2022 Excel Society Annual Report

A Year of RECOVERY

When we began 2022 COVID-19 was still a significant health concern and the burden of this was our day-to-day reality. We continued to follow all of the necessary protocols and to keep our clients and our community safe. It had been nearly 2 years since the pandemic began and like everyone in society, the weight of this event was seemingly heavier.

As 2022 progressed though, we began to return to gathering and to a lifestyle similar to what we had prior to the onset of the pandemic. Throughout this transition it was at times difficult to understand what our responsibilities were as they were seemingly ever changing. However, our team, like we always do, met these challenges head on and overcame them. We kept ourselves, our clients and our families safe. I will be forever grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the dedicated team we have at Excel and I will be forever proud of the way we came together to address these unprecedented times.

As the burden of the pandemic lifted, our Senior Leadership Team and our Board of Directors began looking forward again and undertook a lengthy and thorough process of reviewing our Strategy, the Excel Advantage and building plans to ensure we could fully execute our initiatives. This work concluded with the approval of the Board of Directors in November and we are so excited to be looking forward to further fulfilling our Mission and continuing our work of enriching lives.

Thank you to the Board of Directors for their support, guidance and directions throughout 2022. And, thank you to the amazingly talented and dedicated team at Excel. I felt many times over the last couple of years I am surrounded by hero’s who faced the danger of the pandemic head on and conquered it.

Brad Perkins President & CEO

As I reflect on 2022 at the Excel Society the lingering effects of COVID continued to present many challenges. I am so proud of the team at Excel and the work of my team on the Board of Directors as we navigated through these uncertain times and embraced the safe return from the Pandemic.

Returning safely from an unprecedented health event such as COVID is no easy task. Yet, Excel met this challenge with the same commitment it has met all of the challenges of COVID-19. Our objective never waivered. Safety of our clients, safety of our team and safety of the community were always at the forefront of every decision we made. Together, focused on this objective we have made our way through the depth of the pandemic and in the second half of 2022 we were able to begin gathering again and celebrating the reconnection of our Excel family.

As we look forward to 2023, we are excited by the renewed opportunities to meet and continue our quest of enriching lives. Together, we have made a difference and together I am certain we will continue to fulfil our mission and vision as we have turned the corner on this health crisis and have emerged more committed than ever to our clients, our community and to each other.

Michael Walesiak Board Chair

Our CLIENTS & SUPPORTS

We care about the people we serve, our teams and their families, and the broader community. By providing the people in our care with access to engaging opportunities, we can enrich their lives and help them reach their full potential at the pace that is most comfortable for them.

House

We believe everyone needs a safe, comfortable, and practical place to live and call home. We work with our residents and their care partners and family to identify person-specific housing needs, and then provide a long-term housing solution that best serves the individual in our care.

Support

We believe everyone needs comprehensive care and personal support for a developmental disability or complex mental health diagnosis. We start from the perspective that every person is unique and has their own individual needs and goals, and we collaborate with our team to help them achieve their own physical, emotional, and psychological wellness on their terms.

Enrich

We believe everyone needs to express themselves, create meaning in their lives, and feel connected to their community. We strive every day to make this a reality for people that come to the Excel Society by enabling them to participate in activities that make life rewarding.

Supports

At the Excel Society, we work together to safely achieve superior results. As we strive to remain at the forefront of everyday excellence and innovation in Community Living and Supportive Services, it is our duty to provide our clients with the highest standards of quality, safety, and service excellence.

By working in partnership with Alberta Health Services, Persons with Developmental Disabilities, and the NorthWest Territories, we are able to provide several living and recreational solutions so that the people in our care may engage their minds, grow as individuals and enrich their lives.

Edmonton

Our story began in Edmonton from as far back as 1923 when our team started a community integration project to improve patient outcomes. Since then, we have grown into an industry leader in Community Living and Supportive Services that offers several living and programming solutions to people with disabilities and complex mental health needs.

42 Community Living Residences

2 Designated Supportive Living Sites Day Programs

Supportive Roommate & Respite Programs

Calgary

In 2005 we expanded our operations to include services to the residents of Calgary. Individuals come to Excel to live in one of our residences or to enjoy our community-based day program where our team provides person-centered support to these individuals during any given activity. These supports are provided not only to our clients, but also to those who live independently, with their family, or with other support agencies.

4 Community Living Residences

A Community-Based Day Program

Our EXCEL ADVANTAGE

At the Excel Society, we do what is right and our values help guide us during our important work to ensure our actions reflect the commitments in our mission. With the help of The Excel Advantage, we are able to realize our vision through our mission, guide our behaviours, set our priorities, and align our collaborative efforts. This new strategy recognizes that we each have a role in making the difference to our clients, team members and the community as a whole.

Excel Society is committed to providing exceptional care through meaningful engagement and adherence to the highest standards of quality, safety, and service

Vision

Excel Society is at the forefront of everyday excellence and innovation in Community Living and Supportive Services.

Values

We are all connected to something special, and a lot of that has to do with our common values. These values enable us to achieve superior results in providing exceptional care to our clients through meaningful engagement, and by working together, we are able to create innovative ways to bring joy, excitement and meaning to our clients lives each and every day.

Pillars

Exceptional Care

We partner with our clients, their families, and our funders, to provide the best possible care to be the Service Provider of Choice.

Meaningful Engagement

We foster a culture of appreciation and recognition that achieves the highest possible employee engagement and satisfaction.

Being at the Forefront

We are recognized as a partner & employer of choice and an industry leader in community living and supportive services.

Organizational Stewardship

We are accountable to our stakeholders for executing our mission faithfully and managing our resources effectively.

Just as our shared values help to bring us together, our pillars help us identify how we can implement the Excel Advantage in our work, and further enrich the lives of every member of the Excel Society.

Our SUCCESSES

A Century of Lois!

In 2022 a client in our care celebrated her 100th birthday with us! While Lois has only been with Excel for seven of her 100 years at Residence 20, she has been able to build several friendships and the team wanted to do something special for this important milestone. From there, we were able to collaborate with Lois’ public guardian and Trustee to create a big celebration!

Our team made Lois feel special with awesome decorations like banners and balloons, and even printed custom T-shirts for the celebrants! There were songs and dances performed by clients and staff, and of course, a giant birthday cake. Lois loved every moment of the celebration, and we would like to thank our amazing team at Residence 20 for making Lois’ birthday party a smashing success!

As COVID-19 restrictions were being lifted, the day program team in Edmonton came together to create a internal Carnival to celebrate! On Carnival day, the clients were met with a whole assortment of activities to enjoy. From carnival classics like balloon darts and ring toss, to activities that sparked friendly competition like a hockey shootout, there was something for everyone at this carnival!

With the help of a certain client’s family, the team was able to provide a BBQ lunch for everyone who attended, and they even got NOW! Radio to pop by and give everyone free popsicles for dessert!

Carnival Day at the GRC

Team Appreciation Events

It has been some time since our team has been able to gather, and as restrictions began to loosen in our province, we organized appreciation events for them. As we provide care around the clock, we hosted three drop-in style appreciation events in July so everyone had a chance to come by.

We were very pleased to see so many cheerful and excited faces throughout the event, as team members took the time to catch up and, in some cases, formally meet in person for the first time.

Our Clients Are W.O.R.T.H.I.

A few years ago, the Excel Society began working closely with AHS in efforts to set up a special program dedicated to integrating people into a healthy and happy community. This program was later named WORTHI and was established in the mental health transition unit at Balwin Villa!

WORTHI stands for Wellness

Oriented Rehabilitative Transitional Housing Initiative and worked to recognize and enhance patient progress to ensure a smooth transition from hospital services to support homes. Thanks to the hard work and collaboration of this team, we have been able to enroll a number of clients in this program and and continually support their transition process.

Among the many successes we've seen, our team highlights the commitment of the clients to their recovery as one of the most exciting aspects. Not only have these clients been able to access independence in the place they live, but have also managed to safely access community programs!

was nice to be able to celebrate an event in

after

This is an incredible success story as some clients had lived at Alberta Hospital for years and now, through collaboration between AHS and Excel, they will be moving to Support Homes. Truly out of the institution and into a home!"

It

person

restrictions we’ve faced the past couple of years. Thank you so much to all our employees in both Calgary and Edmonton for all you do – our important and critical work can’t be done without you!

Our Traditions: PARTY IN THE PARK

August 26, 2022 marked the first in-person Excel Wide event since the start of the pandemic three years ago! We were thrilled to be able to gather together with clients across all programs, staff from all departments, and our incredible community of family, friends, and supports.

As per tradition, we hosted the party at William Hawrelak Park. We had food, games, and crafts, and it was a day full of dancing as the Damn It Jim Band rocked our socks off! Since it was a scorcher, we made sure to have lots of shade, Gatorade, and water set up for the guests.

With the help of an incredible team of happy helpers, this Party in the Park was one for the books. They set everything up, checked in guests, cooked and served food, and helped afterwards to make the picnic site look like it had not just hosted over 400 people. Some highlights were tasty doughnuts for dessert and the unlimited supply of coffee thanks to a donation from Starbucks. A special shoutout also goes to the AutoCanada team members who signed up to support the party by painting faces, taking photos, serving food, and more!

Thank you to all those wonderful humans who pitched in to make the Party in the Park such an amazing event! We are grateful for each and every one of you and your generous contribution of time, e ort, and positivity.

Volunteers were also responsible for running some awesome activities! We offered a variety of fun lawn games, an arts/crafts/temporary tattooing station, and a polaroid photo booth. These were such a hit with our clients! Some got competitive at ladder golf, some got inked-up (for now), and some got to take a photos home after posing with props and pals.

The Party in the Park was an event full of engaging activities, and meaningful connections. It was so lovely to see the smiling faces of those who were able to attend. We're already looking forward to all the summer fun to come in 2023!

400+ Totall Attendees

Our TRADITIONS Cont’d

Our Holiday Traditions

Every December we collaborate with our team and supporters to ensure that every person in our care will experience joy, connection, and excitement during the holiday season. To do this, we have two traditions that run every year: Our Angel Tree and Holiday Box campaigns.

For those of you who need a refresher on these two Excel Traditions, our Angel Tree tradition provides gifts for the people in our care who may not otherwise have gifts under the tree. While our Holiday Boxes are distributed across our residences to fill each home with festive items for them to enjoy!

Just like last year, we partnered with Auto Canada who generously supported our Angel Tree and Holiday Box holiday initiatives! They provided over $6000 to purchase gifts for the Angel Tree clients and various items that would be included in our Holiday Boxes. They even sent some team members to help wrap presents with our Angel Tree committee. Thank you to our team for another successful year; you folks rock!

199 Clients Supported $6000 Donated by AutoCanada

45 Holiday Boxess distributed

Earlier in 2022 we introduced the Katrina Kuffel Memorial Award to our team. Katrina was a past student at the Excel Academy. She was compassionate, creative, and determined to make a difference in the world. Sadly, Katrina was unable to fulfill her desire of providing a long lifetime of commitment to the disabled, due to her accidental passing.

In response to her tragedy, Peter and Theresa Kuffel and their family have established a memorial award in Katrina’s name to recognize the member of our team who has demonstrated alignment with Katrina’s values through providing Exceptional Care to the clients of the Excel Society.

We are thrilled to present the 2022 award to Solomie T, a member of our Calgary direct care team.

Thank you Solomie for everything you have done to honor Katrina’s memory through making a difference to our clients and our community!

Katrina Ku el Award

250 Organizations we did business with.

494 People we provided care for.

630

People we employ across Alberta.

120

Number of spending accounts we provide support for

Statement of Financial Activities

VOLUNTEER PROGRAM Our

Earlier this year we launched our Volunteer Program to help enhance the care of our clients by providing individualized support through volunteerism. A volunteer is anyone without compensation who performs a task at the direction of and on behalf of Excel Society.

Volunteers will assist in various areas and will be paired with positions that provide mutual benefit to both the volunteer and Excel’s operations.

If you, or someone you know is interested in volunteering with Excel, please contact us today!

1 780 455 2601

info@excelsociety.org https://forms.o

Our ENRICHMENT FUND

The Excel Society cares about people, and we want people to feel accepted, valued, cared for, and connected to a meaningful community of support. As many of our clients come from different walks of life, not all of them are able to afford certain activities or experiences that most of us take for granted.

By introducing this donation framework, we can provide the people in our care with more opportunities for them to express themselves, feel connected to their community, and create meaning in their life.

Why Did We Create The Enrichment Fund?

Many people in our care have approved funding from the province that covers their housing and support needs but leaves a small amount for enrichment.

Opportunities to focus on their wellness, learn to play a musical instrument or even enroll into summer camps are just out of their grasp. Therefore, we created the Enrichment Fund to ensure that all the people in our care have the opportunity to grow as individuals and pursue their own personal goals.

How Much Of Each Donation Goes Directly To The People In Our Care?

The Excel Society is recognized as a partner & employer of choice in the Community Living and Supportive Services industry due to our ability to provide exceptional care to our clients while also operating a highly efficient and effective governance. In addition to this, we are fortunate enough to receive generous donations from our partners in the community to offset our fundraising and administration expenses.

Because of this, 100% of the amount donated is directed towards enriching opportunities for the people in our care.

This means that your donation will go directly towards enriching the lives of our clients by providing them with access to greater opportunities for them further develop their skills, enjoy themselves, and connect with the community.

Enriching a life is simple and rewarding when you take the first step and join the Excel Society with a gift to the Excel Society Enrichment Fund!

Our Funds

Artistic Enrichment

Help a client access artistic supplies and experiences.

Musical Enrichment

Help a client access musical instruments and experiences.

Recreational Enrichment

Help a client access sport, leisure or recreational activities.

Holiday Enrichment

Help a client have a simple holiday or celebrate a special occasion.