FamilyServiceCanada

The Board of Directors for Family Service Canada invites you to attend the 2009/2010 Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 from 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm EST. Due to the vast geographical diversity of the membership, the AGM will be conducted through a conference call by calling 1-866-491-6600 and using pass code 9949973#. To ensure we reach quorum and to ensure we can accommodate all interested participants on the conference call, please RSVP to Heather Parker at heatherp@familyservicecanada.org or 1-877-451-1055 by Monday, September 13, 2010. We hope you can join us!

We have recently added a toll-free number: 1-877-451-1055

To reach Family Services Canada:

Heather Parker, Operations Manager
Family Service Canada
c/o 312 Parkdale Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1Y 4X5

NEW! Toll-Free number: 1-877-451-1055
Email: heatherp@familyservicecanada.org

FSC Board Member Paddy Ramsingh is retiring as Executive Director of Family Services of Peel. During her time with the agency, she has made considerable contributions to her local community and the sector.

Paddy joined Family Services of Peel as Executive Director in May 2006. As ED, she has strengthened its organizational capacity, including increasing community collaboration and service to the community, as well as building strong internal systems. She says her proudest accomplishment is the supports her agency has built to address significant gaps in service including: elder abuse; supports for seniors from the South Asian community; employment support for people with disabilities; services for male survivors of childhood abuse; and counselling and group support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community.
 
Paddy has served on the Board of Directors for Family Service Canada as Treasurer for the past year. She was the agency representative on the United Way of Peel Region Campaign Cabinet Committee for the 2009 campaign year. 
 
Paddy feels very fortunate that, as a resident of Peel, she has been able to build services in her own community.
 
Congratulations, Paddy!!! Thank you so much for your many contributions to the sector. Enjoy your retirement.

The 2011 Executive Leadership Summit will take place from February 2, 3, and 4 at the beautiful Hotel Mont Gabriel in Quebec. Visit www.montgabriel.com to get more of a feel of this beautiful locale and to see a list of the fun winter activities available. As a special deal, the hotel will extend your stay for a single room and breakfast for the same low rate available during the conference. Be sure to mark you calendars to save the date!

The summit provides for in-person interactions, learning opportunities, dialogues, and information sharing. The summit includes guest speakers and opportunities to network with decision makers on current issues. Each year, the summit is held in a different location in Canada.

More details on the Executive Leadership Summit will be announced as soon as they are available. For more information, please contact  Heather Parker at heatherp@familyservicecanada.org

The 2010 Executive Leadership Summit provided a fantastic opportunity for Family Service Canada members to come together to learn from and share with one another, helping identify emerging issues and trends in the sector. What a success this summit was, seeing the largest group ever in attendance!

This past year has truly been a turning point for the future of Family Service Canada—with a new strategic direction for the organization identified by the membership. The Executive Leadership Summit provided a wonderful chance for members to provide face-to-face feedback on the direction the organization is going, and FSC believes it is well positioned to emerge as a national organization whose primary focus is to support community-based social service agencies across the country with the important issues and challenges they face.

Stay tuned for dates and location of the next year’s Executive Leadership Summit. The coming year promises to be an exciting time for Family Service Canada.

Family Service Canada is pleased to announce the official launch of our redesigned website. With the new direction of FSC, we believed it was important for the website to better reflect who we now are, as well as simplify and streamline the information you may be looking for.

Features of the site include:

• A search function for instant access to specific information you may be looking for
• Members’ access to “At-Work” – the members’ specific web system that allows members to more easily stay connected and share dialogue with one another
• A sign-up system for email notifications for freshly posted ”news and events”

We encourage you to take a few moments to peruse through the site. We welcome your feedback…please let us know if there is other information you would like to see included. Please email any comments you may have to heatherp@familyservicecanada.org. Our thanks to dazil Internet Services for their assistance in making this site possible.