Executive Director Report 2022-2023
Now What? Carrying our Learning Forward, Imagining Better Futures
On behalf of the Skills Society staff team, I’m pleased to share our 42nd Annual AGM Report with you. I’m relieved and pleased that after 3 virtual AGMs, we are safely together again in person to connect, learn, share some laughs and honor our Skills Society community. The AGM themes of the past few years have been about finding resiliency through each other, strengthening our collective purpose to protect our Skills Society community members as best we can, and developing the deep conviction that everyone deserves to have a good life no matter what.
So, Now What?
Well, we think it’s time for some new imagining. We’ve all been through a lot the last few years, and with our nervous systems on high alert for so long, it might be hard to shift into imagining better futures. Which is part of why we think we need to make it a focus - to get our minds into balance with tackling both real challenges of the present and imagining bright possibilities of the future. Imagining possibilities is also timely as our 2020-2023 strategic priorities will be reviewed and re-imagined in the fall of 2023. To support us all with imagining better, we’ve brought in the 3 Horizons Framework [1] outlined in detail at the start of this report. The 3 horizons are a useful tool to help us imagine actions that are needed now, innovations that could improve systems, and big picture dreaming of whole new ways of being in the world into the future.
In brief, when we imagine better futures…
Horizon 1 is about addressing urgently needed tweaks to current systems, services and ways of being. We’re calling this mode of imagining - The Actioners. The sustainable increase in April 2023 from government to PDD services around wages is an example of Horizon 1 change.
Horizon 2 is about bending, stretching and innovating systems without completely throwing out everything if it’s not feasible to start anew. We’re calling this mode of imagining - The Innovators. Our MyCompass Planning App is an example of Horizon 2 innovation where we helped build a tool that humanizes case management and centres the person served in shaping the kind of support they receive. www.mycompassplanning.com
Horizon 3 is about a total reimagining of new systems, services and ways of being that make old systems obsolete. This is often generational change. We’re calling this mode of imagining -The Dreamers. An example of Horizon 3 might be a new social contract of society where people with and without disabilities live together in interdependent ways that doesn’t even require service providers to intervene.
What’s valuable with the 3 Horizons Framework is recognizing that we need all three horizons for creating good futures. And, it’s also about recognizing that each horizon has a unique purpose. So, if you tend to be a very practical thinker looking more at the present and then you hear a big visionary dream idea that may not be feasible right now, try to recognize both are needed and valuable. Why? because if we only grapple with the current systems and fail to value imagining better, this can diminish meaning, purpose and hope that there can be positive change. Human beings need that hope of better futures and our human ability to imagine and dream is one of our unique qualities and has produced amazing advances for humanity throughout history. Consider for example that a publicly supported, large system of community living that helps people with developmental disabilities be part of society, has never existed in human history until about 50 years ago. It’s quite amazing. Before 50 years ago, the only option would be for a family to take care of someone their whole life, or industrial age, cold institutional living where freedoms didn’t exist and people were far too often treated in de-humanizing ways. We are in many ways part of a community living system for 15,000 Albertans with developmental disabilities that was once only a dream. Not a perfect system and probably there is no such thing as a perfect system, but still amazing this system can exist. So, we need the dreamers that see what’s possible against all odds! But, we also need the practical Actioners working on challenges of the now. And, we need the Innovators who are tweaking and bending systems to make them better until new futures are realized. So, this also means that if you tend to be a person that focuses more on dreaming, then remember that there are a whole lot of people that need supports and help right now and can’t afford to wait for a whole new system that may not come about for a generation. Over the last 50 years there have been so many practical Actioners and Innovators that have advocated, protected and ensured people with disability’s rights are upheld in policy, service, and community. As we co-create together, remember that navigating and shaping good futures requires collective imagining and a “both-and” mindset that is careful about thinking one’s preference for a particular horizon is better than the other ones. As we navigate future building together, let’s all try saying “Yes-and…” more than “Yeah-but…”. This will help people feel valued and signals that we recognize our own perspectives are not the only ones that need to be considered.
Start Now
Imagining begins now with all of us through the AGM interactive activities we have designed (see the last page in the annual report). Later this year there will also be a world cafe story sharing event for folks we serve, surveys and other ways for our community to share ideas to help shape collective imagining. As we reflect and imagine, please also draw on the insights, quotes and stories throughout the report from people we serve. These stories help anchor the lived experience perspective of disability and should help inform the future we build together.
Yes, and… we need to carry our collective learning forward into desired futures
In 2019, before the pandemic and as my first AGM as Executive Director of Skills Society, our AGM theme was “Onward: Getting the right mix of the old, the new and a dash of surprise”. In many ways we’re picking up from the 2019 theme and have fresh learning and wisdom in each of us to bring forward. The 2019 theme came from listening to our community, and from an idea from long time social innovator in the disability sector, Al Etmanski, who recognized that good Innovation, change making, and future building doesn’t only focus on the new, but blends learning from the past and present into future possibilities. This means we need to also be carrying our history, our stories, our experiences, our learning and wisdom from our community into the new futures we shape together. If we did not, we would repeat unnecessary mistakes, and be disrespectful to our elder self-advocates, families and disability services sector leaders who pioneered important knowledge and practices that are part of all of our work today.
Below are a few things I have consistently heard and learned over 20 plus years in the disability sector that need to be kept top of mind. This is core stuff I don’t think we can forget as we shape new futures.
Practice in person-centered ways. We have to ensure support services center the needs and aspirations of those served. Disability advocates have called this being person-centred or person-directed and it’s one of our core values at Skills we have to bring with us.
We can’t go back to institutional thinking or practices. We have to remember that the Community Living movement that started over 50 years ago by families who wanted their children to be part of society, was not about establishing new institutions in community. It was about helping people with disabilities have the same rights, choices, and access to opportunities every citizen of Alberta enjoys. We need to remember these roots and can’t regress back to re-institutionalizing people in large congregate care settings. This is especially tricky in times when resources shrink and large institutional models of care get presented as the only affordable option. There will be times as a society when we really will have to assess and reaffirm our values and our conviction that everyone deserves dignity, safety and opportunities for a good life. For an example of what this danger can look like, go watch the movie, Peanut Butter Falcon. A film about a young man with down syndrome who’s only support system resource in his state is to place him in a large seniors facility with no freedoms and no one his age. This is a man with a full life ahead of him, with dreams and wishes like any other young man in his twenties. The heartwarming story is about the man breaking out of the seniors home, being at risk, but living his best life after he makes some good connections in his community and can be proud of who he is. In the future we shape together, we need to ensure our systems support and liberate potential, more than close, block and devalue it.
We must strive to cultivate healthy relationships with everyone connected in a system. Leading through building healthy relationships is fundamental to our Mandt systems crisis intervention training and recognizes that if we treat everyone with dignity and respect, lives get better for everyone. This is true in disability service delivery, and Indigenous leaders have spoken of this and led this way for millennia. Indigenous leaders we have learned from like Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse, Diane Roussin, Elder Lewis, Hunter and Jacquelyn Cardinal all say that ancient indigenous wisdom strives to center good relationship building when problem solving and creating good futures together. At Skills, we’ve committed to learning about reconciliation and part of putting this into action is working on being better Treaty relatives. We’ve learned this means we need to remember and act on being in good interdependent relationship with each other. It means we should ask not just what are my rights and freedoms, but what are my obligations to my fellow citizens I share this land and community with? We all need good relationships in our lives. Our long-standing Skills Society vision points to this good relationship building when we talk about our vision of a world where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. We should carry this notion of building healthy relationships with everyone forward with us. It begins with simply being kind, respectful, and generous of spirit. I’ve learned through plenty of mistakes and wrong ‘us against them’ thinking that it never creates a solid foundation for good things to happen. Create healthy boundaries, because we don’t have to be friends with everyone, but remember not to underestimate how important cultivating good relationships are.
Carry forward the conviction that the good life is for everyone. At the core it seems to be true that when we have a deep conviction that everyone deserves the good life and that we can’t settle for good enough, then there is an energy that figures out a way to help people thrive and not just survive. People with disabilities we serve whether asking us consciously or not, by virtue of being supported by our services, are asking all of us to not settle. We’re being called to keep the conviction that we will help people find and create their good life, on their terms. I’ve learned that where you find people that have this conviction deep in their bones, good things happen, answers get figured out, dreams get realized. Keep the conviction alive that the good life is for everyone.
Are you a Dreamer, Innovator, or Actioner?
In this report and at the Annual General Meeting everyone in the Skills Community will be invited to reflect on their own preferences and gifts and the type of change maker they most identify with. Here I share some of my own reflections on the type of change making I’m most drawn to and I look forward to hearing from others in our Skills Community where their preferences and strengths lie.
For those that know me, it’s probably not a surprise that I mostly lean towards the Dreaming Horizon of the future but with a strong tendency for bending systems so they innovate sooner. Alongside amazing colleagues - you all, and community - I’ve been trying to bend systems to be more humanized and equitable for most of my career. I could always see the value of dreaming, but I didn’t always see the value of this system bending quality to innovation until a few years ago when an Indigenous Elder helped me recognize it in change work. While stewarding some collective work in helping remove system barriers to employment for Indigenous youth in Treaty 7 area I was gifted a name from Blackfoot Elder Reg Crowshoe. The name he gifted was - Immmick. I was told by Elder Reg that the name means something along the lines of “To bend things towards a good way, and also relates to the bend in a bow before an arrow is shot”. If anything, the honor of the name sticks in my mind as a reminder to regularly think and act in ways where I can bend my mind and systems to be better and do better so that people have the chance for good lives. So, you’ll see me mostly wanting to lead from the Dreamer and Innovator horizons to try to bend things into better futures. However, I’ve also learned to really appreciate and respect the Actioners who are not afraid to jump in, question and fix the struggles of the now. We really do need all 3 for good future building!
A Few Future Imaginings From the Present
I’m often torn as to whether to share some ideas on the future or just steward good ideas from our Skills community to emerge. But, I think once again a “both-and” approach is probably the right way forward. There is a paradox I’ve learned with being an Executive Director: people tend to want you to listen and steward key ideas from stakeholders and at the same time they want to hear your unique vision and ideas. It seems to be one of those things to balance and being transparent about the tension is how I lead. Rest assured there will be lots of ways to hear ideas over the coming months and we will do our best to steward them and have them inform strategic priorities, projects, collective learning and future building.
Horizon 3 - Dreamer Ideas
What if including people with disabilities in everyday life, in our friend groups, in work, our organizations and community was just a given and part of how society acted?
What if some of the new Artificial Intelligence advances could be tools of the future that help support good lives of people with disabilities? What if these tools could be ethically bent towards good and help support more autonomy, freedom, connection, and empowerment of people? What if these tools helped remove barriers to inclusion and helped people with disabilities be more valued for who they are and how they want to contribute in society?
Horizon 2 - Innovator Ideas
Our CMHC funded Future of Home Lab co-created some promising inclusive models of living that aim to support deeper belonging and community connection of people with disabilities. With our partner and 2023 Community Belonging Award winner Leston Holdings we are actually bringing one of the prototypes from the lab to life in 2024. 12 people supported with PDD funding will move into a new 325 unit apartment building on the west side of the city. The 12 folks with PDD funding will receive support from Skills Society and there will be a community connecting amenity called “The Community Concierge”. The concierge role will map gifts of everyone in the building and help people with and without disabilities to connect and build good relationships. This is exciting and I dream that what we learn together from this pilot, we will share, build toolkits and make it easier for ourselves and others to scale models like this for more people in the PDD system. If we can figure out how to properly scale this more inclusive model, we can help offer a viable alternative to institutional living and support more people to thrive.
We figure out better access for more orgs to use MyCompass Planning? MyCompass is our case management social innovation that is the only case management software that enables people served to be at the helm - centering their voice alongside supports. There is amazing potential with this software to help redesign and humanize social service interactions, and make it easier for administrators and staff to adopt person-centered values and practices.
Horizon 1 - Actioner Ideas
We keep collaborating with our Government partner and colleagues in the Disability Sector to help ensure there is a sustainable, qualified, well compensated workforce in order to be able to keep providing dignified and quality support to those we serve. The government funded 2022 KPMG [2] report highlights a robust strategy to accomplish this for the sector. See the Alberta Council of Disability Service Providers (ACDS) website for more info [3].
These are just a few ideas and in due course I’m really looking forward to hearing from you what your Dreamer, Innovator and Actioner ideas are as we build more inclusive futures together.
Big thanks and gratitude to you all. Thank you to the families and individuals we serve, staff, community allies and donors for your continued passion, advocacy, and creativity to make opportunities for citizens with disabilities the best possible.
Sincerely,
Ben Weinlick,
Executive Director
McKinsey & Company. 2009. “The Three Horizons Framework.” McKinsey Quarterly
See the full report here: https://acds.ca/files/Workforce/BlueprintCDS_FINAL_Comprehensive_Workforce_Strategy.pdf
Visit the ACDS Webpage on Project Blueprint here: https://acds.ca/workforce/blueprint-cds.html