ATTRACT AND RETAIN

At just 24 years of age, Dean Braund opened the doors of Callahan’s Restaurant on King George Road in Brantford, which turned out to be the first of many restaurants he would open. After opening two more Callahan’s locations, he sold the business in 1989 and that’s when the Ardency Corporation was born.

Ardency by definition: “to pursue with feverent desire, passion, and eagerness.” Braund ventured on to pursue the quick service industry by developing over 20 Wendy’s Restaurants in the south-western Ontario region. Along with Wendy’s, Ardency Corporation has been involved with Days Inn Hotels, Williams Fresh Cafés, commercial real estate and Home Building Centres. Over the past 30 years, Ardency Corporation has employed thousands of employees and continues to strive to create jobs for our local community of Brantford.

Ardency Corporation

Giving back has always been a primary focus for Dean, partnering up with numerous charities such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the Board of Governors for Wilfrid Laurier University, The United Way, among others. Even though work has brought him all over the globe, he remains to have an unwavering loyalty to his hometown of Brantford.

Dean was a key member of the Wendy’s Canada Advertising Program for 13 years, five of which serving as the President of the Board. Dean and Patsy’s son, Evan Braund, was recently appointed onto ‘WCAP’ and is dedicated to growing the Canadian side of the Wendy’s Brand. Alanah Braund is also a key member of the

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Ardency Corporation, helping Evan with the Operations and continuously learning the financial side of the business.

The Ardency Corporation is most definitely a family-run-business, but not only to those who share the last name - every employee who works for Ardency is considered family as well. I

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“My plan is to support workplaces because that’s where the population that might need this information lives,” said Fretz. “I want to meet people right where they work… we might be able to do ‘lunch and learns’ for folks and provide some free education.”

Anxiety and depression are key issues across the general population, but Fretz says substance use is “creeping into people’s lives in an unhealthy way,” so people are wanting to learn more about it.

A psychologically safe and healthy workplace is one that actively works to prevent harm to workers’ psychological health from both intentional and unintentional harms, and promotes psychological well-being, said Fretz, paraphrasing from the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s website. There are four main factors to consider when trying to create a psychologically safe and healthy workplace; risk mitigation, cost effectiveness, recruitment and retention, and organization excellence and sustainability.

Fretz says the public health unit is encouraging everyone to practice self-care, prioritize themselves, their families, and their own health and care. There are many ways to practice self-care and self-restoration, Fretz said, such as “counselling, downtime, physical activity [and] healthier nutrition.”

Fretz and the Brant County Health Unit will be running Mental Health Week from May 1-7. Organizations interested in learning more about The Standard are encouraged to contact Laura at laura.fretz@bchu.org.

Serena Austin is a 4th-year Digital Media and Journalism student at Laurier Brantford. I