they are responsive to our issues. However, we have experienced a number of challenges this year. CLBC’s increased expectations from agencies have resulted in a significant administrative burden. Meeting CLBC’s extensive reporting requirements has challenged us to balance increased administrative tasks with the needs of the people we support. My thanks to our entire staff team for their perseverance in meeting these additional administrative demands and continuing to provide excellent care to the individuals CLV supports.
This year we completed implementing the ShareVision data management system in our homes and programs. This efficient, comprehensive and user friendly system allows authorized staff to access current data and information on health, safety, support needs and goals for individuals. We can now focus on using ShareVision for our on-call system and meeting CARF standards for accreditation.
As we prepare for our fourth CARF survey in late spring 2014, there will be significant activity as we prepare to obtain our next three year accredited agency status. Accreditation has ensured that Community Living Victoria has the systems, policies and processes in place for continuous quality improvement.
In January 2013, at a Special General Meeting in Richmond, the BCACL Federation voted to change its name to Inclusion BC. The new name and logo were a result of an extensive six-month consultation process involving people with developmental disabilities, family members, Federation members as well as national representatives and community stakeholders. We encourage you to look at their new website: inclusionbc.org
We are able to make a real difference in the lives of people we support because of our Foundation, which continues to increase our profile and raise funds for Community Living Victoria. Proceeds raised in the past year also enabled us to make significant upgrades to our main building and a number of homes, and provided us with needed new vehicles including a wheel-chair van.
We are grateful to all of our staff, volunteers, members, and stakeholders for their continued support. Together, we do make a difference.
