We are pleased to announce the 2016 FOCUS Innovation Award winner and two finalists. The winner of the award, as determined by an independent committee, was KW Habilitation’s “Our Farm” initiative. The two finalists were Community Living Essex’s “Speakers Bureau” initiative, and Participation House Support Services London and Area’s Community “Participation in Paint” initiative.
The annual FOCUS’ Innovation Award session took place May 11, 2016 and was sponsored in part by Frank Cowan Company and McDougall Insurance and Financial.
The afternoon session included a presentation on Human Rights in The Workplace by Maureen Houston. Maureen is from Templeman Menninga LLP. She is a Senior Partner with the firm’s Labour and Employment practice group. She has extensive experience in representing employers in all matters related to their employment, labour relations and human rights issues. The FOCUS 2016 Spring Learning Event attendees later took part in an interactive, participatory learning session facilitated by Jennifer Spears. The session was based on Jennifer’s work related to innovative thinking in the work place. Attendees were challenged to take work place problem solving and change management applications in new directions by pushing past or going deeper than initial responses to those realities.
Attendees provided the following feedback:
“Interesting to hear about innovations from other agencies. Networking opportunities were excellent. FOCUS staff are extremely friendly and helpful”.
“Opportunity for Development and to learn what great things people are currently doing. Opportunities for Networking were welcomed”.
“I liked the connecting with other validators and agencies who are affiliated with FOCUS. I liked the innovation training”.
