Contributed by Gabriela Torres, Community Engagement Team 

It’s 2019 and the Believe, Engage & Inspire Awards are back! Twice per year, this ceremony recognizes actions that help fulfill our mission and strategic objectives and align with posAbilities’ values like person centeredness, inclusion, learning, and excellence.

While we value the contributions of all our team members, let’s take a look at those who were nominated and selected for their service. Each award recipient went above and beyond to make a positive difference in their programs by demonstrating behaviours that reflect person-centeredness, inclusivity, dedication, hard work, and passion. If you’ve noticed an outstanding job done, peer nominations for individuals and teams are welcome! Be sure to visit ShareVision or contact your supervisor to nominate a team or team member for a Believe, Engage & Inspire Award.

The spring 2019 awards go to…

Anne Bennett, Evergreen Community Housing Program | Inspire Award

Anne always finds a way to use her creativity to think outside the box and inspires those around her to do the same. In the process, she helps coworkers and persons served step outside of their comfort zones. More importantly, Anne goes above and beyond to consider the needs of everyone around her when planning and implementing fun-filled, inclusive activities at the Evergreen home. For example, if an activity or game has certain height restrictions, Anne revamps the game’s rules by taking the height of persons served in wheelchairs into account and adjusts the games accordingly to suit their needs. Once the weather started to get hot this year, Anne brought the beach to Evergreen! She set up a pool and beach balls in the backyard for people to play with. With this awesome new backyard layout, persons served and staff enjoyed the hot weather while staying cool! In February, Anne even went as far as channeling her inner cupid to create a variety of celebrations everyone could participate in leading up to Valentine’s Day. Through all of this hard work and planning, Anne truly makes a positive impact at Evergreen and shows how putting person-centered thinking first goes a long way!

Balvir Badhan, Selkirk Centre for Community Engagement | Inspire Award

For the past three years, The Selkirk Centre gets into the Christmas spirit by participating in the Maple Ridge Santa Clause Parade. Part of this process involves creating a Christmas float to match the ever-changing parade theme, last year’s being Winter Wonderland. During this busy time of year, Balvir stood out when she took on a lead role in attending a city parade meeting. Here, Balvir worked alongside her coworkers to prepare a design for the winter wonderland themed float. Daily, she took on a lead role alongside another coworker to coordinate the construction of the float and worked hard to make sure it looked parade ready for the big day! When it was finally time for the parade, Balvir was all hands on deck and instrumental to the float’s set up. Her positive attitude and hard work throughout this entire process was truly an inspiration to all staff and helped encourage everyone to get the job done while keeping Christmas spirits high!

Emmanuel Depaz,  Selkirk Centre for Community Engagement | Inspire Award

Emmanuel, a valued casual, takes the lead while on shift and inspires his colleagues to do their best work. In fact, his enthusiasm and hard work was a key factor in completing the Selkirk Winter Wonderland Christmas float for the Maple Ridge Santa Claus Parade. During the holiday season, Emmanuel poured passion, effort, and many hours into preparing the float for a city parade meeting. The float took many hours and shifts to prepare for all staff. In order to help out, Emmanuel took on extra hours and shifts to finish the project on time. On the day of the parade, he exemplified this by taking on an extra shift to help with the float’s set up and participated in the parade! Emmanuel’s leadership and ability to take initiative without hesitation was a huge help to all participating staff and ensured the float not only looked its best but was completed on time for the parade. When Emmanuel is not working, his presence, positivity, and spirit is greatly missed by his team!

Mary Alar, Selkirk Centre for Community Engagement | Inspire Award

Mary is a casual employee at the Selkirk Centre. During the holiday season, she too was instrumental in creating the winter wonderland themed float for the Maple Ridge Santa Claus Parade. Mary used her creativity to contribute to the float’s overall design and was a huge asset in developing the final look of the float’s main focal point. Prior to her input, the float was meant to be two penguins sitting on top of the Selkirk Centre’s Variety Club van. Mary jazzed this up by adding presents and lights to the bottom of the penguins, making them a standout at the parade! During every shift, Mary went above and beyond to work on the float and even took pieces home with her in order to add her own craft supplies to the float. Although Mary was not scheduled to work on the day of the parade, she made her way to the parade site with a freshly baked cake in hand in order to wish the entire team luck. This is yet another example of Mary’s efforts and her unique ability to inspire staff with her infectious personality and positivity.

Congratulations Anne, Balvir, Emmanuel, and Mary! For more information about the Believe, Engage & Inspire awards and how to nominate an individual or team, check out this poster.