Highlights from AGM

Forty-six years of excellence in serving our community

On June 23rd, members of our community, staff and board gathered virtually for the Annual General Meeting (AGM), and to celebrate 46 years of excellent service to our community.

The AGM included the presentation and approval of the Chair’s and Treasurer’s reports, the appointment of auditors for the next fiscal year, the election of the Board of Directors, and the acknowledgement of departing Board members.

In her address, the outgoing Board Chair, Ms. Aynsley Morris, focused on areas where the board has worked over the past year to support the centre’s activities, and make sure it continues to remain relevant and sustainable. She also added that “the COVID-19 pandemic was a top priority for the organization up to the present as we plan, learn and redesign how we deliver care in a COVID world. Over the past year, the Centre has achieved remarkable success with our Community COVID-19 Response Strategy, and we have been recognized provincially for our work as part of the High-Risk Neighborhood Initiative. The centre’s commitment to ongoing learning, innovation and improvements has helped the programs and services we provide to our community to keep growing and changing”.

Mr. David Gibson, SHCHC’s Executive Director, spoke about the centre’s excellence in the provision of health and well-being services, about the challenges we encountered and that still lie ahead, and about our collective resilience and the promise of hope that is upon us with vaccinations. “Even within this most difficult year, I have witnessed incredible personal courage, professional dedication, and a collective spirit to rise above the adversity, to provide essential social and health services to those who have the greatest barriers to achieving equitable health and well-being. But out of adversity come incredible opportunities that demonstrate our creativity, adaptability and resiliency as individuals, families, neighbourhoods, as organizations and as citizens of this wonderful city. This past year has demonstrated how SHCHC staff can actively pivot to meet the challenges.

By April 2020, staff were able to not only continue in-person essential services, like consumption treatment and primary health care, but also utilize virtual in-home services for the Homework Club, health care, mental health and addictions counselling, or health promotion and chronic disease group programming. Stabilizing personal protective equipment supply chains to implementing public health guidelines in occupational health and infection control became critical to ensuring on-site measures to keep everyone safe. This is a testament to the strength and professionalism of staff, and I am truly very proud to be a part of it! Making a difference to create and foster an equitable health system is what SHCHC demonstrates time and time again.”

The Board of Directors also acknowledged the board members who ended their terms this year: Mr. Michel Duquet, Ms. Aynsley Morris and Ms. Marguerite Nadeau.

Mr. Michel Duquet was a member of the board since June 2019, and an active member of the Audit and Finance Committee. A friendly and sociable person, Michel initiated the “speed meeting” for board members, a team building exercise which has become a practice during our virtual meetings, and which keeps board members engaged.

Ms. Aynsley Morris joined the Board of Directors in August 2015, and was an active member of the Finance and Audit Committee as well as the Emerging Issues Committee. For the past two years, Aynsley has served as Board Chair. Before that, she held the role of Vice-Chair and Chair of the Emerging Issues Committee, and was the Board Liaison to the Alliance for Healthier Communities. The strong commitments to environment and to social justice drive both her professional and personal lives. During her activity with the Emerging Issues Committee, Aynsley brought forward to the Alliance’s AGM many policy resolutions such as: Increasing Access to Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment and Safer Drug Supply, Addressing Violence through a Public Health Approach (both in 2020), Extension of Healthy Smiles Ontario Program and Ontario ID Card (in 2019), Housing First (2018), Financial Support from the Province of Ontario and Government of Canada to Ontario’s CHCs to Provide Appropriate Cultural Interpretation Services to Refugee Patients (2017).

Ms. Marguerite Nadeau joined the Board of Directors in August 2015, and was an active member of the Nominations and Governance Committee, the Executive Director’s Performance Evaluation Committee, and the former French Language Services Committee. Over the years, the board has benefited immensely from her particular skill set and expert advice in the areas of law, good governance and strategic planning.

We will miss you all, and we wish you much success in the future!

The AGM concluded with the recognition of the two departing Staff Representatives, Kayla Charlery and Candace Hebert, who, for the past two years, participated actively with the Board of Directors and board committees, bringing their fresh perspectives on the work and daily challenges staff at SHCHC may have. We also acknowledged our staff who, this year, reached 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years of dedicated service at SHCHC.

Meet SHCHC’s Board of Directors for 2021-2022

• Board Chair: Leila Bocksch • Vice-Chair: Rebecca Gibbons • Vice-Chair: Michael Mullen • Treasurer: Kim Brown • Secretary: Daniel Roach • Past-Chair: Aynsley Morris (non-voting member) • Staff Representatives: Claire Scott and Derrick St John • Glen Barber • Karen Capen • Letitia Charbonneau • Miquelon Deller • Guy Desaulniers • Bernice-Marie Kalubiaka • Lesley Ng • Hubert Paulmer

The Board of Directors meets 10 times a year. If you would like to attend one of the meetings, please e-mail Cristina Coiciu at ccoiciu@sandyhillchc.on.ca. Upcoming Board meetings in the new year will be held on: January 19, February 16, March 16, April 20, May 18 and June 22, 2022.

2020 and 2021 SHCHC Awards for Excellence in Health Promotion

With the annual Award for Excellence in Health Promotion established in 2007, SHCHC is proud to honour those whose activities and initiatives have contributed to improving the health and wellness of our community.

Last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award was postponed. As such, for this year, the Board of Directors approved having two awards instead of one, given out for the years 2020 and 2021, to honour those whose activities and initiatives have contributed to improving the health and wellness of our community during the pandemic. The award recipients were: • Jessie Duffy (Arlington 5 Coffee Shop) and Megan Aubin (Cooking for a Cause Ottawa) for preparing and delivering healthy food options to marginalized communities in Sandy Hill and the City of Ottawa; and • Stephen Quinlan, resident of Strathcona Heights, for the development of the Strathcona Heights Gathering Garden. For more information and their short biographies, visit our website at www.shchc.ca/community-initiatives/shchc-award-excellence-hp.