A Message from the President and the Executive Director

Family Services à la famille Ottawa has wrapped up another successful year. Annual reports in some ways are a barely perceptible interlude in the ongoing operation of the organization. Services don’t pause, pressures don’t stop and demand continues unabated. It does provide a snapshot of the organization that is indicative of its health.

The opportunity to report is a legal and moral obligation and part of our commitment to transparency. It’s also a good reminder of the importance of the work we do and a chance to re-invigorate our organization and our supporters to continue the work for the community’s sake. 

The fundamental story of this report is the ongoing operation of this organization; its commitment to superior service delivery, the dedication of its staff and volunteers, and the contribution to our clients and the community. Our proudest accomplishment is found in the continuing and unwavering record of exceptional service to the community. The performance over the past year is set against that backdrop, but 2006-2007 was notable for a number of specific accomplishments. New funding streams came on line that helped expand several counseling and community programs and new reporting systems for client evaluation and feedback were instituted. A new, four-year agreement was finalized between the organization and CUPE 3661; representing frontline and administrative staff. The issues addressed were numerous and complex and were successfully negotiated through the hard work of union and management teams, who deserve our sincere appreciation. We continued to build on our mission, vision and values, incorporating these foundational documents into our everyday work and adapting our documents, evaluations and program planning to reflect the importance of these statements. New administrative systems (e.g. staff evaluations, program planning, Dashboard reports) were developed and although these operate within the background of a successful organization they are critically important to present and future success. We endured a major renovation of 1 Community Place, making our offices and meeting rooms more user friendly.

Our services reports provide a picture of another successful year. Client satisfaction statistics are very high and indicate that clients see the services they receive as being extremely helpful and respectful in multiple ways.

Overall service numbers have been maintained across the organization, with approximately 5,000 individuals and families being served. While the number served is substantial, the demand for services greatly exceeds availability.

The Board and management continue to seek new sources of revenue and to build capacity to serve the community, but additional resources are scarce.

From a financial point of view the agency is on extremely solid footing. We are careful to live within our means and use our resources wisely. Each department operated within its budget and managed to meet or exceed the service objectives that were set. With resources being scarce and demand being high we have focused on the task of finding new revenue. While we continue looking to traditional areas (government support and Foundation grants) for new funding, we are exploring the areas of Social Enterprise and Charitable Giving to a greater degree. We will be launching new fundraising approaches that build on our existing community support. Our social enterprise ventures have been increasingly successful with our Employee Assistance Program continuing its solid growth and performance and our Accounting and Administration Consulting making a significant contribution to the organization’s bottom line while providing high quality services for smaller charities. Funds generated through these means will be strategically invested in making the organization better able to serve the needs of the community.

We would like to thank the Board of Directors for their work over the preceding year, addressing complex and critical strategic issues with determination and innovation. The staff team offers the finest in dedication and services for the clientele and is supported by a small group of hard working administrative staff. The management team provides guidance and assistance that keeps the whole organization working at peak effectiveness.

We close the year as always with a note of appreciation for everyone involved and our sincere good wishes for the coming year.
 

Chair of the Board      Executive Director
Rosemary Laurin        Tim Simboli

back to top

About Family Services à la famille Ottawa

Our Mission

Family Services à la famille Ottawa is a community agency, grounded in a history of responding to the needs of people in our community. We work with individuals, communities, and families in all their forms who are currently in distress or at risk. We assist people to build on their strengths and move forward by providing counseling, education, and advocacy within a context of systemic change.

Our Values

Family Services à la famille Ottawa commits to working in ways that demonstrate:

Humanity
We respect and show compassion for our clients, staff and volunteers.

Diversity
We are inclusive and responsive to a diverse cross-section of the population.

Accessibility
We make special efforts to ensure access to services for people who face societal barriers.

Effectiveness
We are innovative and use our resources well.

Relevance
We pro-actively identify client/community concerns and address emerging issues.

Collaboration
We work together with our clients, our colleagues and our community.

Accountability
We strive towards a continual evaluation and improvement of our work and maintain ethical standards.

Social Justice
We advocate healthy, safe and just environments free from violence, neglect and prejudice.

Our Funders

United Way/Centraide Ottawa
City of Ottawa
Government of Canada
Government of Ontario
- Ministry of Community & Social Services
- Ministry of Citizenships and Immigration
- Ministry of Health
- Ministry of the Attorney General
Community Foundation of Ottawa

Our Revenue

For more information about Family Services please feel free to visit our Home Page

back to top

Our Services

Counselling

General Counselling Program

During the last year, over 6,500 hours of counselling services were provided to over 1,060 individuals, couples and families.

Ongoing groups include:

• A Time For Me, Honouring Our Life
• Journey( for older adults)
• Gathering Strength (a group for older abused women)
• Speaking Our Truth: Reclaiming Ourselves, (for women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse offered in collaboration with our Anti-Violence Program)
• Seminars on Parenting After Separation and Divorce 

New groups:

• In collaboration with our Family Life Education Program and the Parent Resource Centre we developed and piloted a new group Finding New Ground, for families of children ages 8-10 who are going through the transitions of separation and divorce. This innovative model offers a group for children and a parenting group series for each of the child’s parents.
• We now offer a 10 week group for mothers who are experiencing postpartum depression/anxiety.  The MOMS Group, offered three times since its launch this past fall, provides information and the opportunity to connect with other mothers, helping them to adjust to their role as a new mother.  (Funding through Success By Six).
• We are currently piloting the MOMS Playgroup. This is a drop-in playgroup for women (with their babies) who are experiencing postpartum depression/anxiety.  This pilot playgroup is a joint project with the Parent Resource Centre.

For more information about the General Counselling Program please feel free to visit our General Counselling page.

Mental Health Program

The Mental Health Program  provided services to 245 individuals, with over 3,800 hours of counselling and group facilitation.

Workshops:

Over the last three years, we have worked to develop meaningful group programming for our clients. We strive to offer programs which are easily accessible, and which are flexible and viable for our clients.  

The following  workshops were offered in the last year:

Creating Optimism; Creating Connections; Living Inside Out; Summer Wellness Series; Book Club; Creativity Group; Practice Not Perfection; and Creating Profound Change.

We are very pleased to have the opportunity to continue our partnership with the National Art Gallery to organize and develop The Masters Series for persons living with a mental illness.  This initiative has been extremely rewarding for the participants and is a natural linkage for our work in creativity and the use of art in our programming.

For more information about the Mental Health Program please feel free to visit our Mental Health Program page.

Community Programs

Family Life Education

We delivered over 170 hours of workshops and groups on to 325 individuals on topics including parenting teens, parenting after
separation, discipline, and eldercare. 

Partnerships

In partnership with Children’s Aid Society, our parenting programs were adapted specifically for parents who are involved with CAS.  Through this new partnership we are delivering the following groups: Parenting with Confidence, for parents who are involved with the Children’s Aid, and Parenting Solutions which offers assistance for those raising their ‘kin’.

• In partnership with The Men’s Project we continue to co-facilitate the  Fathering Group
• We continued to deliver a support group for GLBTTQ families, in partnership with Centretown Community Health Centre.
• We continue to be involved with the Parent Educators Network and the Child & Youth Health Network for Eastern Ontario

For more information about Family Life Education Program please feel free to visit our Family Life Education page.

Families and Schools Together

This year, the program expanded to a third school.  Connaught Public Elementary School, Robert E. Wilson Public Elementary School, and Queen Elizabeth Public Elementary School participated in the program.  Over 95 adults and children graduated from F&ST.  On average over 49 individuals participated in monthly F&ST WORKS gatherings. 

For more information about Family & Schools Together please feel free to visit our F&ST page .

In Love & In Danger

Funding from Crime Prevention Ottawa was secured to continue the initiative into its seventh year. Over 450 youth and adult supporters attended the two ILID conferences. An interactive CD was developed as a resource to provide information and presentations to help prevent dating violence and create healthy equal relationships.

For more information about In Love and In Danger please feel free to visit our In Love and In Danger page.

The Arts Studio

The studio offered service to 57 different artists who self-identified as living with mental illness and poverty.  On average, 12 artists attended the studio each week and 10 of the artists have sold pieces.  Two public art exhibits were held, one at One Community Place on Parkdale Avenue, and one at a fine mess in Barrhaven.  Over 150 people visited the two exhibits.

For more information about The Art Studio please feel free to visit our Art Studio page.

Supervised Access

Supervised Access Programs celebrate their 15th anniversary across Ontario. Bi-weekly visits to an average of 52 families and an average of 54 visits and 14 exchanges were provided each month, with our volunteer team averaging 69 hours of service each month. We launched Friday night exchanges which provide a safe and neutral means to secure full-weekend exchanges.

For more information about the Supervised Access Program please feel free to visit our Supervised Access page.

Family Advocacy Program
(Formally Scoial Planning, Coordinations, & Advocacy)

The program name has been changed to better-reflect what we do. Over 100 hours of service were delivered to 189 individuals, including:

• Three (3) How to Get What You Need workshops
• Three (3) sessions of the Advocacy Speaks series
• In partnership with CMHA – Ottawa Branch, the Speak Up Speak Out series, which trains mental health consumer-survivors in effective advocacy techniques.
• A family issues election guide and community workshop for the 2006 municipal election The workshop and issues guide were adopted by community developers from the Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres.  Workshops were delivered throughout the city.
• Fourteen different committees were facilitated by FSFO. Leadership was provided to  the following committees: The Community-Based Research Network of Ottawa; Ottawa Child Poverty Action Group; and Ottawa Committee to End Violence Against Women. 
• Thanks to assistance from Help the Aged Canada, an educational DVD, “Putting the Spotlight on Isolated Seniors” was developed.

For more information about Family Advocacy please feel free to visit our Family Advocacy page.

Around the Rainbow

We launched the Around the Rainbow project, working together with the gay, lesbian, bi, trans, two spirit, and questioning (GLBTTQ) community to support the inclusion of diverse families in our childcare and early childhood education systems, as well as within schools and the community. With the help of the ever-growing Rainbow Families group and the GLBTTQ Coalition, we have created the following resources that are being shared with the Ottawa community.

• An interactive website - www.around-therainbow.com. There were over 843 visits to the website and 4,233 page views with visits from Kentucky, the Dominican Republic, Germany and New Zealand.
• Two comprehensive toolkits about creating GLBTTQ friendly learning spaces for our children ages 0-6, one for educators and one for parents.
• A companion Around the Rainbow resource kit.
• Three community training sessions: The Interactive GLBTTQ 101 workshop, The Interactive GLBTTQ 202 workshop, and The Interactive GLBTTQ Parents workshop.  

Over 262 individuals have participated in Around the Rainbow by attending trainings, presentations, the Arts project launch and through Rainbow families and the Coalition for GLBTTQ Families. Over 376 individuals at 149 sites received information and were interviewed though the environmental scan.

For more information about Around the Rainbow please feel free to visit the Around the Rainbow Site at
www.around-therainbow.com

Anti-Violence Program

Children Who Witness Women Abuse Program

Over 1500 hours of service was provided to 53 mothers and 70 children.

• We continue to work in close partnership with Immigrant Women’s Services providing counselling to children and their mothers who have been abused. In order to provide appropriate and effective counselling, the use of cultural and/or language interpreters has been essential.
• Staff have developed expertise working with interpreters in a highly skilled manner. The Barbara Schlifer Commemorative Clinic in Toronto invited one of our Children’s Counselling staff to present at the Language Interpreters’ Symposium as a panel speaker for a workshop entitled Best Practices for Working with Children.  Approximately 200 interpreters from across Ontario attended the Conference.
• Staff have been actively involved, along with other community organizations , in developing a key collaboration and partnership between the Violence Against Women Sector and the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa. This partnership will have a significant impact on the ability to provide appropriate and accessible services to women and children who have experienced woman abuse.

Woman Abuse Program

Over the past year, 250 abused women received 3000 hours of service.

Our woman abuse coordinator was actively participated in the Steering Committee regarding abused women being charged with assaulting their partners. As a result, a two day consultation was held, with representatives from the police, victim services, shelters, counselling agencies, lawyers, and child protection agencies.

• The consultation highlighted the need for follow-up training and collaboration to prevent further re-victimization of abused women and their children through the Criminal Justice System.
• A presentation focused on best practices, particularly if legal mediation services are involved, was delivered by our women abuse coordinator at a symposium on conflict resolution. The presentation highlighted the risk of conflict leading to murder for abused women. The symposium was sponsored by the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, and St. Paul’s University and was attended by family mediators.
• Staff attended the Ontario Office for  Victims of Crime (1st) Summit. Attendance ensured the needs of abused women were acknowledged and an agenda item.

For more information about the Supervised Access Program please feel free to visit our Anti-Violence Program page.

Sexual Assault Network

In the last year, our coordinator organized two very important training opportunities for service providers who are members of the Sexual Assault Network.

• Yvonne Dolan, an internationally well-known therapist in the area of Trauma and Recovery, provided a one day training to over a hundred service providers.
• Training was provided around trauma and healing in the aboriginal community. Presentations were made by staff at Minwaashin Lodge as well as by the Centre for Treatment of Sexual Abuse and Childhood Trauma.

For more information about the Sexual Assault Network please feel free to visit the Sexual Assault Netwok site at www.sanottawa.com

Employee Assistance Program

During the last year, over 6,760 hours of service were provided to over 2,150 employees and their family members.

Family Services Ottawa EAP has had a very busy year. We successfully renewed all of our contracts, and enhanced our strategic position to be the first choice for employers who want their employees to access timely support before concerns become disabling. Our Ability Management approach invests in top quality professionals that offer excellence in face to face proactive services.

We created two newpartnerships and we are now able to offer employees and their family members the services of a Holistic Nutritionist as well as Career Development Consultants.

For more information about the EAP Program please feel free to visit the Eastern Ontario EAP site.

Learning through EAP - LEAP

We are launching a Personal and Professional Wellness Institute called LEAP (Learning through EAP). LEAP will offer an intensive engagement in group formats on a number of specific issues. The training is designed so that clients can access expertise at various transition points in their lives. Whether they are newly married, dealing with adolescents, coping with aging parents or concerned about nutritional issues, as clients reach different stages of life, LEAP will support these life changes.

Fore more iformation about the LEAP Program please feel free to visit the LEAP website at
www.fseapottawa-learning.org

 

Juke Box Mania

Our 4th Annual Juke Box Mania was held on Friday October 20, 2006. The event was a great success with over 500 participants and $20,000 raised for Family Services à la famille Ottawa. We would like to thank all those who participated; our many volunteers and sponsors.

Special Thanks to our Juke Box Mania committee for all the work they did over the past year. Especially to: Al Greer for his constant work and support; Nat Busa for his vision and organization & Mark Kelly for his ideas, creativity & our Juke Box Look.